Asthma Basics

The word asthma means ‘to breathe hard’. As the name suggests, people with asthma have difficulty in breathing, tightness in the chest and wheezing. Asthma is a disease of the respiratory system in which the respiratory passages in the lungs become oversensitive and over reactive. Oversensitive means increased sensitivity, due to which lungs are prone to inflammation when exposed to some irritants such as cold air, smoke, pollen, etc. Inflammation means becoming red and swollen. Lungs are called over reactive when they overreact due to the sensitivity to these irritants by tightening the respiratory passages and filling them up with mucus, a sticky secretion produced by the inner lining of the respiratory passages. When the airways tighten and are filled with mucus, they become narrow and interfere with the movement of air in and out of the lungs. When this happens, one experiences difficulty in breathing.