Asthma is a disease that affects the breathing passages of the lungs (bronchioles). The muscles of the bronchial walls tighten, and cells in the lungs produce extra mucus further narrowing your airways. This can cause minor wheezing to severe difficulty in breathing. Periodic attacks are caused by an oversensitivity of the lungs and airways, which overreact to certain "triggers" and become inflamed and clogged. Asthma is Greek for "panting". Asthmatics pant during an asthma attack because their air passages, which start in the throat and end in the lungs, become narrowed and sometimes almost completely obstructed. Asthma is very common. These episodes may be triggered by such things as exposure to an environmental stimulant (or allergen ), cold air, exercise or exertion, or emotional stress . In children, the most common triggers are viral illnesses such as those that cause the common cold. This airway narrowing causes symptoms such as wheezing , shortness of breath , chest tightness, and coughing , which respond to bronchodilators . Between episodes, most patients feel mostly all right but can have a slight problem feeling out of breath for longer periods of time. The symptoms of asthma, which can range from mild to life threatening, can usually be controlled with a combination of drugs and environmental changes. Public attention in the developed world has recently focused on asthma because of its rapidly increasing prevalence , affecting up to one in four urban children.

Asthma is a chronic disease that affects your airways. The airways are the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs. If you have asthma, the inside walls of your airways are inflamed (swollen). For most kids, breathing is simple: They breathe in through their noses or mouths and the air goes into the windpipe. From there, it travels through the airways and into the lungs. But for kids with asthma, breathing can be a lot more difficult because their airways are very sensitive. In most people with asthma, the difficulty breathing happens periodically. When it does happen, it is known as an asthma flare-up also known as an asthma attack, flare, episode, or exacerbation. Many people with asthma compare a flare-up to the sensation of trying to breathe through a straw - it feels extremely hard to get air in and out of their lungs. An asthma flare-up can last for several hours or longer if a person doesn't use asthma medication. When an asthma flare-up is over, the person usually feels better. Between flare-ups, a person's breathing can seem completely normal, or a person may continue to have some symptoms, such as coughing. Some people with asthma feel as if they are always short of breath.

Home Remedies to Cure Asthma

1. Take 1 tsp honey and ½ tsp cinnamon powder and mix them well before consuming.

2. Take 2 tablespoonful of fresh lemon juice and 1 tablespoonful of water. Repeat day and night.

3. In 1 cup of water soak 1 tsp of Fenugreek seeds overnight. Strain. Add 1 tsp of Ginger juice and 1 tsp of honey to this. It has to be consumed twice during morning as well as evening.

4. For people who are in their early stages of asthma, a perfect home remedy is to boil 8-10 cloves of garlic in ½ cup of milk and consume it during nighttime.

5. Drink one glass of milk to help with the asthma .

6. Cook fresh cranberries in water then mash. Take 2-3 teaspoons a day.

7. Boil water in a pot. Cool, Lean towards the pot with a big towel over your head and inhale the steam for 20 minutes.

8. Air, sun and water are also great healing agents. The patient should sit in fresh air for sometime daily. Try to avoid dusty places, exposure to cold, mental worries and tensions.

9. Regular chewing of fennel helps expel infected mucous from the chest. Thus, helps in preventing asthma attacks.

10. Take fresh dry grapes with seeds and soak them in 150 grams of water at night. Remove the seeds in the morning and chew them slowly, one by one. In the remaining water add a little sugar and drink it. In a month the lungs will be strengthened and poisonous wastes will be removed from the body.