Living With Asthma

You can control the impact asthma has on your life by following your asthma action plan consistently. A management plan can help you reduce inflammation to decrease the severity, frequency, and duration of asthma attacks. Following your action plan may be hard because of the many different factors involved.

To help yourself remain consistent in following your asthma action plan:

• Educate yourself about asthma. By doing so, you can learn to control symptoms and reduce the risk of asthma attacks. This questionnaire can help you find out what you already know about asthma and what you may need to discuss with your doctor.
• Understand your barriers and the solutions to overcome them. What may prevent you from following your plans? These may be physical barriers, such as living far from your doctor or pharmacy, or emotional barriers, such as having undiscussed fears about the condition or unrealistic expectations. Discuss your barriers with your doctor, and work to find solutions.
• Develop goals that relate to your quality of life. Being able to measure your success gives you greater motivation to follow asthma plans consistently. Decide what you want to be able to do. Have nights free of symptoms? Be able to exercise on a regular basis? Feel secure in knowing you can deal with an asthma attack? Work with your doctor to see if your goals are realistic and how to meet them.

Your asthma action plan generally consists of the following:

• Seeing your doctor regularly to monitor your asthma. The frequency of checkups depends on how well your asthma is controlled. Checkups are recommended every 1 to 6 months. Bring your asthma plan to appointments.
• Following your asthma action plan. The plan describes which medicines to take every day to help delay the long-term effects of asthma. The action plan also contains the steps to treat asthma attacks. It helps you better control your asthma attacks by keeping you aware of symptoms and of how to make quick decisions about medicine and treatment. See an example of an asthma action plan(What is a PDF document?). You may also have an asthma diary where you record your peak expiratory flow, symptoms, and triggers of asthma attacks. This tool can help you manage your asthma too.

For more information on how to monitor and treat asthma, see:

Asthma: Taking Charge of Your Asthma.

Asthma: Using an Asthma Action Plan.