Asthma is a chronic disease of your lungs' airways.
or bronchial tubes. Chromic means that it lasts a long time. Asthma
has two main parts:
Inflammation and constriction together cause your
airways to narrow. This can lead to asthma symptoms, such as wheezing,
chest tightness, coughing, or shortness of breath. You may think
of these symptoms as an asthma attack.
If you have asthma, you may feel fine for long periods of time.
But just using your quick-relief (rescue) inhaler to
relieve symptoms and avoiding triggers doesn't always mean you're
managing your asthma as well as you could be.
Talk with your provider about daily preventative medicine (long-term
controllers) if you have:
- Daytime asthma symptoms more than twice a week, or
- Nighttime asthma symptoms more than twice a month.
Prevent Long-Term Problems
There are three main ways to manage your asthma:
- Reduce airway inflammation.
- Prevent airway constriction.
- Know the warning signs of an asthma attack.
You can manage airway constriction and inflammation by:
- Taking asthma medicines as prescribed by your healthcare provider.
For many patients, this means treating both components of asthma-airway
constriction and inflammation.
- Knowing and avoiding your asthma triggers.
- Following an action plan you create with your provider.
Create an asthma action plan
An Asthma Action Plan is a written, personalized
plan that helps you manage your asthma. It's based on changes
in your symptoms and peak flow readings.
Your action plan may need to be changed or updated from time
to time. Review your action plan at least once a year
with your healthcare provider.
Watch for signs of an asthma attack
An asthma attack happens when the muscles around your airways
tighten. Also, the lining of your airways gets more swollen
or inflamed, and the cells lining your airways make more and
thicker mucus than normal.
Asthma affects people in different ways. the
symptoms can vary from person to person and from asthma attack
to asthma attack.
Early warning signs of an asthma attack
Asthma attacks can seem to come without warning. But, there are
changes you can learn to recognize, so that you can treat
an attack quickly. some early warning signs include:
- Decrease in your peak flow numbers
- Coughing often, especially at night
- Losing your breath easily or being short of breath
- Feeling very tired or weak when exercising
- Wheezing or coughing after exercise
- Feeling very tired
- Signs of a cold or allergies (Such as sneezing, runny or stuffy
nose, coughing, sore throat, and headache)
- Trouble sleeping because of breathing problems
If you have early warning signs or symptoms, follow
your Asthma Action Plan and take the asthma medicine your healthcare
provider has prescribed.
Sings that you should seek immediate
medical attention include:
- Difficulty speaking
- Lips or fingernails turn gray or blue
- Heart rate is very fast
- Quick-relief (rescue) medicine fails to help
- Peak flow reading is in the red zone
Talk with your provider if you have any questions about when
to seek immediate medical attention.
Know Your Triggers
Asthma symptoms are caused by a variety of triggers. when you're
exposed to a trigger, your lungs' airways constrict and become
more inflamed and swollen. This makes it harder for you to breathe.
Triggers vary from person to person. In some people, asthma
symptoms can be triggered by allergies. In others, different
things may irritate their airways. Common triggers include:
- Pets - Pet dander (tiny bits of skin) and saliva
can trigger asthma symptoms.
- Rugs - Rugs often have dust mites. These bugs,
so small that you can't see them, can trigger an asthma attack.
- Cockroaches - Many people with asthma are also
allergic to the dried droppings and remains of cockroaches.
- Cigarette Smoke - A major trigger of asthma
symptoms.
- Perfumes - Strong odors can irritate your lungs.
- Intense laughing and crying - Can cause breathing
trouble in people with asthma.
- Mold - Growing in damp areas both indoors and
outside, it can cause asthma attacks in people with asthma who
are allergic to it.
- Trees, grasses, and weeds - Release fine powders,
called pollens. Pollens are some of the most common causes of
allergies.
- Weather - Affects how much pollen and pollution
are in the air. Cold weather or a sharp drop in temperatures can
trigger asthma symptoms.
- Respiratory Illness - Like the flu, respiratory
illness can cause asthma symptoms to flare up.
- Heartburn - If you have heartburn, ask your
provider to find out if treating it could help lessen your asthma
symptoms.
- Exercise - Can cause asthma symptoms in some
people. A long warm-up before exercise can help. So can certain
asthma medicines.
Know your triggers and talk with your provider about what medicine
is best and when you should take it.
Treating Asthma
Medicines
Asthma medicines fall into one of the two groups:
- Preventative medicines (long-term controllers) help
control asthma attacks. they are usually taken by
inhaler. They help prevent asthma symptoms and attacks by:
- Decreasing swelling and irritation of the airways
- Keeping muscles around the airway from tightening
- Quick-relief (rescue) medicines are used
to relieve sudden asthma symptoms. Usually
prescribed as inhalers, these medicines relax the muscles
around the lungs' airways.
Your doctor may prescribe both types of medicine
If prescribed by your doctor, make sure you take preventative
medicines every day. While they do not replace quick-relief
(rescue) medicines, they can help prevent symptoms and reduce
your need for the rescue medicine.
Other treatments
Since many people with asthma have allergies
that trigger their symptoms, your doctor may decide that you
would benefit from allergy testing and allergy treatments.
Using Your Asthma Devices
There are several different devices available to help you manage
your asthma.
Common asthma devices
- Inhalers - Inhalers send medicine directly to the lungs where
people with asthma need it.
- Spacers - Spacers can help you inhale more of your medicine
into the airways, where it is supposed to go, instead
of into your throat.
- Nebulizers - These produce a mist of medicine that you inhale
into your lungs. The mist comes through a mask that fits over
your nose and mouth.Nebulizers are useful if you cannot
use an inhaler. They are also often used to help deliver
quick-relief (rescue) medicines during severe asthma attacks
- Peak Flow Meters - A peak flow meter is a simple device
that measures how well air is moving out of your lungs. There
are several kinds of peak flow meters, but the way you use them
is almost the same. All peak flow meters have a mouthpiece
and a scale marked with numbers.
For best results, always have your provider how to use a device,
and ask him or her to watch you use it.
Check Your Lungs
Your peak flow readings can help tell you when you
need to use your quick-relief (rescue) inhaler or nebulizer
(even before you notice any asthma symptoms) and help you prevent
an attack.
Why take peak flow readings?
By keeping a regular record of your peak flow results, you can
help your doctor make decisions about your treatment. Measuring
your peak flow:
- Helps you spot the early stages of an attack,so you can treat it early.
- Helps you decide when yo seek emergency treatment, based on your Asthma Action Plan.
- Shows how your condition changes over a 24-hour period.This helps your doctor decide what medicines you should be taking.
- Helps you identify identify asthma triggers.
- Shows whether your asthma symptoms are stable, better, or worse.
Keep An Asthma Diary
Your provider may ask you to keep a daily asthma diary. This diary
can help you track you good and bad days, your triggers, and your
symptoms. You and your provider can sue this information to fine-tune
your asthma treatment plan.
If you miss a day, start again the next. The goal is to make it
a habit and having some information about your asthma is better
than having none at all.
Three tips for keeping a successful asthma diary:
- Make an entry every day.Try to make writing in your diary a habit. Keep it in the same place and take even just a few seconds to make an entry every day.
- Enter as much information as possible.It's nearly impossible to have too much information about your asthma.
-
Keep on writing.If you miss
a day or so of writing in your journal, start up again.
Goals of Asthma Treatment
With proper treatment, you should aim to:
