What to look out for with an asthma attack
No one knows for sure how a person contracts asthma. There are logical guesses given the scientific information that medical professionals are working with, but there is no actual set doctrine of how asthma develops or whom if affects. However, what they do know is that once you get asthma your lungs will begin to react to things that will cause an asthma attack.
For example if you are suffering from asthma, you might get an asthma attack when you get a cold or you might have an attack when you breathe in something that irritates your lungs, such as cigarette smoke, pollen or even dust.
When an asthma attack occurs, there are three things that can happen to your lungs:
- The cells in your air tubes are producing much more mucus that normal and this particular production of mucus is sticky and thick and it will clog up the tubes making it difficult to breathe.
- The skin in your air tubes begin to swell.
- The muscles in your air tubes constrict and prevent you from breathing easily.
An Asthma attack can be sudden or it may take a long time to develop. An attack is measured simply by sever, moderate or mild.
A Severe Asthma Attack
When a person suffers from a sever asthma attack the first thing you need to do is call 911, get medical emergency help immediately because a person can die from a sever asthma attack.
With that said when a person is having a severe attack they become breathless, they may have trouble talking and their neck muscles may become tight. Their lips and fingernails might have a grayish or bluish color and the skin around the ribs and/or chest may be sucked in. This type of severity mostly occurs in children.
Mild Attacks
The mild asthma attack is more common than a severe. During a mild attack a person may feel tightness in their chest, they might start to cough and/or spit up thick mucus.
At night a person might feel restless or have trouble sleeping, they might make a wheezing or whistling sound while sleeping which means they are trying to breathe in and out through narrowing air tubes.
If you feel you are suffering from a mild asthma attack you should take your medication. This will usually resolve a mild attack as the medication will open up the air passages, making it easier to breathe.
