Sighing - An Unusual but Common Asthma Symptom

Asthma is one of the biggest health concerns in the world, with more than three hundred and fifty thousand sufferers around the world and twenty three million in the United States alone. Knowing all of the various symptoms concerning the condition will help you not only to recognize that you need to visit a doctor, but also what to expect when you're suffering from it. While many of the symptoms are well known by nearly everyone, some are a bit more unusual. Sighing can be much more than a sign of boredom, and in many cases it can actually be an unusual but very common symptom of asthma.

Sighing is really a common process of expelling air from the body, and there are numerous triggers for it. In the case of asthma, it's not uncommon for sighing to present itself as a symptom. Since asthma alters not only the amount of air that you're able to breathe but also your overall breathing patterns, there are many occasions where the body could trigger you to sigh in an effort to either inhale or exhale excess air. It will be a subliminal, almost automatic action but one that you will likely notice as an asthma sufferer.

The way asthma works to reduce your airflow and thus triggers sighing is fairly easy to understand. Asthma is a type of chronic inflammation that occurs within your lungs. It basically narrows the passages your body uses to breathe, and when these passages are narrower it becomes, obviously, more difficult to inhale or exhale. In serious instances it can be life threatening while in others it will just be a reduction in your ability to catch your breath. In these milder cases, sighing will occur as your body tries to adjust and regulate the amount of oxygen that it is receiving.

Obviously most people don't think of sighing when they hear the term asthma, and frequent sighing alone isn't really enough to lead to a diagnosis of asthma. But in many cases those suffering from asthma will likely notice that their asthma does indeed cause sighing to occur. It isn't a life threatening symptom, and it pales in comparison to many of the other symptoms that asthma is known for, but knowing that it is actually a symptom will help clear up your confusion if you've been diagnosed with asthma and are trying to determine just why you sigh so often.