Asthma Answers

Here’s the basics of asthma treatment:

The most simple way to treat asthma that I keep hearing is to avoid the triggers of it. To me, that’s easier said to done. However, there’s a lot more to it for people who don’t live in an oxygen bubble. However, you can be aware of your triggers and that’ll help you from needless exposing yourself to something that could cause an asthma attack.

For me cats are a major trigger for an asthma attack. I know that when I’m over at a friend’s house and they have a cat, no matter how much I want to pet it, I can’t. Another major trigger for me is dust and mold. Keeping my house clean and washing everything on a regular basis helps prevent dust and mold from building up and reduces my asthma problems at home.

Then there’s the medicines for asthma treatment. For close to thirty years now, I’ve been taking an ever changing mix of fast acting inhalers and long term control medicines. The fast acting inhalers, or rescue inhalers as I’ve seen them called, are used during the asthma attacks. They can bring an asthma attack under control in a matter of minutes, sometimes even seconds. The long term control medicines are used on a daily basis to prevent asthma attacks.

Working with your doctor, you have to find the mix of medicines that work best for you and your asthma. It took me many years to discover worked best, and we’re still tweaking it some, but my asthma is definitely under control now.

It’s not just going to the doctors and getting the medicines. It sounds silly, but you have to follow your doctors orders. I know that there were times when I didn’t see any effects of my asthma so I stopped using my control medicines. That almost always came back to hurt me in the long run. You should also get regular checkups so you can report any changes in your asthma or talk about any side effects of the drug.

As soon as you see symptoms of an oncoming asthma attack, you should start with your rescue inhalers and not wait until the attack gets worse.

The four main symptoms of an asthma attack are the obvious ones like wheezing and a shortness of breath, that any asthma sufferer knows. There’s also a feeling of tightness in the chest, which I don’t feel too often, but I’ve had other asthma sufferers tell me they have felt that. Then there’s coughing, especially at night. I never really considered coughing to be related to asthma. I thought that my coughing might cause asthma attacks, but then I started to do research and realized that the coughing could actually be a sign of asthma. I used to treat chronic coughing with cough medicine, which could actually make it worse.

If the symptoms continue or get worse, you may have to visit your doctor or an emergency room for more advanced treatment. Don’t wait it out and just hope that it gets better. I’ve done that and it can just make it worse.