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From our article series:
Dr Eccles Explains: What is Asthma
Asthma is a condition that affects the airways – the small tubes that carry air in and out of the lungs. If you have asthma your airways are almost always sensitive and inflamed. When you come in to contact with something that you are allergic to, or something that irritates your airways (a trigger), your airways react by constricting due to the muscles around the walls of your airways tightening and thereby becoming narrower, making it harder to breathe. The lining of the airways becomes inflamed due to an auto-immune allergic reaction. The outcome is swelling and often the production of sticky mucus or phlegm. This combination leads to the experience of asthma symptoms. Asthma tops the list of chronic respiratory diseases found in children in Western societies today.