Asthma

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and that can increase the obstruction to air flow. Furthermore, at night our bodies produce smaller amounts of certain chemical that help to decrease airway spasms and keep airway tubes open. All of these factors add up to a greater chance of symptoms worsening at night.

An asthma attack begins when the smooth muscles in the walls of the bronchial tubes start to tighten and narrow when they are exposed to a trigger when this bronchospasm occurs, air can’t flow into or out of the lungs. To make matters worse, mucous enters the narrowed bronchial tubes and plugs them up, causing a further decrease in air flow. The bronchial tubes seem to close down, and air moving through these narrowed breathing passages can cause wheezing which is a high-pithched-whistlelike sound. Wheezing can be loud enough to be heard across a room, or it can be so slight that is takes a stethoscope to hear it. Airflow obstructions leads to air trapping in lungs. Once trapped, stale air builds up in the ...

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