Asthma is a disease in which the airways become blocked or narrowed causing shortness of breath, breathing difficulty and other symptoms. Asthma is the 4th leading cause of chronic disease in America overall – and the #1 chronic disease among children – with an annual cost exceeding $12 billion in direct medical expenses and indirect expenses including missed days, reduced productivity at work and school and death.  Asthma complicates and often handicaps the lives of nearly 20 million children and adults.  People with asthma can be of any race, age or sex. Currently, there is no cure for asthma.

Asthma is commonly divided into two types: allergic asthma and non-allergic asthma.

There are more treatment options than ever before including, but there is still much research that needs to be done to fully understand how to prevent, treat and cure asthma. However, with proper management, people with asthma can live health and active lives.

What is Asthma?  |  What Causes Asthma?  |  Diagnosing Asthma  |  Treatment  |  Prevention

What is Asthma?

Asthma...does the word make you think of people who cough and wheeze all the time? Don't people with asthma have to avoid sports and strenuous activities? And, when it comes right down to it, isn't it "all in their heads?" If you're one of over 20 million Americans with asthma, you challenge stereotypes like these every day. Learn all you can about asthma. It's the first step toward erasing these long-held myths and living a full, active life.

Asthma is a disease in which the airways become blocked or narrowed. These effects are usually temporary, but they cause shortness of breath, breathing trouble, and other symptoms. If an asthma episode is severe, a person may need emergency treatment to restore normal breathing.

More than an estimated 20 million people in the United States have asthma. This health problem is the reason for nearly 500,000 hospital stays each year. People with asthma can be of any race, age or sex. Its treatment costs billions of dollars each year.

Despite the far reaching effects of asthma, much remains to be learned about what causes it and how to prevent it. Although asthma can cause severe health problems, in most cases treatment can control it and allow a person to live a normal and active life.

With allergic and non-allergic asthma, it is primarily a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways. This means that people with asthma have inflamed airways which causes two secondary symptoms: (1) The bronchi, the airway branches leading to the lungs, become overly reactive and more sensitive to all kinds of asthma triggers such as allergens, cold and dry air, smoke and viruses. Also, (2) the lungs have difficulty moving air in and out, which is called airflow obstruction. Together, these symptoms cause the tertiary symptoms the coughing, wheezing, tight chest and worse.