Medical Services Behavioral Health Cancer Center Cardiology Diagnostic Services Dialysis Exec. Asthma Asthma is a growing problem in the United States. Today, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America says the number had grown to over 17 million and almost a third of those are children. The risk of death is higher for blacks and for males.
Men are one and a half times more likely to die from an asthma attack than women.
All good reasons to recognize the symptoms of asthma and get it treated. What is Asthma Asthma is a disease that affects the air passages in your lungs. The air tubes swell and the muscles around the air tubes tighten. It gets harder and harder to breathe. The American Lung Association says one category of drugs, anti-inflammatories such as corticosteroids, work to keep air tubes open all the time, thereby preventing an asthma episode from happening in the first place.