Symptoms of an Asthma Attack

THE SYMPTOMS of an ASTHMA ATTACK is more than just a wheeze. Take a look at the figure below:

The symptoms of an asthma attack follow logically from the fact of airways narrowing reducing the amount of air reaching the lungs. The most obvious sign of asthma is the wheezing sound made by the narrowed passages like wind instruments. As less air reaches the lungs you also begin to breathe faster to make up for losses. And as an asthma attack gets worse the airways become even smaller and pushing air through them gets more difficult - like the difference between blowing through a pipe and a straw. Muscles of your torso then pitch in to help, seen as a tugging motion at the pit of the throat (2), and sucking in of the belly just under the breast bone (5) and between the ribs (4).

The picture to your left shows an example of flaring of the nostrils in an asthma attack and is an especially good sign of breathing difficulty in babies.

In an asthma attack you feel short of breath like you can't get air into your chest and your heart starts to beat faster (3). Notice the shoulders in our female asthmatic above. As asthma gets serious most asthmatics prefer to sit up and hunch their shoulders up on outstretched arms with each breath as they try to force air into their lungs. This is a sign of a serious degree of asthma and called a 'tripod' stance. Another serious sign is when an asthmatic can no longer keep up a conversation with you, gasping to finish sentences.

When an asthma attack becomes severe enough that too little oxygen gets to the body, the sufferer can collapse in coma and around their lips and fingernails will look blue - blood without oxygen turns from red to blue. At this point breathing may slow or stop all together and no wheeze may be heard. This is an emergency.

Symptoms of an Asthma Attack in young children

In young children/ babies, breathing fast, nostril flaring, and sucking in beneath the chest are easy to spot and very good signs that your child is in trouble, and to be taken immediately to a medical center for care. 'Wheezing is more difficult to tell and often gurgling throat noises are mistaken for it.

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