Humidity Can Cause an Asthma Attack

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Humidity can make it harder to breathe for people with asthma.

Valerie Fox, Respiratory Care Education Coordinator at Navicent Health, said people with asthma should be alert.

“When you go outside the heat hits you a lot differently. The air is a lot thicker, so that air being thicker feeling with the humidity, high humidity, will make it a little bit harder for you to breathe and take those breaths in,” Fox said.

If you know humidity triggers your asthma, it’s important to take your inhaler at least 15 minutes before you go outside.

“If you know you’re going to be outside for a long period of time, you know kids are out obviously playing games, activity and sports and stuff so they need to pretreat ahead of time, if they’re going to be exposed,” she said. “Anytime you have a trigger that you know what the trigger is, you always wants to pretreat with your rescue inhaler first before being exposed.”

And when you’re outside in the heat, you should take breaks.

“If you’re out in the heat, you wanna do it in short bursts, like 10, 15 minutes. That goes for basically human beings and animal or anything like that at this time of the year. Make it in short bursts,” Fox said.

Fox said pressure is why it’s hard for people with asthma to breath in the humidity.

“Anytime that you’re seeing a change in the humidity in general, it’s not so much what the airs mixed with, it’s just the thickness in the air and the baremetric pressure and those kind of things that make it more difficult to breathe,” she said.

Asthma is a chronic disease where your airways become tight and swollen, which make it harder to breathe.

A rescue inhaler contains albuterol that makes it easier to breathe.

Signs that you may have asthma include coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath.

These signs can be triggered by humidity, cold air, smoke, allergens, or physical activity.