Breathing Cessation - A Serious Asthma Complication

Asthma is a scary, serious health condition. It's also surprisingly common, and over the last forty years has actually grown in prevalence unlike other illnesses. More than twenty three million Americans have asthma and over three hundred million people worldwide do. Asthma can develop in numerous stages of your life, and its onset needs to be met with treatment as soon as possible. There are many different options for controlling asthma and just as many symptoms that are associated with the condition. Breathing cessation is one of the scariest symptoms of asthma and can occur in two main ways. Either way is a sign of a serious problem, and one you should discuss with your physician as soon as you can.

When breathing cessation occurs it will usually be at one of two times. The first is when you are sleeping. As you sleep, many asthma symptoms will persist and as you fall into a deep slumber your heart rate, breathing rate, and more all change. Your body relaxes, and in many instances you may very well stop breathing even if it is only for a few seconds. Usually this causes you to awaken, and it is often enough to cause a major bout of anxiety and could even lead to an actual asthma attack.

That is the second key way that breathing cessation occurs, during an asthma attack. If you are having an asthma attack then the airways within your lungs are narrowing even more than they usually do. That means that you'll have much more trouble breathing than you normally would. In extreme cases, breathing may actually stop for a period of time. Again, this can be absolutely terrifying and can lead to serious medical complications including things like unconsciousness or even death. Because of this, it's important to monitor your asthma and treat it with the seriousness that it deserves.

Asthma can be serious and even fatal, but modern medicine has made big strides in controlling it. If you take the time to learn all that you can about managing your asthma then you'll likely be able to reduce the frequency and severity of asthma attacks and, especially, breathing cessation. It can be scary to cope with some of the asthma symptoms, especially total breathing cessation, but when you use proper treatments and medications you will be able to figure out exactly how to avoid the various breathing problems that can cause so much pain and trouble in your life.