Asthma is a disease of the airways in the lungs. Its symptoms are caused by inflammation, which makes the airways red, swollen, narrower and extra-sensitive to irritants. This leads to recurrent attacks of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness and coughing. Mild attacks can settle down without treatment, but treatment usually helps them to resolve more quickly. Appropriate treatment can also reduce the risk of further attacks. If you experience a serious attack you should seek emergency help.

Asthma is a long-term (chronic) disease. Your asthma does not stay the same, but changes over time, and every person with asthma has good and bad days (or longer periods of time).

Asthma is very common. Around one out of every ten people in the Western World develops asthma at some stage in their life.

Asthma tends to run in families, which means that you are more likely to develop asthma if someone in your family already has it. Children with eczema or food allergy are more likely than other children to develop asthma.

Allergy to pollen, house dust mites or pets also increases your chance of developing asthma. Exposure to tobacco smoke, air pollution or other inhaled irritants can also cause asthma symptoms in those with an underlying tendency to asthma.

Asthma can sometimes get worse for a short time. This is known as an asthma attack. It can be sudden or gradual over a few days.

Signs of a severe asthma attack include:

• Wheezing and coughing
• Being too breathless to eat, speak or sleep
• Breathing faster
• A fast heartbeat
• Drowsiness, confusion, exhaustion or dizziness
• Blue lips or fingers 
• Fainting

Speak to your GP or our trained pharmacy team if you think you or your child may have asthma. Symptoms of anxiety can feel like asthma, so it's important to determine if your breathing problems are caused by anxiety or asthma. Treatments will be different depending on the cause of the breathing difficulty.

Inflammation of the airways causes asthma symptoms (wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness and coughing) by restricting or limiting the airflow to and from the lungs.

It does this by causing swelling of the airways, which makes them narrower tightening of the muscles that surround the airways (also called bronchoconstriction), which makes them even narrower the production of too much mucus, which can plug up or block the airways longer-term damage to the walls of the airways, which prevents them from opening as widely as a normal airway.

When the airways have been inflamed for a long time, they become extra-sensitive. This means that they react faster and more strongly to various triggers, such as allergens, viruses, dust, smoke and stress.