Asthma

Asth­ma is a long-term con­di­tion in which the air­ways become inflamed and nar­row, mak­ing it hard to breathe and caus­ing wheez­ing and cough­ing. It affects both chil­dren and adults and tends to flare with trig­gers like aller­gies, colds, or exer­cise. There is no cure, but with the right dai­ly treat­ment and a plan, most peo­ple con­trol it well and stay active. 

Find a pedi­a­tri­cian or pri­ma­ry care provider for asthma

What is asthma?

Asth­ma is a long-term (chron­ic) con­di­tion that affects air­ways, the tubes that car­ry air in and out of your lungs. With asth­ma, these air­ways are inflamed and sen­si­tive, so cer­tain trig­gers make them swell, tight­en, and pro­duce extra mucus. That nar­row­ing is what caus­es asthma’s symp­toms: wheez­ing, cough­ing, short­ness of breath, and chest tightness.

Asth­ma is com­mon across all ages. About 25 mil­lion Amer­i­cans have it, includ­ing more than 4 mil­lion chil­dren, which makes it the most com­mon chron­ic ill­ness of child­hood. It can also begin in adult­hood. Symp­toms come and go, rang­ing from occa­sion­al and mild to fre­quent or severe, and they often flare dur­ing an asth­ma attack (also called a flare-up or exac­er­ba­tion), when symp­toms get sud­den­ly worse.

There is no cure, but asth­ma is very man­age­able. With the right treat­ment and a clear plan, the goal is sim­ple: few or no symp­toms, nor­mal sleep and activ­i­ty, and as few attacks as possible.

What are the symp­toms of asthma?

Asth­ma symp­toms can look dif­fer­ent from per­son to per­son, and from one time to the next in the same per­son. The main ones are:

• Wheez­ing, a whistling sound when breath­ing, espe­cial­ly breath­ing out
• Cough­ing, often worse at night, ear­ly morn­ing, or with exercise
• Short­ness of breath
• Chest tight­ness or pressure

In chil­dren, asth­ma may show up as a fre­quent cough, trou­ble keep­ing up dur­ing play or sports, or wheez­ing with colds. Symp­toms often wors­en with trig­gers or at night. Because a cough can be the only sign, espe­cial­ly in kids, asth­ma is some­times mis­tak­en for a lin­ger­ing cold.

What trig­gers asthma?

Asth­ma symp­toms are usu­al­ly set off by trig­gers, and these vary from per­son to per­son. Know­ing yours, or your child’s, is a big part of stay­ing in con­trol. Com­mon trig­gers include:

• Aller­gens like pollen, dust mites, pet dan­der, and mold
• Res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tions, includ­ing colds, the flu, and RSV
• Exer­cise, espe­cial­ly in cold air
• Cold or dry air, and weath­er changes
• Smoke, air pol­lu­tion, and strong odors or fumes
• Stress and strong emotions

Aller­gies and asth­ma often go hand in hand, espe­cial­ly in chil­dren, which is why man­ag­ing aller­gies can improve asth­ma. The ten­den­cy toward asth­ma also runs in families.

How is asth­ma diagnosed?

Asth­ma is diag­nosed from your symp­toms and his­to­ry, a phys­i­cal exam, and, when pos­si­ble, a breath­ing test. The main test, spirom­e­try, mea­sures how much and how fast you can breathe out, and is typ­i­cal­ly used for chil­dren around age 6 and up and for adults. In younger chil­dren, who can­not always do the test, providers often diag­nose asth­ma based on the pat­tern of symp­toms and how they respond to treatment.

Your provider may also check for aller­gies, since they are a com­mon trig­ger, and have you track symp­toms to see pat­terns over time.

How is asth­ma treated?

Asth­ma treat­ment has two goals: con­trol­ling the inflam­ma­tion day to day so symp­toms stay away, and reliev­ing symp­toms quick­ly when they flare. Most asth­ma is man­aged with inhalers, and it helps to under­stand the two roles they play.

