How to Control Asthma Symptoms

Although there's no cure for asthma, there are many things you can do to manage your asthma and keep symptoms to a minimum. Avoiding triggers and modifying your lifestyle will help.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Bandannas
• Silk Scarf
• Caffeinated Beverages
• Asthma Medications
• Relaxation Tapes
• Notebooks
• Pens
• Pollen/dust Masks

1. Follow your doctor's medical advice, and don't discontinue your medications on your own. Undergo allergy tests as recommended by your doctor and comply with the follow-up treatment.

2. Keep a notebook and write down what you were doing right before you developed asthma symptoms, no matter how mild they were, each time they occur. Look for a pattern.

3. Stay away from any external trigger or allergy that your observations uncover or that tests reveal, whether that means dust that gets stirred up from cleaning, animal dander you're exposed to when riding a horse, or even your bedding if you find you can't breathe upon waking.

4. Avoid cigarette smoke, gasoline and paint fumes, perfume, aftershave, cold air, and pollution, including smoke from a wood stove or campfire. These are all irritants to someone with asthma.

5. Do your best to prevent colds. Stay away from anyone with an upper respiratory infection. Many patients say their symptoms started after a cold.

6. Control stress. Muscle tension and shallow breathing encourage asthma attacks. Practice relaxation techniques. Take yoga classes. Participate in activities that help you relax.

7. Drink a moderate amount of caffeinated coffee, tea or cola, unless otherwise ordered by your doctor. Caffeine, related to theophylline, is mildly therapeutic for asthma. However, too much caffeine can aggravate it.

8. Take prescribed asthma medication, both oral and inhalant, as recommended by your doctor. Bronchodilators and other drugs prescribed by your doctor relax smooth bronchial muscle tissue, decrease inflammation and help keep airways open.

9. Exercise regularly per your doctor's recommendation. Proper use of prescription medication can decrease or eliminate asthma that is induced by exercise.

10. Learn how to breathe from your diaphragm and purse-lip breathe whenever your breathing feels labored, tight or fast, or when you feel stressed. To breathe from your diaphragm, lie down or sit in front of a mirror. Put one hand on your stomach, the other on your chest. Take a deep breath through your nose. Your stomach should rise under your hand each time you breathe; your chest should not rise. To purse-lip breathe, close your mouth and inhale through your nose. Purse your lips as if you're going to blow out a candle. Exhale slowly with as little force as possible. Your exhale should last twice as long as your inhale. Don't hold your breath between inhalation and exhalation.

Tips & Warnings

• Get a flu shot if you have asthma.

• Talk to your doctor about getting a peak flow meter, which can help you monitor your asthma.

• For more information about asthma, including breathing exercises, call (800) 7-ASTHMA. Or call the American Lung Association at (800) LUNG-USA.

• This information is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment.