Asthma
Asthma is a very common chronic disease that affects your airways and how you can breath. If you have asthma, the inside walls of your airways are inflamed. The inflammation makes the airways very sensitive, and they tend to react strongly to things that you are allergic to or find irritating. Asthma tends to hit people more during the spring because of pollen.
When the airways react, they get narrower, and less air flows through to your lung tissue. This causes symptoms like wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and trouble breathing, especially at night and in the early morning. Asthma cannot be cured, but most people with asthma can control it so that they have few and infrequent symptoms and can live active lives. People often use inhalers or nebulizers to help control it.
When your asthma symptoms become worse than usual, it is called an asthma episode or attack. During an asthma attack, muscles around the airways tighten up, making the airways narrower so less air flows through. Inflammation increases, and the airways become more swollen and even narrower. Cells in the airways may also make more mucus than usual. This extra mucus also narrows the airways. These changes make it harder to breathe.
Asthma attacks are not all the same, some are worse than others. In a severe asthma attack, the airways can close so much that not enough oxygen gets to vital organs. This condition is a medical emergency. People can die from severe asthma attacks.