Glossary On Symptoms of Asthma

Breathing becomes an effort…

The difficulty in breathing (asthmatic attack, respiratory allergy, wheeze) experienced by an asthmatic person can have numerous expressions. Some people feel their throat is being strangled during the wheeze, others remark that they feel as if they are breathing though a sponge, yet others may feel trapped as if by a plastic sleeve. As many the people, so many the expressions! However, there are certain patterns that can be commonly seen such as:

• Perennial or seasonal asthma
• Continuous or intermittent asthma
• Daytime or nighttime asthma

The symptoms that are seen amongst the patients can have any combination from the following set:

• Cough – this is mostly dry cough (not accompanied by phlegm)
• Breathlessness / dyspnoea
• Wheezing (wheeze) - An audible whistling when exhaling
• Chest tightness or pain
• Difficulty in lying down due to the breathlessness/dyspnoea
• Bouts of coughing or wheezing (wheeze) that are worsened by a respiratory virus such as a cold or the flu
• Restless sleep, tired feeling on waking
• Easily getting tired with activities that normally would not affect anyone so much
• Tightening of neck muscles, rapidity of breathing
• Difficulty in talking at times
• Excessive sweating (especially during an acute asthma attack)

The symptoms of asthma change over time in most people and these must be tracked regularly. The patient must periodically visit his physician to get his condition evaluated.

The physician evaluates asthma based on certain key features and classifies them into:

• Mild intermittent asthma- Mild symptoms up to two days a week and up to two nights a month
• Mild persistent asthma- Symptoms more than twice a week, but no more than once in a single day
• Moderate persistent asthma- Symptoms once a day and more than one night a week
• Severe persistent asthma- Symptoms throughout the day on most days and frequently at night

It must be noted that first three types of asthma (respiratory allergy / wheeze) respond very well to Homeopathy; however in the last type the treatment tends to be more palliative in nature.