Trouble Breathing

• Asthma affects the lungs.Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of woodley wonderworks
  
  The Merck Manual, a respected source on medicine and diseases, says people having an asthma attack feel their bronchial tubes tighten up, causing them to wheeze and cough and making it hard to breathe. Asthma attacks are often associated with physical or mental stress, but an attack can come at any time.
  
  

Asthma in America

• One in seven adults suffers from asthma.Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of byrne7214
  
  Nearly 23 million Americans had asthma in 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control's National Health Interview Survey. Seven million children, nearly one in 10, suffer from the disease. African Americans are more than 20 percent more likely than Caucasians to come down with asthma, and women are 23 percent more likely to have it than men.
  
  

Diagnosis

• The American Lung Association reports that approximately 34.1 million Americans have been diagnosed with asthma at some point in their lifetime. About a half million Americans are hospitalized for it every year.
  
  

A Growing Problem

• The numbers of people with asthma keep growing. Between 1980 and 1994 the number of Americans suffering from asthma rose by 75 percent. In the same time period, instances of asthma in children under 5 went up by over 160 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
  
  

The Future of Asthma

• Unless medical science can find the causes and a cure for the disease, the number of people suffering from asthma will increase by another 100 million people.