Lindsay Lohan had to go to hospital after suffering a bad asthma attack, according to her mother.

The 26-year-old actress was taken to the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City on Sunday night after complaining of severe chest pains which she believed were a symptom of pneumonia. According to Dina, 50, the high pollen count in the city triggered her daughter's asthma, which was so severe she had to have medical attention.

"Lindsay had not been feeling well all last week following a week of high pollen counts in New York. She has had bronchial asthma ever since she was little," Dina said.

It was the showbiz matriarch who made Lindsay go to the hospital because she was so worried about the state of her breathing. "Dina brought Lindsay to the hospital emergency room herself. She's at Dina's home now, resting. Her mother is keeping a close eye on her. She's safe," a source told New York Daily News.

Lindsay's father Michael also revealed his daughter's asthma - an illness which affects the airways and causes symptoms such as wheezing and coughing - was so bad when she was a child she almost lost her life: "She's fine, but she had a bad case of asthma as a kid, so she has to take these things seriously. When she was a kid, we almost lost her a couple of times because of the asthma."