Asthma

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What is asthma?

Asthma is a disease of the respiratory system. Your respiratory system is made up of your nose and mouth, your windpipe (also called your trachea, pronounced tray-key-uh), your lungs, and a bunch of air tubes (or airways) that connect your nose and mouth with your lungs (these tubes are called bronchi and bronchioles, prounounced bron-kye and bron-key-oles). 

People who have asthma sometimes have trouble breathing. When people who have asthma have this trouble breathing, we call it an asthma attack. Lots of people have asthma attacks, 

Why does asthma occur and what happens during an asthma attack?

When most of us breathe, the muscles that are wrapped around the air tubes (airways) are very loose and relaxed, and the lining inside the airways is very thin. This lets the airways open up very wide so that it is easy to get air in and out of the small air sacs that make up your lungs. These small sacs are called alveoli (pronounced al-vee-oh-lye). When air moves in and out of your lungs, we call it breathing.

During an asthma attack, the muscles around the airways tighten, or "spasm" (like when you make a fist) and the lining inside the airways swell or thicken, and get clogged with lots of thick mucous. This makes the airways much skinnier than usual so it is harder to move air in and out of the air sacs. This makes it hard to breathe! The picture below shows what your lungs would look like during an asthma attack. 

During an asthma attack, it is actually harder to breathe out than it is to breathe in. This means that during an asthma attack, it takes much longer to breathe out (expire) than it does to breathe in (inspire)

What causes asthma attacks?
Lots of different things can cause an asthma attack. Something that causes an asthma attack is called a trigger. Some common triggers of asthma attacks are: 

• allergies 
• infections like colds or bronchitis 
• exercise 
• changes in the weather (from mild to cold) 
• smoke 

What does it feel like to have an asthma attack?

Everybody doesn't feel the same things when they have an asthma attack. sometimes during an asthma attack, 

• people will cough and cough and cough, people feel like they can't catch their breath, 
• people feel like air is trapped in their lungs and they can't get it out, 
• people have pain in their chest, 
• sometimes during an asthma attack, people have very noisy breathing, 
• People who have asthma sometimes have trouble breathing. When people who have asthma have this trouble breathing, we call it an asthma attack. Lots of people have asthma attacks