The first step towards asthma care is to know and avoid your asthma triggers. If avoidance doesn’t work, you may need asthma medicine to help control your symptoms. Asthma is a long-term medical condition that affects the airways of the lungs. The goal of asthma treatment is to control the lung disease. Good asthma care will prevent troublesome symptoms such as wheezing, coughing, and shortness of breath. It helps your lungs to function well, let your body maintain normal activity levels, and allow you to sleep the whole night.
Also Read: Asthma and Allergies: What’s the Connection?
Asthma Management
For a good asthma control, treatment with medications is required. The right asthma medication will depend on a variety of factors, including your age, health condition, triggers, and response to the pharmaceutical drugs. The medications help your asthma to keep in under control. Your health care provider can prescribe the medication that’s best suits you. Knowing what medications are available on the shelves of medical stores can help you with your healthcare expert to create an action plan (treatment plant). An asthma treatment plan can help you manage your asthma symptoms. Read more about the type of asthma medications available in the pharmaceutical industry, what they are, how they work and are the possible side effects.
Medications for Asthma Control
People with asthma rely on two different types of medications that allow them to breath easier. If you have asthma, it is necessary to know about such medicines, so that you and your health care provider can choose the right one for your condition. Most people with asthma take quick-relief and long-term/controller medications. Moreover, many inhaled medications have also been discovered to keep your airways healthy, even if you do not develop symptoms. Medications that are meant to be inhaled tend to directly deliver to airways to allow them to open and relax. These types of medication are less likely to cause side effects as compared to others that are meant to be taken orally or intravenously.
Inhalers
There are several inhaled medications available to make the breathing process easier in asthma patients. Your health care specialist is the best-qualified person to determine the best one to improve your lung function. One of the common classes of inhaled medication is topical corticosteroids, which are known for their anti-inflammatory properties. These anti-inflammatory medications have been used successfully to treat asthma for more than 50 years. Inhaled corticosteroids are effective in reducing many forms of airway inflammation such as swelling, tightening of your bronchial tubes, and swelling. These medications are must even if you feel well because there are capable of preventing yours from having an asthma attack as well as prevent your symptoms from becoming worse. Some of the commonly inhaled corticosteroids are ciclesonide, triamcinolone, flunisolide, budesonide, beclomethasone, and fluticasone.
Quick-relief medications or quick-relief bronchodilators
Bronchodilators are considered as non-steroid medications that are helpful in opening your airways by relaxing small muscles that tighten them. These medications are known for their rapid action; they immediately relieve your asthma symptoms. Quick-relief bronchodilators include levalbuterol, ipratropium, albuterol, and terbutaline. These drugs make you feel better and help you to breathe easier in the short term, but these drug types would not solve the underlying problems that lead your asthma symptoms to appear. These medications can also be called as rescue medications. A quick acting drug relieves the squeezing of muscles around the airways, and it starts working within 15 minutes of use. If you need to use these rescue drugs on a regular basis that is more than two twice a week, your asthma symptoms will not be controlled. In such case, visit your health care provider to change your treatment.
Also Read: Quick-Relief Asthma Medications
Long-acting bronchodilators
These asthma medications are used to provide asthma control for a long term. It works to control asthma symptoms instead of quick relieving the symptoms. These medications include formoterol and salmeterol. These are extremely beneficial in preventing asthma symptoms rather than treating sudden asthma attacks. These should be used along with inhaled medicines for long-term control of symptoms. A long-term controller medication works by preventing swelling and mucus build up in the airways. It makes patient’s airways less sensitive to triggers. It should be used daily.
