Asthma and Your Airways - What Other People Are Not Telling You About Asthma Treatments

Your lungs can usually cope with microscopic invaders. A quick cough or sneeze and they are smartly expelled. But when you have asthma, your immune response will leap into action if you breathe in any substance to which you are allergic.

The normal airway, or bronchus, is lines with a fine protective layer, the mucosa or epithelium. Some cells in this layer produce fluid or mucus, while others pass these secretions up the bronchial tubes to the mouth by moving tiny hair like cells, or cilia, which coat the surface of these cells.

The mucus is then swallowed, to be sterilized by the acid in the stomach, or expelled by coughing. Cilia are destroyed by smoking, which is why so many smokers develop a phlegmy cough.

Below the mucosa is the submucosa, which in turn encases a spiral sheet of muscle. This muscle can tighten suddenly to protect the air sacs when you inhale something you should not, such as water.

Asthma is caused when the airways become inflamed to such an extent that some are even blocked. This inflammation may be triggered by inhaling an allergen, such as pollen. If you breathe in an allergen it penetrates deep into your lungs and lodges in the tiny air sacs called alveoli.

The immune system recognizes the allergen as an invader, even though it is not, and sends out antibodies, setting off an allergic reaction. Inflammation is the body's way of dealing with infection and usually it is short lived.

However, in asthma the inflammation of the airways can last for several hours. This increases the mucus in the lungs and can leave the bronchi sensitive, often for a number of days.

If you have attack after attack the inflammation does not have the chance to calm down, instead the condition develops into a chronic, or long term, illness. In severe cases of asthma the airways thicken and mucus plugs block the bronchi, even when you are not having an attack. It is also likely that even moderately affected asthmatics have some degree of inflammation between attacks.

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