by Andy Orrell

Created on: July 14, 2010   Last Updated: November 24, 2010

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that causes the airways to close up. Millions of people are diagnosed with asthma every year and health organisations believe that more and more people are being affected by the disease. Although asthma is an unpleasant condition it can usually be managed. First of all though it’s important to understand why asthma can occur and what symptoms you should be looking out for. Then once a correct diagnosis has been made we can look at how to manage asthma

Causes - The most likely reason for someone to develop asthma is simple genes. If asthma runs in the family then there is a chance that it will develop in generations in the future. Sometimes it’s just down to chance whether or not someone will develop asthma. Another factor can be the environment a child is brought up in. It’s thought that smoking while a child is in the womb will greatly increase the chances of asthma in the infant. People who live in large cities are more likely to develop asthma as oppose to people who live in rural areas, this is down to the quality of the air.

Other well known causes of asthma are dust, pet allergies and hay fever. People who suffer with such allergies are thought to be far more likely to suffer from asthma. People who already suffer from asthma often find the condition gets far worse if any of these factors are introduced. Something else that can contribute to the likelihood of someone contracting asthma is their occupation. People who work with industrial cleaning products, people who work with fossil fuels and other jobs where the condition of the air is poor can often suffer from asthma.

Symptoms - If you think you or maybe a family member may be suffering from asthma what signs should you be looking for? There are four main symptoms of asthma. First of all wheezing. When the airways start to contract it often makes a person wheeze as they try to breathe. This is especially likely after intense activity.

Second there is coughing. Just because someone develops a cough does not mean they have asthma. However is someone is coughing over a long period of time and can not get rid of their cough it may by a sign that they are suffering from asthma.

Third we have shortness of breathe. As the airways close in it becomes harder to breathe and the sufferer must fight to pull air into their lungs. This means it becomes harder and harder to breathe and a person will be short on breathe.

Finally there is the tightening of

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