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Manage Your Asthma

Have asthma symptoms ever made you miss out on work, school, or a leisure activity? That's what can happen when asthma isn't well managed. To keep asthma from controlling your life, you need to manage your asthma every day.

These key guidelines can help you stay in control.

Work with your doctor

Following your doctor's advice is a very important part of managing your asthma. Your doctor will help you create two types of plans: an asthma self-management plan for daily control and an emergency plan for asthma attacks.

An asthma self-management plan includes:

• Making sure that your doctor knows all other medications that you may be taking
• Having regular check-ups
• Learning to use your medicine properly — and using it properly, every time.
• Telling your doctor about any problems you may have with your medicine.

Avoid asthma triggers

As part of your everyday asthma management, you'll need to know what sets off, or triggers, your symptoms. Then you can avoid or limit contact with these things as much as possible. Some examples include:

• Don't smoke or permit smoking in your home
• If cold air is a trigger for your symptoms, wear a scarf over your mouth and nose when the temperature falls
• Does exercise, or physical activity, pose problems? Since physical activity is important, don't stop being active, just ask your doctor about alternatives that can be less troublesome
• If pollen is a problem, stay indoors when the pollen count is high
• Reduce dust mites in bedding by washing blankets, sheets and pillows once weekly in hot water. Use special dust-proof covers on your mattress and pillows.

Help at hand: peak flow meter

How well are your lungs working? Knowing this answer is part of managing your asthma and you can find out with a hand-held device called a "peak flow meter."

You can use a peak flow meter at home, simply by taking a deep breath in and then exhaling hard into the meter. The device shows a number that indicates how fast your exhaled air is moving. You repeat this process each day for a few weeks, writing down your number each time. The highest number you record is your "personal best peak flow."

Once you know your personal best peak flow, you can compare future readings to that number to see how well your asthma is being controlled. The meter has another benefit: even before symptoms flare up, it can alert you to an oncoming asthma attack. Your doctor will advise you when and how to use your peak flow meter.

For a quick, easy-to-use way to keep track of your peak flow numbers, create your personalized Peak Flow Diary: click here.