Let me catch my breath....

There are four main signs and symptoms that are characteristic of asthma. They include coughing, wheezing, chest tightness and shortness of breath. Coughing with asthma often happens in the morning, or at night when lying down and while exercising. Wheezing is a hissing, or whistling sound that occurs during breathing. Chest tightness is a feeling like you can’t take a full breath, or as if someone were sitting on your chest. Lastly, shortness of breath is a feeling like you just can’t get enough air. Of course, having these signs and symptoms doesn’t mean you have asthma and you could have asthma without these signs and symptoms, or with just some, but these are the four most prevalent.

Here’s a fun video that explains symptoms in a kid friendly way:

And here’s another video that also explains symptoms and reminds us about why they may occur:

It’s difficult to find statistics on how many people with asthma experience each of these symptoms. Likely, this is because the symptoms can come and go with attacks and vary greatly between individuals with asthma. To help researchers and physicians move forward in finding correlations between triggers and the onset of symptoms, a medical doctor and researcher by the name of Sam Pejham has created an app for people to track their asthma. Gathering anonymous data about asthma symptoms, environmental factors, temperature change, etc. will hopefully help to advance the research of asthma. The app also helps the individual track his or her asthma, share the information with his or her physician and set-up handy things like alerts for taking medication. Here’s a link for this nifty app:  AsthmaMD



References:

What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Asthma? (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2015, from http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/asthma/signs

What are the symptoms of asthma? - for Kids with Asthma. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znHd7da_7z4

Introduction to Asthma and Asthma Symptoms - The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (1 of 7). (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye9uxrjkTck

About | AsthmaMD. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2015, from http://www.asthmamd.org/about/