If you’ve ever struggled to catch your breath or felt your chest tighten, you know how scary that can feel. For people with asthma, those moments can happen often. With the right care, though, asthma can be managed.

Asthma affects millions of people worldwide. Nearly 25 million people in the United States had asthma in 2021, including over 4.5 million children. Globally, about 262 million people have asthma.

In this article, we’ll cover what asthma is, along with basic facts about symptoms of asthma attacks, treatment, and different types of asthma.

What Is Asthma?

Asthma is a chronic (long-term) condition that affects your lungs. In asthma, the passages that carry air into and out of your lungs can become inflamed and narrowed. This can make it hard to exhale. Severe asthma attacks can be life-threatening and may require emergency care.

Can Asthma Go Away?

It’s a natural question to ask. Can it be cured, or is asthma lifelong? While asthma can’t be cured, it can be managed. Your symptoms might change over time, so you may need to change the way you treat them, too. For some children with asthma, symptoms may improve as they grow up and even stop entirely. However, asthma can re-emerge in adulthood.

What Causes Asthma?

Most researchers believe asthma is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental risk factors. Asthma can be caused by an allergy, an overreaction by the immune system to normally harmless substances.

Some risk factors for developing asthma include:

• Family history of asthma
• Early childhood exposure to secondhand smoke or certain infections
• Air pollution
• Occupational hazards
• Other health conditions, like allergies and eczema

Some common triggers of asthma attacks include:

• Tobacco smoke
• Pet dander
• Allergens, such as dust mites, mold, or pollen
• Air pollution
• Pests, such as cockroaches or mice
• Fumes from detergents, cleaning products, or disinfectants
• Exercise or physical activity
• Infections
• Stress

How Is Asthma Diagnosed?

Diagnosing asthma requires a physical examination and pulmonary function tests. An official diagnosis may require seeing specialists such as a pulmonologist (lung specialist) or an allergist.

Medical History and Physical Exam

Your healthcare provider or your child’s pediatrician will take a thorough medical history. They’ll ask questions about symptoms, risk factors, and family history, then do an examination.

Diagnostic Tests

Pulmonary function, or lung function, tests help diagnose asthma. Your doctor may order tests, including:

• Spirometry — This is the primary test used to diagnose asthma in people over 5. You breathe into a tube that measures how much air you can exhale.
• Peak flow — This test uses a peak flow meter to measure how hard you can breathe out.
• Exhaled nitric oxide test — This detects inflammation in your airways.
• Challenge tests — If you don’t have definitive results on other tests, a healthcare provider may try to trigger symptoms.

Diagnosing Asthma in Children

Pulmonary function tests are difficult to perform in children aged 5 and under. Doctors usually rely on parents’ reports of symptoms instead of lung function tests. A doctor might prescribe asthma medicine to see how a child responds, depending on how severe their symptoms are.

What Are the Symptoms of Asthma?

Asthma symptoms can vary from person to person and can be persistent or come and go. Common symptoms of asthma include both respiratory (breathing-related) and nonrespiratory symptoms, like fatigue and anxiety.

Symptoms include:

• Shortness of breath
• Wheezing
• Coughing
• Chest tightness
• Chest pain
• Intercostal retractions, where the muscles around your rib cage pull in
• Trouble sleeping
• Fatigue
• Sweating
• Rapid pulse
• Anxiety
• Depression

Recognizing an Asthma Attack

Asthma attacks, or flare-ups, can be mild, moderate, or severe. Mild attacks can often be managed at home, while severe asthma attacks may require emergency medical care.

Mild asthma attack symptoms include:

• Mild shortness of breath
• Wheezing
• A brief cough that goes away quickly

Moderate asthma attack symptoms include:

• Some breathing problems
• Frequent cough
• Mild retractions

Severe asthma attacks may include:

• Severe shortness of breath
• Inability to say another more than single words
• Loud wheezing
• Severe intercostal retractions

Call 911 or get emergency help right away if you notice any of the following:

• Severe asthma symptoms, such as those listed above
• Trouble talking
• Difficulty breathing
• Extreme sleepiness or confusion

What Are the Different Types of Asthma?

Asthma types can be grouped by what triggers symptoms and by how severe they are. Knowing your asthma type can help you and your doctor find the best treatment plan.

