If you’ve got asthma, you know how debilitating it can be.
Asthma attacks can be terrifying and harmful, no matter how bad your condition is. When they strike, it’s important to have the right treatment to get you feeling normal again. Finding the right medication might take a bit of research, as well as some trial and error.
In this post, we’re going to look at 3 different asthma treatments and help you figure out which one will work. It’s important to discuss your asthma with your doctor and develop a system that works for you, but read on and you’ll see which treatments might be best to try.
- Inhalers
Inhalers come in several types, depending on what you’re trying to accomplish with them. Quick-relief inhalers are the more common ones, which are fast-acting on acute asthma symptoms, like wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness.
Anyone that suffers from asthma should have a quick-relief inhaler but if you’ve got just a mild form of it, then it may be all you need to cure your symptoms. For those with longer-lasting and more persistent forms of asthma, a long-acting inhaler, in addition to a quick-relief, can help you mitigate long-term symptoms.
When you frequently suffer from asthma symptoms, you may end up with a steroid inhaler, which helps to reduce airway inflammation. There are also long-lasting muscarinic antagonist inhalers, like Spiriva, used for bronchospasms associated with asthma.
- Oral Meds
If you’re averse to taking an inhaler more than in cases of emergency, then you may prefer oral medications as a long-term treatment for your asthma. Leukotriene modifiers are the most common oral medication for asthma; it’s taken daily and attacks leukotrienes, which cause inflammation that restricts your airways.
Oral corticosteroids, on the other hand, are pills that quickly reduce inflammation in the case of an asthma attack. They could also be prescribed for long-term treatment, but because they affect the whole body and not just the lungs, they tend to have more severe side effects. Some of these include headaches, weight gain, agitation, and other behavioral problems, as well as the risk of heart issues.
- Injections
People with year-round allergies that cause asthma could end up getting biological therapy via injection to help attack the underlying issues that cause the breathing problems. Injections are the most severe type of allergic asthma treatment.
Immunomodulators will target parts of your immune response to inflammation-causing allergens and gradually modify them to reduce your symptoms. Immunotherapy will introduce small amounts of specific allergens through injection to build up your body’s immunity. It can take a number of treatments, which might spread out over a year, for you to notice improvements in your symptoms with immunotherapy.
Talk to your Doctor About Asthma Treatments
Now that you understand some of the more widespread asthma treatments, you can talk to your doctor about your symptoms and figure out which one is best for you. A medical professional will more than likely try out inhalers and oral medication before jumping to injections, but being open to all treatment types will tackle your asthma problem faster.
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