Asthma
Asthma is a disease that affects your lungs. Asthma causes changes in your
airways that can make it hard to breathe. It is one of the most common
long-term diseases of children, but adults can have asthma too.
Asthma causes wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing at
night or early in the morning. If you have asthma, you have it all the
time, but you will have asthma attacks only when something bothers your
lungs. In most cases, the cause of asthma is not known, and there is no
cure. If someone in your family has asthma you are more likely to have it.
Asthma medicines come in two types—quick-relief (rescue inhalers)
and daily preventive medicine (long-term controllers). With proper treatment,
you can do more of the things you want to do. You can control your asthma
by knowing the warning signs of an asthma attack, staying away from things
that cause an attack, and following your doctor’s advice by taking
your medicine exactly as directed.
For more information: www.cdc.gov/asthma/