Asthma Types by Trigger

Symptoms of asthma can be triggered by a variety of substances, situations, and underlying health conditions. It’s possible to have more than one type of asthma.

Allergic Asthma

Allergic asthma is the most common type of asthma, which accounts for at least 30 percent of asthma cases in the United States. It’s most prevalent in early childhood. Allergic asthma happens when the immune system overreacts to something that triggers allergies.

Nonallergic Asthma

Nonallergic asthma is asthma caused by something other than allergies. It can be more difficult to identify what triggers symptoms in nonallergic asthma. Possible triggers include stress, medications, food additives, cold air, and air pollution.

Exercise-Induced Bronchoconstriction

As many as 90 percent of people with asthma will experience exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB), also known as exercise-induced asthma. In people with EIB, exercise triggers asthma symptoms.

Occupational Asthma

People who work in jobs where they’re exposed to airborne irritants, such as fumes or dust, may develop occupational asthma.

Other Types of Asthma

Some less common types of asthma include:

• Asthma-COPD overlap syndrome
• Aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease
• Eosinophilic asthma

Asthma Types by Symptom Severity

Asthma can also be grouped by how often symptoms happen and how much they affect daily life. Your asthma type can change over time, and a severe asthma attack can occur no matter which type you have.

Your asthma severity may fall into one of the following categories:

• Intermittent asthma
• Mild persistent asthma
• Moderate persistent asthma
• Severe persistent asthma

How Is Asthma Treated?

The two primary categories of asthma treatment are rescue (quick-relief) medications and maintenance (preventive) medications. Lifestyle habits may also help you control asthma symptoms and avoid severe episodes.

If you or your child has asthma, it’s important to develop an asthma action plan with a doctor. These plans help you know what medications to take when you’re experiencing certain symptoms.

Maintenance Medications

Maintenance medications, also called long-term control medications, are generally taken daily to keep asthma symptoms under control and prevent asthma attacks. You can take them with an inhaler, a nebulizer, or as pills or liquid medicine.

There are several categories of asthma-control medications, including:

• Inhaled corticosteroids
• Combination medications
• Leukotriene modifiers
• Biologic immunomodulators

Rescue Medications

Rescue medications are used to quickly relieve the symptoms of asthma attacks. Using rescue medications regularly may indicate that your asthma isn’t well controlled.

The most common rescue medications are short-acting beta-agonists. In severe cases, oral steroids or medications called anticholinergic agents may be prescribed for a short period of time.

Side effects are possible with all asthma medications. Talk to your doctor about what to expect from the medications you’re prescribed.

Lifestyle Changes

Changing certain habits can help you manage asthma. These changes may decrease the amount of medication you may need. Some examples of lifestyle adjustments include:

• Using your air conditioner instead of opening windows
• Cleaning regularly
• Keeping indoor humidity below 60 percent, ideally 30 percent and 50 percent.
• Preventing mold
• Covering your nose and/or mouth if it’s cold

How Do Other Conditions Affect Asthma?

Certain health conditions are more common in people with asthma than in the general population. Below are a few conditions that often occur along with asthma.

Allergies

The tendency to develop asthma, atopic dermatitis (the most common form of eczema), and allergies is called atopy. These conditions all involve an overreaction by the immune system in response to common allergens.

Respiratory Conditions

Asthma can raise the risk for developing some other respiratory conditions, including:

• Asthma-COPD overlap syndrome
• Aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease
• Obstructive sleep apnea

People with asthma are at greater risk of developing serious complications from the flu, including pneumonia, a lung infection. Respiratory infections, including COVID-19, can be more serious for people with asthma.

Ask Your Doctor

If you or your child has asthma, regular checkups are key to keeping symptoms under control. Talk to your doctor about what triggers your asthma, how to adjust your treatment if symptoms change, and when to use rescue or maintenance medications. Your doctor can also help you create or update an asthma action plan so you’ll know exactly what to do if an attack happens.

Join the Conversation

On MyAsthmaTeam, people share their experiences with asthma, get advice, and find support from others who understand.

What do you wish people knew about asthma? What’s been your biggest challenge living with asthma? Let others know in the comments below.