Ancient Egyptians believed that breathing was the most vital function of the human body. They're one of the first ancient societies to recognize asthma as a disease. Since that time, our knowledge and abilities to manage asthma have certainly improved, but unfortunately, we still face many of the same challenges. My name is Dr. Lauren Welch, and I'm a pediatric resident physician at the University of Colorado in Jude's Medical Campus. Thanks for joining me. Today, I will be talking to you about asthma. I'd like to begin our discussion on asthma with a story. The other day in clinic, I saw an eight-year-old little boy with asthma who was new to our practice. His parents were really distressed. The little boy had already missed so many days of school, and he was at risk for missing even more because he was having so many asthma attacks. Because he was missing so much school, he's behind his coursework, and he was having difficulty making it up. When he was able to attend school, he was having a hard time focusing, and he was also having trouble keeping up with other kids when playing on the playground. As if that wasn't bad enough, his mother was told she would lose her job if she had to miss any more days of work to care for her son. As you can probably imagine, this appointment was very stressful. The family was desperate for help in managing the boys asthma. But believe it or not, this is one of the most common scenarios I encountered in my clinic. That's because asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood in the United States. According to the Center for Disease Control, in a classroom of 30 children, at least three will suffer from asthma. As we move through this lesson, I hope you will remember the little boys on clinic, and think of how an asthma friendly school program could be beneficial, to not only as physical health, but also his educational outcome. To understand asthma, it really helps to understand the normal anatomy of our lungs. When we breathe, air enters through our mouth and into a large tube in the neck called the trachea. The trachea splits into two tubes called the main bronchi, and the airways continue to branch like an upside down tree into smaller and smaller airways called bronchioles. The air always continued to branch until they reach small sacks in the lungs, that are known as alveoli. The alveoli are in the lungs themselves, and are where oxygen is exchanged. Asthma is a chronic condition that affects the medium and large airways. In asthma, the airways are extra sensitive to their environment, especially when compared to the airways of children without asthma. Even when a child with asthma is feeling well, there's often some underlying irritation in the airways from triggers that are always present throughout the surrounding environment. In the event of an asthma attack, certain triggers cause the smooth muscle surrounding the already irritated airways to constrict, leading to repeated episodes of cough, wheezing, chest tightness, and difficulty breathing. Once a child is diagnosed with asthma, there's no cure, and that child may require treatment throughout his or her lifetime. While asthma is not contagious, it does tend to run in families, which is why children with asthma often have relatives with the same condition. Although there's currently no cure, the symptoms of an asthma attack can be prevented when it is managed well. It's very important that anyone who plans to work in the school system becomes familiar with the disease, including its triggers, symptoms and management. We will discuss common triggers for asthma in the next video.