What Are Some Unusual Asthma Symptoms?

It is really difficult to live with a chronic health condition like asthma. There are a lot of factors including weather changes, allergen, and viral infections that can make your symptoms flare up. Symptoms of asthma usually start appearing when there is a swelling and constriction in the affected person’s airways, along with increased mucus. Wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing, and tightness in the chest are some of the notable symptoms of asthma. However, there are sometimes when asthma patients suffer from some unusual symptoms. Now, what are some unusual asthma symptoms? Let us take a read on the following array of the article and discover about some of the unusual asthma symptoms.

1. Difficulty Sleeping:

There might be difficulty in sleeping if you are suffering from asthma. You might experience problems like insomnia.

If you have asthma, your airway function decreases naturally during sleep. So, there might be problems with your sleep.

Again, if you are a patient suffering from severe asthma and you are not able to manage your symptoms through your treatments, you might find that some common asthma symptoms such as coughing gets worse when you try to shut your eyes.

In case it seems that you almost experience these symptoms of asthma exclusively at night then probably you might have a subtype known as nocturnal asthma.

For reducing such an unusual asthma symptom you need to make sure that triggers like animal dander, pollen, and dust mites are outside your sleeping room. You must also talk to your doctor about your symptoms.

2. Anxiousness And Mood Changes:

Feeling anxious might precipitate symptoms of asthma, or asthma might cause feelings of anxiety. This can be really difficult to manage. It is essential to have proper management of both asthma as well as your anxiety.

Some people with asthma might also experience effects on their moods or might find it quite difficult to concentrate on particular things.

NOTE: Long term anxiety might also trigger your symptoms of asthma, thus creating a cycle that would be really hard to break.

3. Difficulty While Exercising:

If your asthma is not in controlled or if you have exercise-induced asthma, you might find it really difficult to exercise.⁽¹⁾ You might not be able to exercise at the same intensity as you used to exercise, and it must also be noted that this can signal an asthma flare-up.

However, asthma that is not categorized as exercise-induced asthma or if your asthma is well managed and under control then you should not restrict yourself from exercising. However, make sure you limit doing some kind of high-intensity exercises that might require deep and rapid breathing; as they might trigger your asthma symptoms.

NOTE: Talk to your doctor about the limitations in exercises.

4. A Constant Dry Cough:

When an asthma patient has an asthma flare-up, a wet and wheezy cough is not at all out of the norm.

In fact, one of the most prominent symptoms of asthma experienced in 50% of asthma patient is coughing.⁽²⁾You might even have a lingering cough once you recover from cold or any other sickness that has made the symptoms of your asthma worse.

But, having only a dry and chronic cough is quite unusual in asthma. It might instead be one sign of a subtype asthma known as cough-variant asthma, where you start experiencing a constant cough without mucus. This type of dry cough is also known as unproductive cough.

5. Daytime Fatigue:

One more unusual asthma symptom could be daytime fatigue. If your symptoms of asthma are making it quite difficult for you to fall asleep during the night then you might experience daytime fatigue. You might also suffer from fatigue because of a chronic cough that might make you really tired as you are using your energy during your coughing spells.

You can also experience fatigue on a regular basis if you body is working overtime so as to get more oxygen through airways that are generally inflamed and are constricted in case of asthma.

6. Itchy Face and Throat:

Some asthma patients might even experience an itchy face and also itchy or sore throat. These itchy sensations are not related to asthma by itself but they might be instead attributed to some sort of allergies. In case allergens are triggering your asthma symptoms, then you might have a subtype known as allergic asthma.

There might be symptoms like itchy skin, skin rashes, runny nose, sneezing, congestion and itchiness in throat or sore throat if you have allergic asthma. Now, the best way through which you can manage these unusual asthma symptoms is by reducing your contact with your triggers such as animal danders, pollen, dust mites, cigarette smoke, mold, and foods like milk, nuts and seafood.

Moreover, you can also take allergy shots or immunotherapy to effectively manage these allergic asthma symptoms.

7. Throat Clearing:

Just like a sore throat, you might also experience throat clearing that might be associated with postnasal drip. Though this symptom seem quite unrelated to asthma, this can really exacerbate your asthma symptoms.

A small survey has also found that frequent throat clearing could be a fair indicator of asthma in yough children.⁽³⁾

8. Yawning Or Excessive Inhalation:

Yawning or excessive inhalation might occur in response to feelings of anxiety, sadness, or stress. However, recent research also confirmed some sort of involuntary yawning even occurs so as to re-inflate the alveoli, in your lungs, possible as a response to low levels of carbon dioxide in the blood.⁽⁴⁾

Though there are not much evidences that links frequent yawning with asthma, however, there are many patients of asthma that report an increased yawning being a sign that their asthma is really acting up.

9. Excessive Thirst:

One more unusual asthma symptoms is having excessive thirst. In case you are taking antihistamines, it might seem to correlate with your medicines. However, if you are experiencing increased thirst, it might be a clue that an asthma flare is about to occur.

10. Hoarseness In Voice Or Losing Of Voice:

There might be hoarseness in voice or even loss of voice if you are experiencing some sort of unusual asthma symptoms.⁽⁵⁾ Though coughing can affect your voice certainly, it might also be possible that the hoarseness in voice or losing of voice symptoms are linked to use of inhaled asthma medications.

Conclusion:

There is no cure for asthma and thus the only way one can prevent flare-ups is to manage your condition proactively. This includes, taking your regular medications as directed by your specialized doctor and by avoiding asthma triggers. It is again true that sometimes symptoms of asthma goes really so unusual and you might find it difficult to manage. So, it is important for you to watch out for all the unusual symptoms that you are experiencing and try to avoid the triggers causing the usual asthma symptoms.

NOTE: Make sure that if you are experiencing unusual asthma symptoms consistently then you need to consult with your doctor and modify your treatment plan.

References:

Also Read:

What Are Some Unusual Asthma Symptoms?