I Struggle With Breathing: Do I Have Asthma?

You find yourself frequently getting out of breath or struggling to breathe, huffing and puffing after even the mildest of exertions. Could you have asthma?

At Living Water Community Health and Wellness Clinic, aka Living Water Clinic, we can help with breathing difficulties. From offices in Porterville, Lindsay, and Visalia, California, our experienced family medicine care team diagnoses new and existing patients with breathing difficulties.

Whether you’re dealing with asthma or emphysema, our compassionate and helpful providers can recommend treatment options to improve your condition and restore your quality of life. Breathe easier by seeing us to get the right care for your condition and health needs.

Conditions that can cause breathing problems

If you struggle with breathing, several conditions could be behind it. Your breathing problems could be caused by:

• Asthma, a condition that involves swelling and narrowing of your airways as well as potentially producing excess mucus
• Cardiovascular disease
• COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), including emphysema
• A respiratory infection like a cough, a cold, or even a case of COVID-19
• Bronchitis, an infection in your lungs
• Acid reflux affecting your esophagus with digestive fluids
• Hay fever, also known as allergic rhinitis, an allergic reaction to pollen and other trigger stimuli

If you find that you have trouble breathing — whether constantly, only at certain times of day, or when you come into contact with certain triggers — it’s important to see your primary care doctor for an accurate diagnosis.

How to know if you have asthma

Asthma attacks include symptoms like difficulty breathing, coughing, and a whistling or wheezing sound when you breathe out. Your breathing problems are more likely to be related to asthma if you experience coughing or wheezing, if your attacks seem to relate to specific triggers, if you have a family history of allergies or asthma, or if you have allergies or a history of childhood asthma.

Your asthma might be mild, affecting you only as an occasional cough. If you have severe asthma, attacks can be life-threatening. Your provider at Living Water Clinic can diagnose your asthma based on your symptoms, a physical exam, and testing. 

Once you know the cause of your breathing problems, you and your primary care provider can work toward solutions to get you back to breathing freely. The Living Water Clinic team provides customized asthma treatment. Depending on your needs, you could benefit from:

• Help with identifying and avoiding triggers
• Creating an asthma action plan to handle attacks
• Medication management, including rescue inhalers and daily medications to control flare-ups

At Living Water Community Health and Wellness Clinic, we diagnose and treat adult and child asthma patients. If you’re struggling to breathe and you’re worried about asthma, schedule an appointment online or over the phone at one of our locations. You can also walk in today for care.