Inhalers for Asthma Questions and Answers

Not all patients deal with the same conditions from asthma as others. Knowing your options for medication can be crucial in what may benefit you and your condition.
The types and doses of asthma medications will depend on a few deciding factors including:

– Your age
– Your symptoms
– The severity of your asthma
– Medication side effects

Asthma can change over time, working closely with your asthma doctor to help track your symptoms and adjust your asthma medications will benefit you in the long run to stop constant asthma attacks.
There are several different types of medications you can use for asthma, they are:

Long-Term Asthma Control Medications
Long-term asthma control medications are taken regularly to help control chronic symptoms and prevent future asthma attacks. You can use inhaled corticosteroids, leukotriene modifiers, long-acting beta-agonists, theophylline, or a combination of inhalers that offer both corticosteroid and long-acting beta-agonists.

Quick-Relief Medications or Rescue Medications
Quick-relief medications are taken as needed for any rapid or short-term relief of your asthma symptoms. Often this is used to prevent or treat an asthma attack. You can use short-acting beta-agonists, ipratropium, oral and intravenous corticosteroids.
Medications for allergy-induced Asthma
Medications for allergy-induced asthma are taken regularly or as needed to help reduce your flare-ups from your body’s sensitivity to a particular allergy-causing substance. Many use allergy shots or allergy medications to help control this.

Biologics
Biologics are taken with control medications to help stop any underlying biological responses that cause inflammation in your lungs. Many use omalizumab, mepolizumab, benralizumab, or reslizumab to help.
The most common asthma inhalers for long-term control for your asthma symptoms include:

– Fluticasone (Flovent HFA)
– Budesonide (Pulmicort Flexhaler)
– Mometasone (Asmanex Twisthaler)
– Beclomethasone (Qvar RediHaler)
– Ciclesonide (Alvesco)

The many advantages of using an inhaler include how portable the medication is, as you can take your inhaler almost anywhere you are going and store it in your purse, pocket, backpack, etc. On top of being portable, it also offers convenience; you will be able to get your recommended dosage for your asthma relief without having to worry about constantly running to the doctors for pill refills or other items. As well, most inhalers now offer a dosage counter, which helps you know if you inhaled the proper dosage each time.

A few other benefits include:

– Reduced frequency of your asthma attacks
– Decreased usage of quick-relief or rescue relief inhalers
– Improved lung function
– Reduced emergency room visits and hospitalizations for life-threatening asthma attacks

An autohaler is a breath-actuated inhaler that helps to automatically releases the correct dosage of medication during inhalation through the mouthpiece and helps the patient to overcome the need to coordinate the operation of the device.

While an inhaler is conventional and well-known as you press down and breathe in the metered dosage of the medication.

Nebulizers are powered devices that turn into liquid asthma medication that can be easily inhaled with a mist format. They can either be offered as electric or battery-powered and are often available in portable or tabletop versions for the convenience of our patients.

The air compression helps to convert the medication which is liquid into a mist, as it travels through the tube to the mouthpiece that is connected, and to inhaled by the patient. You can also find some nebulizers in face masks that are to be placed over your mouth and nose, this particular method is often used for children as it’s helpful to administer the medication this way.

Inhalers are small handheld and portable medication devices that deliver your asthma medication. This is one of the more common types of medication delivery options. These inhalers need to be used properly, as improper usage can make respiratory care ineffective and cause wheezing or other issues.

For more information, please contact us or book an online appointment to visit one of our clinics. We serve patients from Lawrenceville GA, Atlanta GA, Conyers GA, Suwanee GA, Duluth GA, Grayson GA, Decatur GA, Brookhaven GA, Lithonia GA and Covington GA.