How To Control Your Asthma

Talking To Your Doctor

You should meet regularly with your doctor if you have asthma. During your appointment, youll get to discuss your symptoms and determine whether your treatment plan is effective. Share the records you keep of your symptoms with your doctor so they can get a clear idea of how your management plan is working.

Your doctor may recommend a few in-office tests to measure your airways. One of these is called a spirometry test. This test measures the amount of air your lungs can let out and how fast the air is let out after a deep breath.

Adjusting your treatment plan doesnt always mean more interventions. Well-controlled asthma may be a sign that you can reduce the medications in your treatment plan. You may also find that your plan needs seasonal adjustments depending on how you react to certain triggers.

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Medications That Relieve And Control Symptoms

Based on your asthma symptoms, your health care provider will prescribe asthma medications;designed to work best for you. The two main types of asthma medications are:

Quick-Relief Medication Everyone with asthma should have access to quick-relief medication delivered with a metered-dose inhaler. Your quick-relief medication is used to treat asthma symptoms when they first begin. Within 10 to 15 minutes of use, your quick-relief medication should work to reduce squeezing of the muscles around your airways. If you are prescribed a quick-relief asthma inhaler, you should carry it at all times.

Long-term Control Medication This type of medication is taken daily and works to reduce your airway inflammation and mucus production. This makes your airways less sensitive to triggers and prevents asthma flare-ups before they happen. Not everyone with asthma needs a long-term control medication. Your healthcare provider will determine your asthma severity and whether you need one.

There are several different asthma medication delivery systems. If you take inhaled medicines, you should practice using your inhaler at your health care providers office. If you take long-term control medicines, take them daily as your health care provider prescribes.;Your health care provider may also advise you to use a peak flow meter to measure and record how well your lungs are working.

Oral Corticosteroids in Asthma Care

Signs And Symptoms Of Asthma Attacks

• Non-stop coughing
• Feelings of anxiety or panic
• Pale, sweaty face
• Cyanosis blue lips or fingernails

Asthma may be worsening if the patient experiences the signs and symptoms or has asthma attacks more frequently.

He/she may have more shortness of breath based on peak flow meter readings and may have to alleviate the symptoms using a quick-relief inhaler more frequently than usual.

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How Do I Know If A Flare

Here’s a good way to see how bad a flare-up is: measure your peak expiratory flow using a peak flow meter. Your doctor can show you how to use a peak flow meter to keep track of your asthma. A peak flow meter costs less than $30, and you only have to buy it one time. First, you find out your personal best peak flow. This is the highest reading you can get on the meter over a two-week period when your asthma is under good control.

Here are some general guidelines you can use to find out how serious an asthma flare-up is:

During mild flare-ups, you may notice shortness of breath when you walk or exercise, but when you sit still, you feel okay. You can usually breathe well enough to talk in complete sentences. You may hear some wheezing, mostly at the end of exhaling . Your peak flow readings will be 80 to 100 percent of your personal best.

How To Take Care Of An Asthma Patient

Are you a caregiver of a loved one with Asthma? If yes, you must know, it is not just a lung disease that causes sneezing and itching nose. According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , one in every twelve Americans has the disease. For people with Asthma, every episode of an asthma attack triggers panic and stress because they dont know when will be the next attack. Asthma attacks are quite unpredictable. So, it is best to get familiar with the tips that you could follow to take care of an Asthma patient in a better way. Lets have a look at some of these tips.

Try to know more about the disease

With knowledge comes confidence. So, try to know as much as possible about the disease from credible sources. When you are a caregiver, remember to educate yourself about how to identify an asthma attack, manage the same, and identify the triggers. There are several resources over the web such as the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America and the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology .

Maintain an open dialogue with the physician

Never forget to maintain an open dialogue communication with the physician of your loved one so that if there is no improvement, you could immediately communicate the same to him or her. The move will also help you to develop a detailed asthma action plan for the effective management of the disease.

