There are few ways that you can use to control asthma and monitor the effectiveness of a prescribed treatment.
By maintaining your health, you will be able to stop the attack on time, avoiding the need for urgent hospitalization. Your doctor will help you create a treatment program and teach you everything you need.
The daily treatment program describes which medications and when you need to take. As a controlling medication, a corticosteroid is most often used. Take your medication daily, and this will reduce the swelling of the airways and prevent seizures.
In the treatment program can be:
- List of asthma pathogens that exacerbate your asthma symptoms. Try to avoid contact with pathogens and asthma will be controlled.
- The goals of treatment. Personal goals can motivate you to follow a treatment program. For example, goals may include – getting rid of the symptoms of nocturnal asthma or stress asthma.
- Diary. In the diary, record the results of the pneumotachometer, which symptoms worsened, a possible reason for this, which medications you took.
The treatment program will help you make quick decisions about treatment in case of exacerbation of the disease and the need to prevent an attack.
The program will tell:
- How to find out when asthma is out of control, and what measures to take to prevent an impending asthma attack.
- What to do if the attack is very serious, and where to turn for emergency help.
You and your doctor work together to create a treatment program. The treatment program describes the areas that are based on the indicators of the pneumotachometer or the symptoms.
The doctor will teach you everything you need to treat and use the treatment program.
This includes:
- How to use a pneumotachometer to measure maximum expiratory flow rate. The maximum expiratory flow rate indicates how open the airway is at the moment. The decrease in performance indicates that the airways narrow and the exacerbation of asthma symptoms is approaching. At this point, you need to start treatment to prevent an attack.
- How to use dosed inhaler. Using a separator with a metered-dose inhaler greatly facilitates the flow of medication into the lungs. But to get the maximum effect, you need to be able to properly use the inhaler. If you are unsure how to do this correctly, ask your doctor. Your doctor will also tell you if you can use a separator with your type of inhaler.
- What symptoms to pay attention to. Symptoms such as wheezing, coughing or fast fatigue during exercise can mean poorly controlled asthma. The appearance of these symptoms may mean that you need to see a doctor and that he adjusts the treatment program.
- How to determine, avoid contact and reduce the number of causative agents of asthma.
During an asthma attack, the airways swell and contract. This makes breathing very difficult. Asthma is a disease that lasts a lifetime, but it may not affect your life. If you take care of your health, you can lead an active and fulfilling life.
There are two steps to controlling asthma:
- Permanent asthma control. You and your health care provider can put together a treatment program that will help reduce the swelling of the airways and prevent asthma attacks. A daily action plan will also help you monitor your asthma and see how effective your treatment is.
- If seizures occur, stop them immediately. A treatment program will help prevent and stop them.
If you or your child have recently been diagnosed with asthma, it probably seems that you need to remember and learn so much. But all you need to do to control asthma is not so difficult to remember and do. A little practice and it will become part of your daily activities.