Long-term con­trol (dai­ly) asth­ma medicine

Con­troller inhalers, usu­al­ly inhaled cor­ti­cos­teroids, calm the under­ly­ing air­way inflam­ma­tion. Tak­en every day, even when you feel fine, they are the foun­da­tion of keep­ing asth­ma under con­trol and pre­vent­ing attacks. Skip­ping them when symp­toms are qui­et is a com­mon rea­son asth­ma flares.

Quick-relief (res­cue) asth­ma medicine

Quick-relief med­i­cine opens the air­ways fast to ease sud­den symp­toms or an attack. For some patients guide­lines no longer rec­om­mend rely­ing on an old-style res­cue inhaler (albuterol) alone; for many peo­ple, the reliev­er now also con­tains a low dose of a steroid, which treats the inflam­ma­tion behind the symp­toms. Your provider will tell you exact­ly which inhaler to use and when. Need­ing quick-relief med­i­cine often is a sign your asth­ma is not well con­trolled and your plan needs a review.

When more is needed

For asth­ma that is hard to con­trol, add-on options include addi­tion­al inhaled med­i­cines and, for severe asth­ma, bio­log­ic med­ica­tions that tar­get the spe­cif­ic caus­es of inflam­ma­tion, often guid­ed by a spe­cial­ist. Treat­ing aller­gies, includ­ing aller­gy shots (immunother­a­py) for some peo­ple, can also help.

Liv­ing with asth­ma: your action plan

Liv­ing well with asth­ma comes down to a steady rou­tine: tak­ing your dai­ly con­troller med­i­cine, know­ing and avoid­ing your trig­gers, and hav­ing a plan for when symp­toms change. Most peo­ple, chil­dren and adults, who man­age asth­ma this way live full, active lives, includ­ing play­ing sports.

A cor­ner­stone is an asth­ma action plan, a writ­ten, per­son­al­ized guide (often set up for a child’s school) that uses three zones to tell you what to do based on how you are feeling: 

Know­ing your zone takes the guess­work out of a flare. Reg­u­lar check-ins keep your plan, and your med­i­cines, matched to how your asth­ma is behaving.

When should I get care for asthma?

Beyond every­day man­age­ment, it helps to know when symp­toms need med­ical atten­tion, and when they are an emergency.

Sched­ule a visit

See a provider to get asth­ma diag­nosed, or if your symp­toms (or your child’s) are hap­pen­ing often, wak­ing you at night, or lim­it­ing activ­i­ty, or if you are using quick-relief med­i­cine more than a cou­ple of times a week. These are signs your asth­ma could be bet­ter controlled. 

Find a pedi­a­tri­cian or pri­ma­ry care provider for asthma

Sched­ule a video visit

Can asth­ma attacks be prevented?

You can­not cure asth­ma, but you can pre­vent most attacks. The keys are tak­ing your dai­ly con­troller med­i­cine con­sis­tent­ly, learn­ing and avoid­ing your trig­gers, and fol­low­ing your action plan. A few spe­cif­ic steps help:

• Take con­troller med­i­cine every day, even when you feel well
• Iden­ti­fy and reduce trig­gers, for exam­ple dust mites, smoke, or pet dander
• Get a year­ly flu shot and stay cur­rent on rec­om­mend­ed vac­cines, since infec­tions trig­ger attacks
• Man­age aller­gies, which often dri­ve asthma
• Keep fol­low-up vis­its so your treat­ment stays matched to your asthma

Rec­og­niz­ing ear­ly warn­ing signs, and act­ing in the yel­low zone, often stops a flare before it becomes severe.

Who treats asthma?

Asth­ma is usu­al­ly man­aged by a pedi­a­tri­cian or pri­ma­ry care provider. Pedi­atric, inter­nal med­i­cine, and fam­i­ly med­i­cine providers, with the nurse prac­ti­tion­ers and physi­cian assis­tants on their teams, diag­nose asth­ma, pre­scribe inhalers, set up your asth­ma action plan, and keep it work­ing with reg­u­lar check-ins, which is enough for most people.