Understand the medications

Take out time for self-care

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Learn How To Easily Track Your Inhaler Usage

Sign up today to claim a Propeller device, which is a sensor and mobile app that can give you insight into your asthma condition by tracking how often you use your rescue inhaler. Having this information can help you:

Claim your Propeller when you sign up. Propeller is a sensor and mobile app that tracks when and how often you use your rescue inhaler to build a personalized asthma profile. This data can be useful to you and your doctor by:

Sign up today to get emails filled with valuable information on controlling your asthma, as well as tips for talking to your doctor and patient testimonials from others just like you. This can help you understand your current state and work toward well-controlled asthma.

To receive helpful suggestions on controlling your asthma, tips for talking to your doctor, patient testimonials from others just like you, register now. These recommendations can help you understand your level of asthma control and work toward improving it.

Have more confidence for daily activities.

Understand your symptoms and level of asthma control better .

Feel more empowered to talk to your doctor about your asthma at your next appointment.

Providing insight into your level of asthma control for you and your doctor.

Helping you learn about what your triggers may be.

When you sign up, youll also get emails filled with valuable information on controlling your asthma, additional tips for talking to your doctor, and patient testimonials from others just like you.

How To Relax The Airways

Dr. Thiruchelvam says the primary goal is to ensure that you dont avoid exercise. Here are some practical things you can do if you have exercise-induced asthma:;

Gaining and maintaining good control over exercise-induced asthma often requires teamwork. A primary care sports medicine physician can help you keep your asthma well-controlled, so that exercise is less likely to trigger symptoms.

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Preventer Medication For Asthma

Preventer medication makes the airways less sensitive and reduces inflammation and swelling. It needs to be taken as prescribed, over the long term, to be most effective in reducing the risk and severity of any flare-ups.Most preventer medication for asthma is inhaled corticosteroid. Because the medication goes straight to your lungs where it is needed, the risk of side effects from taking inhaled steroids is very low.

Most adults with asthma can achieve good control of their asthma symptoms with a low dose of inhaled corticosteroid.

Tips To Keep Your Asthma Symptoms Under Control

If you have asthma or know someone who has asthma, then you know how tough it can be to live with the condition.

Many of us have at least one relative who suffers from asthma and know first-hand how debilitating it can be.

Several triggers could make asthma worse and aggravate your symptoms. You could have a tough time catching your breath. There is no doubt that asthma has its share of dangers.

Here, well discuss how you can keep your asthma under control.

So lets get started, shall we?

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What Is An Asthma Action Plan

An asthma action plan is created by you and your doctor to help manage your asthma. It includes information about what you must do to stay healthy, and what to do when your asthma is unstable and you need help.There is no standard asthma action plan, as everyones asthma is different. Your plan needs to be developed to deal with your own triggers, signs and symptoms, and medication. It might be based on symptoms, peak-flow readings or both. However, symptom-based plans are more common.

Action plans are available in many different formats, you can also upload it to the Asthma Buddy;mobile website.

Be Aware Of The Relationship Of Fear To The Lungs

Both grief and fear reside in the lungs from an energetic standpoint. This is something that you can work on in a few ways, such as using Bach Flower Remedies or counseling, but we chose to use an emotion code practitioner who has helped us with numerous family traumas and history-type things in the past and it really helped. Stuck energy can manifest physically and the key is to get it moving and out. Louise Hay addressed this in her work, Chinese Medicine recognizes it and energy healers from around the world do as well.

Energy aside, think about how, when scared, your entire body tenses. We often hold our breath or go into shallow breathing when this happens. Emotional blockages are directly connected with our breathing. People, who experience anxiety, depression, fear, nervous tension or a poor self-image, tend to subconsciously hold their breath. Thus their breathing is tense, shallow, and sometimes spasmodic .

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What Causes An Asthma Attack

An asthma attack can happen when you are exposed to asthma triggers. Your asthma triggers can be very different from someone elses asthma triggers. Know your triggers and learn how to avoid them. Watch out for an attack when you cant avoid your triggers. Some of the most common triggers are tobacco smoke, dust mites, outdoor air pollution, cockroach allergen, pets, mold, smoke from burning wood or grass, and infections like flu.

Practicing Buteyko Breathing Technique

This is also a system of breathing exercises. Buteyko Breathing Technique focuses on breathing out through the nose and not the mouth. Breathing out through the mouth can dry up the mouth and the airways very fast resulting in more problems. Practising and using BBT also makes you less prone to suffering from respiratory infections. Buteyko Breathing Technique can also be instrumental in decreasing your asthma symptoms with the help of slow and gentle breathing through the nose.

