What is seasonal asthma?
If you only experience asthma symptoms at certain times of the year, you could have seasonal asthma. You may find that your asthma gets worse when it’s very cold, or when there’s pollen in the air.
Asthma is a long term condition, even if you don’t experience your symptoms all year round. If you think you have asthma, see your doctor, who will devise a treatment plan.
Winter
According to Asthma UK, 75 per cent of people report that cold air triggers their asthma symptoms. Some people find that just breathing in very cold air causes symptoms. When the air hits the airways it can sometimes make them go into spasm, which causes coughing, wheezing, a tight chest and breathlessness.
Spring
Around 50 per cent of people with asthma also have allergies, and if that’s you, you could find that the extra pollen in the air at this time of year aggravates or sets off your asthma. Seasonal pollen in spring time can cause inflammation in your airways and make underlying allergic asthma worse.
Summer and autumn
For some people, very hot weather triggers their asthma symptoms - it’s thought that the hot air can cause the airways to narrow, just like very cold air does. It’s also possible that the amount of pollutants and mould in the air increase as it gets hotter.
Thunderstorms are also known to cause serious asthma attacks for some people - they lead to a six-fold increase in hospital admissions for asthma. It’s not known exactly why this is, although the theory is that it’s linked to high levels of humidity in the air, plus pollen and mould particles being swept up and broken down by the windy conditions that often accompany a storm, and then scattered back down where they are breathed in.
