How Asthma Can Affect Someone

Asthma is a chronic disease that can affect the way that you breath. People who are affected by asthma will find that their airways will become irritated and inflamed from a reaction to a specific substance like cigarette smoke. The airways are used to carry oxygen in and out of our bodies and when they are irritated people will find it hard to breathe.

When these specific triggers hit someone with asthma they will start to feel their airways begin to burn and close up. Also mucus will be produced in large amounts and this will clog the airways even more and make it that much harder for the person to breathe.

Symptoms from asthma are wheezing, coughing, chest pain, and shortness of breath. In the United Stated close to 20 million people suffer from asthma. 9 million of those are children. Asthma can be found in 3 - 5% of adults and 7 - 10% percent of children.

Asthma can be difficult to handle in adults and children. The rise of asthma in children has increased dramatically. The number of children with asthma in 1980 to those in 1994 has increased by at least 75%.