Asthma is the most common airway disease, affecting nearly 25 million Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptom flares, called "asthma attacks," are not unusual—but they can be debilitating.
Asthma is characterized by shortness of breath and coughing fits, Dr. Sobia Farooq, a pulmonologist at Cleveland Clinic, told Newsweek in an interview earlier this year. During an attack, symptoms escalate to chest tightness, wheezing and excessive coughing.
Asthma attacks are serious and can prohibit sufferers from engaging in everyday activities, according to Farooq.
"[Patients] at times feel like they cannot complete their sentence without coughing, or if they're laughing, that laugh would end up in a cough," Farooq said.
Attacks can be triggered by a number of factors: extreme temperatures, pets, dust mites, respiratory tract infections. When a patient with asthma encounters one of these irritants, a reaction can occur in their bronchial tubes, which carry air to the lungs.
"Bronchial tubes get constricted during an asthma attack," Farooq said. "Also, there is inflammation inside the bronchial tubes that causes mucus production."
This is why some patients complain of chest congestion during an asthma attack, according to Farooq—there is mucus in the bronchial tubes that they cannot cough out.
Many asthma sufferers notice their condition gets worse at night. Around three-quarters of patients suffer from "nocturnal" symptoms, according to a study published in the National Library of Medicine. There's a reason for that, too, Farooq explained.
"Asthma is worse at night because of the changes in [the] circadian rhythm of the body," she said. "Typically toward the end of the day, we have less of the hormones—such as cortisol—in the body that affect the degree of asthma."
Sometimes, asthma is inherited. Approximately 34 percent of cases can be explained by genetics, according to one study of more than 34,000 twins.
But the majority of cases are linked to the environment—meaning patients may have some control over the severity of their symptoms.
"Asthma is a preventable disease," Farooq said. "You can do a lot of things around your environment to make sure you're not exposed to certain things which are avoidable."
One of the best ways a person with asthma can protect themselves is by ensuring they're breathing clean, temperate air, according to Farooq. She recommends avoiding smoke of any kind, whether from cigarettes or barbecue grills. And when temperatures are extreme, patients can wear masks or scarves over their mouths to prevent the cold air from directly entering their lungs.
If you are struggling with symptoms of asthma, a medical doctor can help.
"The mainstay treatment of asthma," Farooq said, "is to use certain medications to reduce the inflammation in the lungs and also to help open up the airways."
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