Why Does Crying Trigger An Asthma Attack?

Posted on Sun, 13 Jan 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 Answered on

Fri, 1 Feb 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : Hi, can you kindly explain why crying triggers an asthma attack?

Answered by Dr. Nsah Bernard (2 hours later)

Hi XXXXXXX

Thanks for posting your query

Crying simply triggers asthma attack because it is strongly associated with emotional stress which is a strong trigger of asthmatic crisis.

The mechanism by which strong negative emotions/crying triggering bronchospasms / bronchial constrictions is not yet understood by the medical community, but research by various authors has shown that asthma attack are usually very associated with people under emotional stress/crying.

Hope this helps.

Dr Nsah

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad