Asthma and dyspnea

It may feel like an inability to take a satisfying breath, extra effort to breathe or breathlessness during ordinary activity. Wheezing, cough and chest tightness can accompany it. New breathlessness still needs assessment because heart, lung, blood and anxiety-related conditions may feel similar.

During asthma symptoms, airway muscle tightens and the lining becomes inflamed, making it harder to move air, particularly when breathing out. Exercise, infection, cold air, smoke, dust or allergens may set off an episode. The speed of onset, trigger pattern, associated symptoms and response to prescribed medicine help distinguish an asthma flare from another problem.

Stop the triggering activity, sit upright and move away from an obvious irritant if it is safe to do so. Follow your asthma action plan and take prescribed reliever medicine exactly as instructed. Stay with a child or vulnerable adult who is breathless, and watch whether speech, alertness and breathing effort change.

Book a review when episodes recur, wake you from sleep, restrict activity or lead to increasing reliever use. Bring your inhalers so technique can be checked, and describe what you were doing when symptoms began.

Call for emergency medical help if breathlessness is severe or rapidly worsening, you cannot speak comfortably in full sentences, your lips look blue or grey, you become confused or drowsy, or prescribed reliever treatment is not helping as expected. Use the emergency instructions in your action plan while waiting for assistance.

Ask how to recognise loss of asthma control, what your personal action-plan zones mean and when breathing tests should be repeated. Clarify which inhaler is for daily control, which is for symptom relief, and exactly what should prompt urgent care.