What are the symptoms of asthma?

Medical textbooks correctly inform us that “classic”
symptoms of asthma are three in number: wheezing,
cough, and abnormal sensations of breathing, or dyspnea.
If you are studying for a knowledge test, mark
those three symptoms on your answer sheet. You will
get full credit for the right answers and will surely score
an A for your asthma knowledge! Typical asthma symptoms
that we see in the office or clinic, on the other
hand, represent variations of the big three: an unusual
awareness of breathing, uncomfortable breathing, chest
pressure or a feeling of chest discomfort, wheezing or
noisy breathing, labored breathing, coughing, mucus
production, and breathlessness with exertion or effort.
Nocturnal symptoms, such as waking from sleep with
uncomfortable breathing or wheezing, are indications
of less than optimal asthma control and are signs of an
asthma exacerbation. Asthma can manifest itself in various
modes, from mild to severe. A person with a
milder form typically experiences different symptoms
at different levels of frequency and intensity than a person
with a more severe form of asthma. Children may have
a persistent cough (often misdiagnosed as recurrent
bronchitis) as their only asthma symptom. Cough is, in
fact, the single most common asthma symptom in children.
Symptoms of asthma may thus differ from person
to person and may vary in an individual over time. Asthma
symptoms are usually episodic; symptoms may come
and go, and are not necessarily continuously present.