How To Know If You Have Asthma

How do I know if I have asthma?

The symptoms of asthma, very often are coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, tightness in your chest, difficulty breathing when you exercise, very often having colds that linger longer, having a lot of what the doctors sometimes call bronchitis until the right diagnosis is made. And so, the symptoms of asthma very often can look like other respiratory problems. The gold standard for making the diagnosis for asthma is doing what we refer to as a pulmonary function test. That's where you blow into a tube, that's hooked into a computer, and it can actually measure the amount of air that's flowing through your airways. If it is decreased compared to what the normal should be, very often medications such as bronco dilators, medications that open up or dilate the bronchi, will be given. And if there is significant reversibility, in other words improvement in the airflow, then the diagnosis of asthma can be confirmed.