How can I take control of my asthma?
Having an action plan can help you to keep your asthma symptoms under control. Keren Bakal, MD, from Summit Medical Group, offers tips to help you manage your asthma.
Transcript
The mainstay really is making sure you're taking that inhaler every day, keeping an eye on your symptoms, and calling your doctor if you're
if you're concerned. [MUSIC PLAYING]
What I recommend for my patients to keep their asthma under control, first of all, is that they take their inhaler daily and consistently, they try not to miss doses.
Second of all, avoiding some of the things that are going to trigger your asthma-- some of those things, we can't control.
But some things, for example, getting sick-- a lot of people, when they get sick, their asthma flares up. I recommend all my patients get the flu shot.
I don't want them ending up with a flu, which can severely exacerbate their asthma. Making sure you stay up-to-date with your whooping cough
vaccine, which is supposed to be given every 10 years. I usually lay out an asthma action plan with my patients.
For everybody, it's different. Generally, you want to have a plan for the person in terms of a day-to-day type of situation.
And you can see sometimes even online, some of these asthma action plans printed out. And usually, it'll say green, yellow, and red.
So the red line is when you're really not feeling well, really short of breath. And then you should really pick up the phone
and call your doctor. Also, the other thing we use with the asthma action plan for some people is something called a peak flow.
So a peak flow meter actually is a little device that measures how much volume you can exhale when you try
to exhale as fast as you can. And for every person, that number is different. Let's say when you're having a good day your number is 400.
So you're not sure, you're feeling a little bit off. You use your peak flow meter and it says 200. You know that there is a problem.
And I always tell my patients if they're not sure, they're feeling not well, to just pick up the phone can call me. [AUDIO LOGO]
asthma
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