Asthma: An overview

            What really is asthma? More generally, it is known as an “immune-mediated inflammatory response.” In simpler terms, when your lungs come into contact with something that they don’t like/are extra sensitive to (known as “asthmatic triggers”), the immune system over-responds in a way that makes it more difficult to breathe. Different people can have different triggers, and a person without asthma is not as sensitive or may not be sensitive at all to the things that a person with asthma is.

Here is a brief explanation of what happens in an asthma attack: In response to the trigger, the lungs make too much mucous, plugging the airways. Also, the smallest branches of the airways (“bronchioles”) get much smaller, making it difficult for air to pass through. Instead of helping us, this immune response makes everything much worse.

Before we can understand the immune response, a basic understanding of the immune system in our lungs is necessary. There are special cells that live inside of your lungs and they are extremely important in warding off harmful particles in the air that you breathe in every day. For instance, there are cells that produce mucous (“mast cells”), and this sticky mucous catches germs. It is then moved out of the lungs by special cells (known as “ciliated” cells), or by coughing. There are also cells that, when they sense something harmful in the lungs, will warn other specialized cells so that they can come kill it. I like to think of these cells as watchmen of the lungs. Once they see a perceived enemy, such as a harmful particle, they send out an alert to recruit warriors to fight it. I think of it as this cartoon:

 

As you can see, we want these immune cells. In fact, we need them to survive. The problem in asthma, however, is that this response that is meant to protect us is taken too far. Inflammation is a normal response that helps kill harmful germs such as bacteria, but when we experience inflammation (and a lot of it) when we are around something that is normally not harmful, as is the case with asthma, it is certainly not helpful. Once the airways have narrowed and plugged with mucous, a person is said to be experiencing an asthma attack or episode. Upon breathing, they will experience wheezing (a sound made when air squeezes through narrow airways), shortness of breath (feeling like you are unable to get enough air), and coughing (due to increased mucous). Anyone with asthma will tell you how terrifying this can be. Here is a video that I feel explains an asthma attack well:

This concludes my overview (you may be thinking, that was only an overview?!), and I hope it has enhanced your knowledge about this complex disease in an understandable way.

Until next time,

Kaylin