Catching asthma at the first sign of symptoms is vital for effective treatment of this bronchial disease.
To spot the early symptoms of asthma it is important to understand what happens to your body and what causes your symptoms in the first place.
The combination of three major features of asthma; airway obstruction, inflammation and airway irritability, leads to an attack.
Nerves and molecules in your bronchial tubes cause the muscles to constrict and your airways narrow. This can occur in everyone when they inhale cold or dry air, but can trigger an attack in an asthmatic person.
Your bronchial tubes become inflamed and thicker than normal restricting the air flow into your lungs. To make matters worse inflamed tissues then produce an excess amount of sticky mucus that forms plugs that can clog your smaller airways making it even more difficult to breathe.
When you suffer from asthma your airways become sensitive to allergens and irritants due to the chronic inflammation and constriction that your bronchial tubes experience.
When these three things happen you can struggle to breathe out, a problem commonly associated with asthma, and you need to exhale forcefully to expel air causing a wheezing sound.
While there is no known cause for asthma, there are known triggers that set an attack off.
The triggers that set off your symptoms may be different to other sufferers and it is important to know what these are and avoid them as much as possible. Doing this will reduce your symptoms and possibly your reliance on medication.
Some of the triggers that can cause inflammation in your bronchial tubes include dust mites, mould spores and pollen. Viral infections can also have the same effect.
Other symptom triggers can include smoke, cold air and even intense emotions and exercising.
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