Asthma Treatment

Asthma treatment includes avoiding asthma triggers and using asthma medicines. If you react strongly to certain triggers, do everything you can to avoid them. This can reduce your need for medicine to control your asthma. Anti-allergy medicine and allergy desensitization shots are sometimes useful for people with allergies.

Two kinds of medicines are often used for asthma-those used to relieve acute symptoms and those used on a long-term basis to control asthma.

• Fast-acting, inhaled bronchodilators are used to help open up airways to allow air to move more freely.

• Anti-inflammatory medicines, such as corticosteroids (steroids), are used every day on a long-term basis to help reduce the swelling of airways. These may be sprays (inhalers) or pills.

If you have mild asthma, you may use only a bronchodilator as needed to relieve your symptoms. If you have more severe asthma, you may need both kinds of medicines. It is important to use your medicines exactly as your doctor tells you.

Many people with moderate or severe asthma use a device called a peak flow meter at home to measure lung function. The peak flow meter can help warn of a possible asthma attack even before you notice symptoms. You can then stop the attack by taking your medicine right away. The meter can also tell you how well you are responding to medicine.

If you have asthma, talk to your doctor about a treatment plan. Your plan may include:

• regular checkups

• ways to avoid asthma triggers

• medicines and how to use them properly

• how and when to use a peak flow meter

• what to do in an emergency if your asthma gets very bad.