Asthma and allergies can both sneak up on you when you don’t expect them to. They (along with eczema) can occur together, but they can also develop independently—people with allergies are more likely to have asthma, and vice versa, but the two do not always happen together. What is Asthma? Asthma is a lung disease in which the airways become inflamed (swollen) and the muscles around the airways tighten. This causes difficulty breathing—and symptoms of coughing, shortness of breath, chest tightness and wheezing. Depending on where you live, between 8 and 12% people have asthma—in children, it is more common in boys than girls, but after puberty, it becomes more common in more girls and women than men and boys. Asthma can onset at any age, but is most common to begin in childhood, or after age 40. [1] It is treated with a variety of m