What happens in an asthma attack?
During an asthma attack, the muscles around the airways tighten, or “spasm” (like when you make a fist), and the lining inside the airways swells or thickens, and gets clogged with lots of thick mucous. This makes the airways much skinnier than usual so it is harder to move air in and out of the air sacs. This makes it hard to breathe! The picture below shows what your lungs would look like during an asthma attack. During an asthma attack, it is harder to breathe out than it is to breathe in. This means that during an asthma attack, it takes much longer to breathe out (expire) than it does to breathe in (inspire).
