Asthma is a chronic lung disease that inflames and narrows your bronchial airways. If you are experiencing a flare up, you may hear a whistling sound when you breathe. You may also experience tightness in your chest, shortness of breath, and coughing.
The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute has an explanation of what asthma is here. The National Institute of Health has also published a guide to the management and diagnosis of asthma that is free and available to the public.
If you are experiencing symptoms, you should take your fast-acting asthma medication for relief. Most of the time, your symptoms will start to ease after about 20 minutes. If they do not, or if they continue to intensify, then you are having an asthma attack and require immediate treatment by medical professionals.
There is no cure for asthma, which impacts more than 25 million people in the United States. Even if you are feeling fine, you still have asthma and need to take proper care of yourself. Many people with asthma take daily medicine that helps control symptoms. It is important to understand that this “control” medicine is not helpful if you are experiencing symptoms or having a flare up. In those instances, you need to take what is called your “rescue” medicine.
People with asthma should follow their asthma action plan. An asthma action plan should be created with the input of your doctor who will review numbers you record from your peak flow meter. A peak flow meter is a simple tool that records your ability to forcefully blow air from your lungs.
If you follow your plan, and monitor your health, you should also be able to quickly detect when your asthma is getting worse. Common symptoms that could indicate a worsening of asthma include declining peak flow meter numbers; an increase in sick time off of work because of asthma flare ups; and more frequent use of your “rescue” medicine.
If you have asthma, it is important that you continually monitor your health and partner with your doctor or other health care providers to keep your asthma action plan up to date.
Until next week, Stay Well!