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Having an asthma attack can be a very frightening experience, especially for children. Approximately 30,000 people have an asthma attack every day in the US. And an average of 11 people die every day.
So what causes an asthma attack or even what is asthma? Having asthma means that your airways or breathing tubes going to your lungs are very sensitive to certain things. These things are called your asthma triggers and can be anything such as dust mites, molds, pollen, smoke, certain foods, weather, weather changes, stress etc.
Coming into contact with any of these triggers causes bad things to happen to your airways. This is the first step toward having an asthma attack. Here are the 3 bad things that can happen:
1. The insides of your airways begin to swell up and become very sensitive. This leaves less room for air to get back and forth to your lungs when you breathe. It also causes you to cough.
2. The muscles around the outsides of your airways start to get real tight. They try to squeeze your airways shut. This makes your airways smaller, which means that there is even less room for air to get through to your lungs.
3. The insides of your airways start to fill with what I call gunk or what others might call mucus or phlegm. This starts to plug up your already small airways which makes it even harder to breathe. Every time you cough, some of this gunk comes out.
Every asthma attack you have can be different. So sometimes those 3 bad things can be very mild and other times they can be very severe. They might also happen very slowly one time and very quickly another time.
How long those things last can also be different every time. They might stop when you are no longer exposed to your triggers or they might last several days.
Those 3 things are all happening to your airways or breathing tubes. Once they start to get bad enough, then you will start to have what are called your typical asthma symptoms. These are the things that we associate with having an asthma attack and they are listed below:
1. Coughing - with your now irritated and sensitive airways, you will be coughing quite a bit. And there will be gunk coming up when you do.
2. Wheezing - this is sort of a whistling sound, usually when you breathe out. This is from your airways being much smaller than normal.
3. Tightness in the chest - this can sometimes be painful also. It is from the muscles around your airways getting so tight.
4. Shortness of breath - you just can't take a normal breath while those 3 things are happening.
When those 3 things happening to your airways are bad, then these asthma symptoms will also get bad. It is not unusual for them to get so bad that you can't breathe. If you have an inhaler, the medication will attempt to make your airways big enough so that you can breathe more normally.
Asthma symptoms are pretty much the same for all asthma types except for cough variant asthma. With this type of asthma, your only symptom will be a very bad cough. And this cough will be a dry cough with none of the gunk being present.
It can also be a very loud cough that is sometimes referred to as a barking cough. And the worst thing is that this cough can sometimes last for weeks. Because there are no other asthma symptoms present, this type of asthma often goes undiagnosed.
Knowing what is happening during an asthma attack should help you to keep from panicking. Getting stressed out can make your symptoms even worse. It is important to do what you can to help someone who is having an attack to try and stay as relaxed as possible.
In those rare cases when your inhaler isn't working like it usually does, you might be having an acute asthma attack. If that happens, then it is very important that you seek immediate medical attention. Don't wait and hope that it will get better. An acute asthma attack can be a life and death situation.
