Get To Know & Recognize The Classic Symptoms Of Asthma

Asthma is an illness that affects your lung's airway which cause them to swells, constrict and produces excessive mucus when exposed to a trigger factor. This may interrupt your breathing process and develop the typical symptoms of asthma, such as coughing, wheezing when you exhale, and shortness of breath.

Asthma symptoms vary from one person to another and can be classified into different categories based on their unique characteristics:

GINA (Global Initiative for Asthma) classification for asthma

Classification of Asthma Symptoms Severity Before Treatment

Common Asthma Signs and Symptoms 

1. Cough

Patients with asthma often experience recurrent coughing symptoms. If your cough is accompanied by additional asthma symptoms such as wheezing, shortness of breath, or chest discomfort, you are most likely suffering from asthma.

2. Whistling breathing sound or Wheezing

The most significant and most recognizable symptom that is related to asthma is a high-pitched whistling sound coming out from your airways or called wheeze, which usually occurs when you exhale.

Some patients assume that they do not have asthma since they never make a whistling sound while breathing. This is not true because not all asthma patients experience it. Therefore, do not delay or postpone your appointment with a doctor to be sure about your health condition.

3. Breathing difficulties

Some people with asthma will find it difficult for them to take deep or long breaths and may have difficulty in talking, eating or sleeping when these symptoms occur.

Difficulty in breathing or feeling shortness of breath is one of the most common symptoms of asthma. Some asthma patients realize that their symptoms tend to get worse when they do physical activities and this prevents them from being active.

Although asthmatic patients can experience shortness of breath during exercise, most patients can still stay active by exercising without any symptoms of asthma if their condition is well managed and they know the right ways or types of exercises that are suitable for them.

4. Chest pain

The chest pain in asthma is often associated with feeling like there is a heavy load on your chest or as if your chest muscles are tightening and gripping in the chest area.

Feeling numb or pain like a sharp stab in the chest is also possible which results in difficulty in taking a long inhalation.

5. Night Symptoms

A large number of asthma patients experience nocturnal symptoms once or twice a month. Some patients will show symptoms only at night and have no other signs of asthma during the day. This can be due to an excessive response to airflow fluctuations at night.

Children with nocturnal asthma often experience coughing after midnight and in the early hours of the morning.

Bronchial contractions are usually at maximum between 4:00 and 6:00 a.m. in which morbidity and mortality records are highest due to asthma during these hours.

Other symptoms that might be experienced by asthmatic patients

Not all patients who experienced asthma have the common symptoms of coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath. They may also experience asthmatic symptoms that are not very common or sometimes not associated with asthma. Here are some other asthma symptoms that can occur:

• Increased respiratory rate

• Fatigue

• Difficulty in doing physical activities

• Difficulty sleeping or restlessness at night

• Persistent cough without wheezing

The symptoms of asthma are also often overlapped and can be mistaken with other diseases such as bronchitis, heart disease and acid reflux.

Although asthma so far cannot be completely cured, asthma can be treated using the appropriate approaches. Since asthma symptoms can change from time to time, it is very important that you discuss and work together with your doctor in monitoring your asthma symptoms or signs and modify the treatment methods according to your needs.

Asthma attacks

Active asthma attacks usually occur with symptoms of cough, shortness of breath, chest pain and wheezing when breathing and most of the mild attacks can be relieved with a reliever inhaler.

However, some asthma attacks are much more serious and may require hospital treatment such as with a nebulizer.

Here are some signs that you might be having a severe asthma attack:

• Worsening asthma symptoms (cough, shortness of breath, wheezing or chest tightness).

• Using the reliever inhaler (usually blue) did not relieve your symptoms.

• You cannot talk, eat, or sleep due to the lack of oxygen.

• Very fast breathing and you feel like running out of breath.

• Your PEF score is below average.

• Abdominal pain or chest pain such as stabbing pain.

  
  

If you do not get immediate treatment for an asthma attack, you may lose the ability to speak gradually and the lip colour will gradually turn bluish. This colour shift is referred to as “cyanosis” which indicates that your blood is lack oxygen. You might faint and this can be fatal if you do not seek any treatment immediately in the emergency department.

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