When asth­ma is hard­er to con­trol or trig­gers need a clos­er look, spe­cial­ists help:

• Pul­monolo­gy, lung spe­cial­ists, for severe, com­plex, or hard-to-con­trol asth­ma and advanced testing
• Aller­gy and immunol­o­gy, for aller­gy-dri­ven asth­ma, aller­gy test­ing, immunother­a­py (aller­gy shots), and bio­log­ic treatments

Your Duly pri­ma­ry care provider or pedi­a­tri­cian coor­di­nates care and brings in Duly pul­monolo­gy or aller­gy and immunol­o­gy when spe­cial­ized treat­ment would help. 

Fre­quent­ly asked questions

Can asth­ma be cured, or will my child out­grow it?

Asth­ma can­not be cured, but it is very con­trol­lable, and symp­toms can change over time. Some chil­dren have few­er or milder symp­toms as they grow, and asth­ma can seem to go away, though the under­ly­ing ten­den­cy may remain and can return lat­er. With good dai­ly man­age­ment, both chil­dren and adults can stay active and symp­tom-free. Keep up treat­ment even dur­ing good stretches.

What’s the dif­fer­ence between a con­troller and a res­cue inhaler?

A con­troller (or main­te­nance) inhaler is tak­en every day to calm air­way inflam­ma­tion and pre­vent symp­toms, even when you feel fine. A quick-relief, or res­cue, inhaler works fast to open the air­ways dur­ing symp­toms or an attack. Both mat­ter, and using your res­cue inhaler often is a sign your asth­ma needs bet­ter con­trol. Today, some reliev­ers also con­tain a low-dose steroid, so fol­low your provider’s instruc­tions on which to use.

Can you devel­op asth­ma as an adult?

Yes. While asth­ma often starts in child­hood, it can devel­op at any age, called adult-onset asth­ma. It can be trig­gered by aller­gies, res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tions, work­place expo­sures, or oth­er fac­tors, and the symp­toms, wheez­ing, cough, short­ness of breath, and chest tight­ness, are the same. Adults with these symp­toms should be eval­u­at­ed, since asth­ma is very treat­able once diagnosed.

How do I know if my child is hav­ing an asth­ma attack?

Signs of an asth­ma attack include a wors­en­ing wheeze or cough, fast or hard breath­ing, and trou­ble keep­ing up or talk­ing. Get emer­gency care if your child is strug­gling to breathe, the ribs or bel­ly pull in with each breath, the lips or fin­ger­nails look blue, or the res­cue inhaler is not help­ing. An asth­ma action plan helps you rec­og­nize and respond early.

Where can I get care for asth­ma in Chicagoland?

Duly Health and Care offers pedi­atric and adult pri­ma­ry care, fam­i­ly med­i­cine, pul­monolo­gy, and aller­gy and immunol­o­gy across the Chica­go sub­urbs, so you can get asth­ma diag­nosed, treat­ed, and man­aged at any age. For a severe asth­ma attack, seek emer­gency care right away.

Asth­ma Care at Duly Health and Care 

Asth­ma is one of the most com­mon con­di­tions we man­age, and with the right plan, it rarely has to slow you or your child down. Duly pedi­atric and pri­ma­ry care providers can diag­nose asth­ma, find your trig­gers, set you up with the right inhalers and a per­son­al­ized action plan, and fine-tune it over time. When asth­ma is hard­er to con­trol, they will con­nect you with Duly pul­monolo­gy or aller­gy and immunol­o­gy for spe­cial­ized test­ing and treat­ment, includ­ing options for severe asthma.

With pedi­atric and adult pri­ma­ry care, fam­i­ly med­i­cine, pul­monolo­gy, and aller­gy and immunol­o­gy across the Chica­go sub­urbs, plus video vis­its for fol­low-ups, breath­ing eas­i­er is with­in reach for the whole family. 

Find a Duly pedi­a­tri­cian or pri­ma­ry care provider for asthma

Sched­ule a video visit

Med­ical­ly reviewed by Duly Health and Care Pedi­a­tri­cian, Alli­son Crouch­er, DO — Last reviewed June 2026