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Virtual Pediatrician Available

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Diagnosing Asthma And Copd With Pft

I explained how a PFT can help diagnose asthma in my post at Asthma.net: What Are PFTs? I explained how a PFT can hep diagnose COPD in my post on this site, What Are PFTs?

So, if you read those, you know what an FEV1 is. You know how this can be used to determine if you have COPD. Still, heres a quick review. You do a PFT. You do a pre and post FVC. A computer determines your FEV1. This is the best indicator of airflow limitation.

You then use a bronchodilator. This can be either an inhaler or breathing treatment. Then you do a second FVC. Heres how you determine if its asthma or COPD.

• COPD. By its basic definition, its persistent respiratory symptoms and airflow limitation. Your pre and post bronchodilator FEV1 is less than 80%. Your post bronchodilator FEV1 is not much different than your pre bronchodilator FEV1. This shows that airflow limitation is persistent. It is not reversed with time or treatment. This confirms a diagnosis of COPD.1
• Asthma. By its basic definition, respiratory symptoms and airflow limitation are intermittent and vary in intensity. Asthma attacks are reversible with time or treatment. Your post bronchodilator FEV1 improves by 12% or more. This shows airflow limitation is reversible. This can help make a diagnosis of asthma. 2
• Asthma and COPD. This is when you have both. Your airflow limitation is reversible. But, your FEV1 remains under 80% despite treatment.

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Complementary Therapies And Asthma: 4 Essential Tips

If you fancy trying a complementary therapy to help your asthma or manage triggers like anxiety or stress, make sure you cut any risks by:

Complementary therapies should only ever be an add on to your existing asthma treatment, says Dr Andy Whittamore.;Taking your preventer inhaler as prescribed even if you feel well; keeps down the inflammation in your airways. And it means youre less at risk of symptoms and an attack when you come across different triggers.

Why Do Some People Have Difficult To Control Asthma

There are lots of different reasons why you might have asthma thats difficult to control.

These include:

• Having other long-term conditions that make it harder to manage your asthma, for example a heart condition or diabetes
• Being a smoker, which makes asthma symptoms worse and stops asthma medicines working as well
• Finding it hard to get into a good routine of taking your inhalers and other asthma medicines regularly
• Not using a good inhaler technique. This means youre not getting the right dose at the right time to help get your asthma symptoms under control.

If youre having symptoms dont ignore them. Theyre a sign that your asthma is not well controlled and that youre at risk of an asthma attack, so its important to do something about them. Make an appointment with your GP or asthma nurse;to get your asthma reviewed.

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Diagnosis Of Asthma In Children

Diagnosing asthma;in children younger than;5;years can be difficult because;children cough or wheeze;for many different reasons.;Take your child to the doctor if:;

• the wheezing happens more than once with or without an illness;
• constant coughing or bouts of coughing become worse at night;
• you are concerned about any breathing problems in your child.;

Develop An Effective Care Plan With Your Doctor

Speak with your doctor to see which options may be right for you. Dont be afraid to ask questions. In fact, you should keep a notebook on hand to jot down any questions that you might have, so that you can have them at-the-ready for your next appointment. When it comes to your health, theres no such thing as a stupid question.

Also, its important to remember that you are an integral part of your care plan. If a medication or preventive method isnt working effectively, then tell your doctor so that he or she can help you to formulate another course of action that may provide more relief. Let them know about any new or worsening symptoms that you are currently experiencing, so that they can adjust your medication or find new solutions that can allow you to breathe easier.

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Will Medicine Help Me Sleep Better

Yes, if you have nighttime asthma symptoms. Many people wake up with asthma symptoms such as coughing or wheezing. You can control nighttime symptoms by taking asthma medicines as directed by your doctor.;

Removing triggers where you sleep may help you sleep better. Many people are allergic to dust mites and mold found in bedding materials. Using mattress or pillow encasements can help contain those allergens. Dehumidifiers can also be helpful to reduce the humidity in your home that dust mites and mold need to exist. Using air cleaners in your bedroom may also help reduce your exposure to allergens and irritants .;