What Is Asthma?

A Brief Introduction

In this article, we will take a look at one of the most commonly occurring diseases in the West. Asthma affects both adults as well as children. In the case of children, the attacks may stop over a period of time, though there is a possibility of them recurring later on in adult life, as they are exposed to a variety of stimuli that is nowadays commonly encountered, which we will discuss later.

In the USA, the number of people suffering from asthma has crossed 20 million, and is steadily increasing. The number of patients suffering from asthma requires us to term it a 'common' ailment; however it is not as simple or non-lethal as, say common cold.

Defining Asthma

Let us begin at the beginning, as they say, by defining what asthma is, and what would constitute an asthmatic condition. Asthma is a condition that affects the passages through which air reaches the lungs, the bronchi. A person suffering from asthma, or an asthmatic, as such a person is called, has an inflamed air passage, which in turn makes the air passage highly sensitive to allergic substances or other irritants. This can lead to coughing fits, and cause the person to be unable to breathe properly.

An official definition of asthma, therefore, would be:

A lung disease characterized by:

1. variable and reversible airway obstruction;
2. airway inflammation;
3. bronchial hyper-responsiveness.

While the symptoms of the disease are the same, the duration of an asthma attack varies from person to person. In some people an asthma attack may last for only an hour at a time, while some other people may have one attack lasting for several days. Besides, the causal factors are not always the same. In some people it can be due to an easily inflammable air way, while in some it may be due to highly reactive or hyper-reactive bronchi.

Another thing about asthma - sometimes an asthma attack can be very severe if it occurs at night. There are several scientific reasons behind this. Our body temperature reduces at night, the nights being cooler generally than the days. Also, the body releases certain chemicals at night that can affect the normal functioning of the lung. Another reason for a severe night time attack could be that an allergic exposure during the day may take a while for the effect to manifest.

This then is a general overview of what asthma is. However, it is important to know the mechanism of an asthma attack, i.e. what exactly happens to cause an asthma attack.

Asthma Symptoms >>