Overview

Asthma is a health condition that causes your airways to narrow and the lining to swell and produce extra mucus. All these things make it difficult to breathe properly and can cause wheezing and shortness of breath. 

While asthma symptoms can be mild for some people, for others it can cause major difficulties during day-to-day activities and can even be life-threatening. Asthma can’t be cured, but symptoms can be managed if you follow your treatment plan closely.

At Apex Allergy and Asthma, Mark C. Stahl, DO, and the rest of our team are experts in helping manage asthma and severe asthma attacks. Because having a treatment plan in place is so vital in preventing asthma attacks, we want to give you some guidelines to follow that should help you in lowering the number of asthma flare-ups you experience.

1. Know your triggers

It’s vital that you know what triggers an asthma attack for you. Common things that cause asthma attacks include:

• Air pollution
• Exercise
• Pets
• Dust mites
• Allergies
• Viruses
• Cold air

These triggers can set off your asthma, which is why it’s so important to take the proper steps to identify them so you can do your best to avoid them. You can do this by keeping a diary of things in your environment that set off your asthma. You can also be tested for allergies so you can know specifically what might be causing the flare-ups of your symptoms.

2. Take medication

At our practice, we offer two kinds of medications: short-acting and long-acting. Short-acting medications like albuterol rescue inhalers are fast-acting and open up your airways during an asthma attack. Long-acting medications – such as inhaled corticosteroids – are meant to treat airway inflammation to reduce asthma attacks.

3. Utilize immunotherapy

About 50% of asthma in adults and 80% of asthma in kids will be triggered by allergies. Allergy shots, or immunotherapy, may be a good option to consider. This works to limit how your body reacts to certain allergens by exposing your body to small amounts of them. By injecting these allergens into your body, over time, your body will stop reacting so aggressively to them which, in turn, could limit your asthma attacks. 

4. Get vaccinated

Having asthma puts you at a much higher risk of developing complications from the flu. You may end up getting pneumonia or struggle with severe asthma symptoms for weeks on end. 

This is why it’s so important to get your flu vaccination each year to prevent your asthma from getting worse from the flu. Also, talk to your doctor about which pneumonia vaccine may be right for you.

5. Follow your asthma action plan

Your asthma action plan includes what medications you take and what to do if you have an asthma attack. Make sure to always take your medications as prescribed even when you feel fine, and always keep a rescue inhaler with you. 

If you start to have an asthma attack, your plan will tell you what to do and when to contact us.

If you suffer from asthma and need more ways to help manage your asthma symptoms or prevent asthma attacks, contact our office located in San Antonio, Texas, today. Give us a call at (210) 490-2051 or use our online booking tool to schedule an appointment with us.