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What a Cold Induced Asthma Is
Female: Dear Doctors, I live in Chicago and boy its cold. Sometimes when I’m breathing in the icy air I feel like I’m grasping for breath. How does the cold air affect my respiratory system?
Dr. Travis Stork: Great question and it’s tough to say exactly what’s causing her respiratory problems without an exam but there is something called cold induced asthma or cold induced airway reactivity and its something that I have to confess. Sometimes, I myself suffer from and you know cold weather can spark asthma attacks in some people it can be irritating for others.
What happens in your lungs is similar what happens with asthma. Those lungs can become inflamed. It makes breathing more difficult. You start wheezing and what’s actually happening inside your lungs is the airways, the bronchial tubes, the bronchi are essentially becoming inflamed in response to the cold air for other people maybe allergens. You may actually have increased mucous production but those airways become inflamed and when that happens it makes breathing more difficult, you see there the muscles constrict, the airways become smaller and the wheezing starts and a lot of times people will have this in cold weather, will start coughing and they have to stop whatever activity they’re engaged in.
Dr. Drew Ordon: Very often you see that after getting a cold, bronchitis, you get it and then your airways is hypersensitive.
Dr. Travis Stork: And what you get in return, you’re taking a deep breath in the cold air and just, boy, it starts to coughing fit. So it’s one of the things that they recommend is you want to breath in warmer air and those instances you can worry there is something where when you’re breathing the air in, you’re warming it to help reduce some of that cold induced asthma.
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