ASTHMA

As
inflammation causes the airways to become narrower, less air can pass
through them, both to and from the lungs. Symptoms of the narrowing
include wheezing (a hissing sound while breathing), chest tightness,
breathing problems, and coughing. Asthmatics usually experience these
symptoms most frequently during the night and the early morningThe
narrowing is typically reversible with or without treatment.
Occasionally the airways themselves change. Chronically the airways'
smooth muscle may increase in size along with an increase in the
numbers of mucous glands.To understand asthma, it helps to know how
the airways work. The airways are tubes that carry air into and out of
your lungs. People who have asthma have inflamed airways. This makes
them swollen and very sensitive. They tend to react strongly to certain
inhaled substances.When the airways react, the muscles around them
tighten. This narrows the airways, causing less air to flow into the
lungs. The swelling also can worsen, making the airways even narrower.
Cells in the airways might make more mucus than usual. Mucus is a
sticky, thick liquid that can further narrow the airways.This chain
reaction can result in asthma symptoms. Symptoms can happen each
time the airways are inflamed.
Asthma is a chronic (long-term) lung disease that inflames and narrows the airways.

SMOKERS COUGH
Smokers cough isnt a medical term, but it does signify that some
pretty significant things are occurring in your body when you smoke. It
typically doesnt affect new smokers but it will often bother people who
smoke heavily, especially over a period of many years. A specific
process causes smokers cough, and though the term relates to
smoking, it can also occur in people who are routinely exposed to other
throat, nasal and lung irritants over a period of several years.
Tiny fibers in the nose and the trachea called cilia operate by pushing
irritants out of the body. When you smoke, you begin to damage these
cilia, sometimes nearly killing them or making them completely
nonfunctional. When you go through periods of not smoking, like when
youre sleeping at night, your damaged cilia cant move the phlegm up
to your throat where you can swallow it. Smoking does cause
extra mucus to develop in order to get foreign toxins out of your lungs.
The result of smokers cough for most people is that they wake up in
the morning with considerable phlegm in their throats. To clear this
phlegm they may need to cough repeatedly. Advanced cases of
smokers cough mean people can cough for a long time after waking to
clear this phlegm.
EMPHYSEMA

occurs when alveoli loses their elasticity and causes it to become

fragile and over inflated