Wheezing is a whistling sound you may hear when you breathe.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma are the most common causes of wheezing, but respiratory infections such as acute bronchitis can also cause it. Many people with respiratory allergies know that wheezing often happens during the hay fever season.
Wheezing can come with a variety of health conditions. If you wheeze a little bit with a cold, but it doesn’t bother you much and goes away on its own, you may not need treatment. But see your doctor if you have trouble breathing, your breathing gets fast, or your skin turns blue for a short time. Go to the ER if you start wheezing during a severe allergic reaction.
Several treatments can ease wheezing. Depending on the cause of your wheezing, you may need to see a specialist such as an allergist or pulmonologist.
A wheezing cough is when you are coughing along with wheezing. Wheezing happens because your airway is narrowed, and coughing usually happens because something is irritating the airway and your body is trying to expel it, says Mark Moss, allergist and associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
“Someone might have wheezing because their airway is narrowed because it has mucus in it and it’s a bit swollen, but they also cough to try to clear that mucus out,” Moss says.
Sometimes, wheezing makes it hard to breathe. But other times, it may not cause any breathing problems, and you may not be able to feel it.
What Does Wheezing Sound Like?
Wheezing usually sounds like a high-pitched whistle. “Wheezing is a long-duration, high-pitched, musical sound when someone is breathing out,” although sometimes you can hear wheezing when you breathe in as well, Moss says. Wheezing may sound a bit like hissing.
Sometimes, you can’t hear wheezing yourself, but a health care provider can hear it through a stethoscope.
Your breathing also may make a lower-pitched, rattling sound, somewhat like a snore or gurgling, called ronchi. People often describe this as coarse breathing. Sometimes, that’s considered a type of wheezing, but technically, those lower-pitched sounds are ronchi, Moss says.
You might also have a wheezing cough. “We see people who come in and have asthma that’s flaring up for a variety of reasons, for example, a cold. And they may have wheezing on expiration, but also on inspiration, and accompanying low-pitched ronchi, and may cough as they’re taking deep breaths,” Moss says.
You may be wheezing and not realize it. “We’ll have someone come into the clinic and they’ll say, ‘I have a cold. I’m doing OK. I haven’t really used my inhaler much,’” and then, during an exam, the provider clearly hears wheezing when they’re breathing out, Moss says.
Wheezing when breathing out
Wheezing is usually most noticeable when you’re breathing out. This is because your airways normally narrow when you breathe out.
If your airways are partially blocked (or obstructed), the air moving through them creates a whistling sound, which is called wheezing.
Wheezing when breathing in
Although wheezing usually happens when breathing out, it can happen when you’re breathing in as well.
If you’re wheezing both when breathing out and when breathing in, your airway may be more severely restricted than if you’re wheezing only when breathing out. If you have asthma and you’re wheezing, you may be able to hear wheezing when you’re inhaling and exhaling.
Sometimes, you might have a wheezing cough on top of your wheezing.
Stridor vs. wheezing
Stridor is another type of noisy breathing that sounds somewhat like wheezing. It’s a high-pitched whistle or squeaking sound that usually happens when you breathe in. It’s a less musical sound, and it may happen because a small object is lodged in your airway.
Stridor often happens because of swelling in the middle airway, such as around the neck and the vocal cords, while wheezing from asthma originates deeper in the lungs, Moss says.
What Causes Wheezing?
The whistling sound happens when air moves through airways that are narrowed, much like the way a whistle or flute makes music. Wheezing happens when your lower airways are narrowed.
Many health problems can cause wheezing, including:
- Asthma. This condition, in which your airways narrow, swell, and make extra mucus, can make it hard to breathe.
- Allergic reactions to pollen, chemicals, pet dander, dust, foods, or insect stings
- Bronchitis
- A cold
- Obstruction of an airway because you’ve inhaled an object such as a piece of food
- Lung cancer
- Congestive heart failure
- Pneumonia. This infection inflames the air sacs in your lungs, and they fill with fluid or pus.
- Bronchiolitis. This lung infection inflames the airways and causes congestion, usually in children.
- Emphysema. It is a lung condition that causes shortness of breath.
- Smoking or breathing in smoke
- Respiratory syncytial virus. This can lead to bronchiolitis.
- Vocal cord problems
- Sleep apnea
Credit: webmd
