Have you ever felt running out of breath during exercise, the type of exhaustion that seems to rob your lungs of air making it difficult to inhale and exhale as well? Or maybe coughing which tends to get worse at night or during cold days? How about restlessness during sleep? Before you run towards your drugstore to grab the expectorant, sleeping, or anti-stress medication nearest you, think twice, as it may only help to worsen your condition.

If you’re wondering about the other condition that we mean, search the web about the symptoms related to asthma and for sure you will be able to find a lot of similarities to what you might be experiencing. The symptoms that asthma can present itself in are sometimes very misleading and vague that most people tend to ignore them, until it grows worse and generates full blown attacks that is.

Early detection and medical intervention therefore is very important in order to prevent irreparable damage and avoid the possible dangers that it can bring. Here are some of the most misleading asthma signs and symptoms:

Sleep apnea: Sleep apnea is a chronic condition characterized by pauses or shallow breathing during sleep. The pauses can last anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes depending on the severity, robbing you of a good night sleep. Sleep apnea is never related to insomnia no matter how you look at it.

Coughing: Coughing is nothing new. Coughing that worsens at night or during colder days is still nothing new, same with dry unproductive cough. See the simplicity? This asthma symptom is so clouded with other ailments that many people, sometimes even doctors miss it. If you experience cough that just comes and goes without warning and gets worse during the night or colder days then it would be best to have it checked as it might be something else.

Fatigue: Feeling tired; another misleading sign. The most popular reason of adults for feeling tired is stress. Yes it might be stress but if you start to feel tired or fatigued even with sufficient rest or sleep then there might be something underneath that you’re missing. It would be understandable to feel tired if you are under pressure or have had a lot to do during the day, but feeling tired for the whole week even when there is sufficient rest in between is not.

Asthma is a very dangerous, very unpredictable, and very difficult condition to have. But the chances of seeing quicker improvements and long term relief are greatly increased when there is early diagnosis and treatment.