With increased breathlessness, breathing becomes increasingly shallow and fast, and wheezing sounds grow louder. In very severe attacks, the wheeze may lessen. Sometimes, a dry cough may be the only or the most obvious symptom of asthma. A cough may also occur during attacks of obvious asthma, when the sufferer may cough up sputum that has accumulated in the lungs. Asthma is quite common among Western schoolchildren, about 10 per cent of whom have at least an occasional mild attack.
Most children outgrow the condition by puberty but a few develop it again in adult life.
About 2 to 3 per cent of the adult population are asthmatic. Do not accept asthmatic attacks stoically, as a cross you must bear. Study your own disease, take the self-help measures recommended here, and see your doctor whenever you have a severe and persistent period of breathlessness. Asthma is an illness that the doctor can control easily but only with your co-operation. Since you can never be sure that the symptoms you have at home will be apparent half an hour later when the doctor puts a stethoscope to your chest, you must be able to give a clear description of what seems to cause your breathlessness and of the sort of breathlessness you get.