Asthma - Wednesday, November 5, 2008 9:11 - 0 Comments

Treating an Asthma Attack: What Are the Options?

Asthma is a chronic condition that causes your airways to constrict, making it difficult to breathe. Asthma is a serious illness; it’s also very common, and millions of individuals throughout the world suffer from it. And the number of sufferers climbs continually.

There’s no cure for asthma, but many individuals with the condition can find relief for their symptoms. It can be managed to the place where they can go about their lives in a normal fashion without experiencing constant asthma symptoms.

Treating an Asthma Attack

Your best approach is to prevent an asthma attack from occurring in the first place. Learn which conditions set off an attack, and do your best to avoid them. However, there will still be times when an asthma attack is unavoidable. This means that learning to manage your asthma symptoms is vital.

Keep in mind that when it comes to asthma, not all attacks are the same. Your symptoms might be worse during some episodes than others. And in a severe asthma attack the airways can close up so much that not enough oxygen gets to the vital organs in the body. This is classified as a medical emergency. A severe asthma attack can even result in death. If you’re one of the millions of people who suffer from asthma, it’s important that you’re aware of the seriousness of this condition.

Medication

Typically, the most effective way to manage an asthma attack is with medication. It can help asthma sufferers keep their condition under control and ward off an attack before it becomes serious. Asthma remedies are taken either orally or inhaled as a vapor using a metered dose inhaler.

There are actually two different kinds of medication that can be used. Bronchodilators help by reducing spasms. Anti-inflammatory treatments work by reducing the inflammation in the airways. If your condition is severe, your physician might recommend that you use them both in combination.

These days there is a variety of prescription treatments that you can try:

*Accolade and Singulair, which are leukotriene inhibitors *long-acting bronchodilators such as Famoterol and Serevent, and *Aminophylline or Theophylline.

Visit your doctor to find out if these medications are right for you.