Planning is useful, regardless of whether it’s making a shopping checklist or planning a fire escape strategy. Planning can even save your life.
This is true for asthma, which is a chronic condition that can inflame and narrow the airways. It can cause people to feel like they are breathing through straws. You must pay attention to asthma control every day. Most people with asthma can manage their symptoms and avoid an attack by working with a healthcare provider.
You and your doctor can collaborate on six actions that will make breathing easier if you have asthma.
* Use inhaled corticosteroids to control asthma if you have persistent asthma. Your doctor will advise you on the best treatment.
* Use a written action plan to highlight two things: 1) what to do daily to prevent attacks, and 2) how to handle symptoms or asthma attacks.
* Assess asthma severity at the initial visit to determine what treatment to start to get your asthma under control.
* Assess and monitor how well controlled your asthma is at regular visits. To keep your asthma under control, your doctor may have to adjust your medication.
* Schedule follow-up visits at periodic intervals, and at least every six months.
* Avoid or control environmental exposures such as allergens or irritants that worsen your asthma
These actions are based upon guidelines for improving asthma control and care from National Asthma Education and Prevention Programs (NAEPP), which is coordinated by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institutes (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health.
“Making sure that asthma is under control is not just a daily effort, it’s a team effort,”James P. Kiley (Ph.D.), director of NHLBI’s Division of Lung Diseases. “Patients, families, health care providers, school personnel and others need to work together to help all Americans with asthma live to their fullest.”
The NAEPP encourages asthma sufferers to create an asthma action plan and work with their health care providers to do so.
Remember the six other steps: Your healthcare provider, your family, and you can work together to control your asthma.
Visit www.asthma.org for a detailed asthma action plan. www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/prof/lung/asthma/naci/news/world-asthma-day.htm.
