Asthma Causes And Symptoms

Asthma Causes The exact cause of asthma is not known. What all people with asthma have in common is chronic airway inflammation and excessive airway sensitivity to various triggers. Research has focused on why some people develop asthma while others do not. Some people are born with the tendency to have asthma, while others are not. Scientists are trying to find the genes that cause this tendency. The environment you live in and the way you live partly determine whether you have asthma attacks. An asthma attack is a reaction to a trigger. It is similar in many ways to an allergic reaction. An allergic reaction is a response by the body's immune system to an "invader." When the cells of the immune system sense an invader, they set off a series of reactions that help fight off the invader....

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Asthma Overview : Breathing Passages or Airways

Asthma Overview Asthma is a disease that affects the breathing passages of the lungs (bronchioles). Asthma is caused by chronic (ongoing, long-term) inflammation of these passages. This makes the breathing passages, or airways, of the person with asthma highly sensitive to various "triggers." When the inflammation is "triggered" by any number of external and internal factors, the passages swell and fill with mucus. Muscles within the breathing passages contract (bronchospasm), causing even further narrowing of the airways. This narrowing makes it difficult for air to be breathed out (exhaled) from the lungs. This resistance to exhaling leads to the typical symptoms of an asthma attack. Because asthma causes resistance, or obstruction, to exhaled air, it is called an obstructive lung...

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