What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Asthma?
Common asthma symptoms include:
- Coughing. Coughing from asthma is often worse at
night or early in the morning, making it hard to sleep.
- Wheezing. Wheezing is a whistling or squeaky
sound when you breathe.
- Chest tightness. This can feel like something is
squeezing or sitting on your chest.
- Shortness of breath. Some people say they can't
catch their breath, or they feel breathless or out of breath. You may feel like
you can't get enough air in or out of your lungs.
- Faster breathing or noisy breathing.
Not all people have these symptoms, and symptoms may
vary from one asthma attack to another. Symptoms can differ in how severe they
are: Sometimes symptoms can be mildly annoying, other times they can be serious
enough to make you stop what you are doing, and sometimes symptoms can be so
serious that they are life threatening.
Symptoms also differ in how often they occur. Some
people with asthma have symptoms only once every few months, others have
symptoms every week, and still other people have symptoms every day. With
proper treatment, however, most people with asthma can expect to have few or no
symptoms. |