Can medication help?

In addition to avoiding situations that trigger your symptoms, you may need to take medicine to prevent asthma attacks—or lessen their severity. Because doctors now understand that an asthma sufferer's lungs are inflamed even when no symptoms are present, drugs that reduce inflammation often are used to control asthma. Other medicines that open up the airways can be used after an attack has begun or, if exercise is a trigger, before you exercise.

You may also use a peak flow meter to monitor the condition of your airways. When you blow into this device, it measures the speed of the air coming out of your lungs. This "early warning system" tells you when your airways are closing down so that you can use medication to head off an attack.