Public attention in the developed world has recently focused on Cheap asthma on this account that of its fast increasing prevalence, affecting up to one in four urban children.
Etymology

The word 'asthma' is derived from the Greek aazein, meaning 'sharp breath.' The word first appears in Homer's Iliad; Hippocrates was the first to use it in relation to the medical condition, in 450 BC. Hippocrates thought that the spasms associated with asthma were more likely to occur in tailors, anglers, and metalworkers. Six centuries later, Galen wrote abundant about asthma, noting that it was caused by partial or perfect bronchial obstruction. In 1190 AD, Moses Maimonides, an influential medieval rabbi, philosopher, and physician, wrote a treatise without interruption asthma, describing its prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. In the 17th century, Bernardino Ramazzini noted a connection between asthma and organic dust. The use of bronchodilators started in 1901, but it was not until the 1960s that the inflammatory component of asthma was recognized, and anti-inflammatory medications were added to the regimens.

Signs and symptoms

In some individuals asthma is characterized by chronic respiratory impairment. In others it is an intermittent fever ailment marked by episodic symptoms that may result from a number of triggering events, including upper respiratory defilement, stress, airborne allergens, air pollutants (such as smoke or traffic fumes), or exercise. Some or all of the following symptoms may have being present in those with asthma: dyspnea, wheezing, stridor, coughing, an inability for physical exertion. Some asthmatics who have bitter shortness of breath and tightening of the lungs never wheeze or bring forth stridor and their symptoms may be confused with a COPD-type disease.