Make every breath count

Do you get short of breath during or after exercise? Do you wake up at night wheezing, coughing or short of breath? Do you even miss school or work because of asthma, or does asthma cause you to limit your normal daily activities?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then chances are your asthma can be much better managed. Evidence indicates that many people with asthma do not manage their asthma properly when their symptoms worsen.

Furthermore, over 50% of people admitted to hospital with a serious asthma attack have had alarming symptoms for at least a week before admission – these symptoms should have been effectively treated much sooner.

Having a personal Asthma Action Plan is the first step to taking control of your asthma. If you have asthma but not an action plan, do yourself a favour: see your GP and get an action plan quick smart. This is the main message to have come from National Asthma Week, October 12-18. Studies show that people with a plan have fewer attacks, fewer days off work and fewer hospital admissions.

The Asthma Foundation in Australia can explain more about the benefits of proper planning with asthma. You can call them on 1800 645 130. The correct selection and use of medicines is also of critical importance to the satisfactory management of asthma. So if you, or one or more of your children, have asthma call in and talk with your pharmacist. There are also some good tips on how to best manage asthma on the recently revised Self Care fact cards – Asthma and Asthma Medicines.

In people with asthma the airways are super-sensitive. They react to certain trigger factors, becoming inflamed and swollen. This results in chest tightness, breathlessness, wheeze, cough and the increased production of mucous. All of these symptoms may occur but sometimes cough and wheeze might be the only noticeable symptoms.

Trigger factors can be many and varied. Allergies – to substances such as dust and dust mites, plants, pollens, animal dander and mould – commonly cause problems. Some medicines and food and drink additives can trigger asthma symptoms. Exposure to substances in the atmosphere (i.e., environmental pollutants like cigarette smoke) or in the workplace (perhaps certain chemicals) can also trigger or worsen asthma. As well, infections, exercise and emotional stress can be trigger factors. More details about triggers are given on the Asthma Fact Card.

What medicines we use to manage asthma and how we use them is most important. For most people with asthma the regular use of preventer medicines is necessary (Flixotide, Intal, Pulmicort, Qvar and Tilade are examples).To treat an acute attack of asthma, the so-called short-acting bronchodilators (reliever medications like Airomir, Asmol, Bricanyl and Ventolin), are the medicines of choice.

Long-acting bronchodilators know as symptom controllers (medicines such as Oxis or Serevent), are now available, and the combination of these with the preventers has been proven to be even more effective in controlling symptoms with the convenience of one simpleto- use inhaler device. These most recently developed products go under the brand names of Seretide and Symbicort.

All of these medicines are available in various forms of inhalers or “puffers”. Prevention medicines in tablet form (Accolate and Singulair) are now also available and have been shown to be useful, particularly in children, when the asthma trigger factors are of the allergic type.

The use of some puffers can be made all the easier and more effective with the use of a spacer device.