What will happen if my asthma is not treated?

What will happen if my asthma is not treated?

William Berger (Allergist and Immunologist) gives expert video advice on: What is "asthma"?; Can people die from asthma?; What causes asthma? and more...

Many patients say to me, "Well, I know I have asthma, how about if I just live with it? I mean, I don't really want to take medications. If I don't take medications can I just eat healthily and exercise and make it go away?" Well, I wish that were true but, in fact, untreated asthma in most cases tends to get worse. After it's been inflamed for a long period of time, normal tissue gets replaced by scar tissue and that tissue no longer acts properly in helping to exchange oxygen for carbon dioxide and as a result, after many, many years of what we refer to in medicine as remodelling (in other words, changing the architecture of the airways), you end up with a lot of scar tissue where healthy tissue used to exist and as a result you lose lung function.