Using an asthma action plan is very important if your child has moderate to severe asthma or has had a serious asthma attack in the earlier period. Maintaining good everyday control is the solution to keeping symptoms under control and preventing attacks. Having a written plan makes it easier for you to determine whether your child’s asthma is under control and it lets you know precisely what steps to take when it isn’t. Since asthma varies from person to person, you’ll have to work with your doctor to build up a plan that’s adapted for your youngster. Take your asthma action plan to your doctor at your next visit for help with asthma. Your doctor can fill in the precise medications, amounts, and frequency, depending on your peak flow reading (whether green zone, yellow zone, or red zone).

Your asthma action plan should list your kid’s asthma medications and when to take them. Medications usually include daily control medications and as-needed, quick-relief medications such as inhaled albuterol. Make sure you know what medications you have on hand, where they are and how to use them. If your kid has a nebulizer to administer medication in spray form, the asthma action plan should include directions for when to use it.

Asthma action plan should also include a list of triggers that are responsible for asthma symptoms and how to stay away from them. Also it should contain a list of peak flow meter readings and zones based on the person’s personal best reading as well as a list of usual asthma symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, tightness in the chest, shortness of breath, and excess mucus production, and what you should do if these symptoms occur.

In addition your asthma action plan should contain the name and amount of the everyday medication that have to be taken even when your kid does not have asthma symptoms and the name and quantity of the quick-acting or rescue medication that must be taken when your child develop asthma symptoms.

Your asthma program should also contain the name and amount of the reliever medication that have to be taken when your child is having an asthma attack, emergency phone numbers and locations of emergency care and directions concerning when to get in touch with the doctor, whom to call if the doctor is unavailable, and a list of where to obtain emergency asthma treatment.

Your asthma action plan has to be reviewed with your doctor at least once a year. Changes in the plan might be desirable because of changes in peak flow numbers or the medications your kid is taking. Always keep your plan where it can be easily found by you or members of your family.

In recent years environmental researchers have done studies that show that in most cases the air we breathe indoors is more polluted then the air outside. There are a few reasons for this; more energy efficient homes, more synthetic materials used throughout our homes, and the chemicals in many of the cleaners used daily.

Because of this increasing indoor pollution people who suffer from asthma are at a greater risk of having an attack inside. One way to solve this problem is to filter, or purify the indoor air. Pollen, dirt, dust, pet dander, mold spores, and bacteria can all trigger an asthma attack and the best way to deal with these airborne threats is with an air filter.

There are many reasons that asthmatics need clean air to combat the effects of their condition. An understanding of the disease helps to clarify just why this is true.

Asthma affects between 3 to 5 percent of the general population at one time in their life. With the exception of newborns it affects all ages and genders equally. It is a condition that causes the bronchioles and bronchi, (the airways in the lungs), to narrow, restricting airflow and causing difficulty breathing.

The symptoms of asthma are pretty well known; trouble breathing, inability to catch ones breath, and a wheezing cough are the main signs of an asthmatic attack. Most asthmatics seem to experience more severe symptoms at night. The severest of attacks cause a sharp increase in respiration rate and a rapid pulse. Unable to speak the asthmatic may also exhibit cyanosis in which the skin starts to turn blue due to the lack of oxygen.

Pollutants and other foreign substances in the air are the main cause of an asthmatic attack. Bronchiole hypersensitivity to these substances is the main trigger point for this disease. Just about any airborne pollutant can trigger an attack; vehicle exhaust, smoke, smog, animal fur and dander, tobacco smoke, ozone, perfumes, and the list goes on. Because of the increasing amounts of airborne pollution both indoors and out asthma is becoming increasingly common around the world.

While steroid inhalers provide sufferers quick relief from the affects of this condition, avoiding the airborne triggers is an important part of the daily management of asthma. For indoor air an air purifier can significantly reduce the amount of irritants an asthmatic is exposed on a daily basis, helping decrease the number and severity of reactions they might have.

There is one type of air purifier that someone with asthma should avoid; ozone producing air cleaners are not recommended as the ozone they produce may trigger an attack.

Preventing asthma attacks with an air purifier is a good way to manage the affects airborne pollutants have on this condition. There are a wide variety of filters on the market today, from single room units to whole house systems, so be sure to research the choices thoroughly to choose the right filtration option for your needs.

The health benefits of the Omega 3 essential fatty acids are now firmly established, particularly the heart health benefits of increasing your intake of the Omega 3 fats. But do these health benefits include improving the outcome for someone suffering from asthma?

It’s clear from the evidence that most of us are now eating way too little fish. Some decades ago fish made up a large proportion of our diet and that is now not the case.

In fact now fish is making up less and less of the average diet.

This presents a health problem, because fish is packed with the Omega 3 essential fatty acids DHA (Docosahexaenoic Acid) and EPA (Eicosapentaenoic Acid). Research has clearly shown that this reduction in our intake of the Omega 3 fatty acids DHA and EPA had negative health consequences.

The negative health consequences of too little of the Omega 3 fatty acids in our diet can include increasing our risk of dying from heart attack.

The Omega 3 fats are well known as being effective anti-inflammatories. An anti-inflammatory is a substance which helps fight inflammation in our body.

Asthma is a health condition directly linked to inflammation. Therefore it would seem to make sense that an anti-inflammatory may well help reduce the symptoms of asthma or reduce its likelihood.

And in fact there are now studies suggesting that this is the case. A study in Denmark for instance demonstrated that women who take Omega 3 supplements during pregnancy reduced the risk of asthma in the child born as a result of that pregnancy.

And other studies are also supporting the conclusion that there is a link between more Omega 3 and less asthma. Of course as is always the case some studies are not finding this conclusion.

So it’s not yet 100 percent clear whether increasing your intake of the Omega 3 essential fatty acids will help prevent asthma or reduce its symptoms, though there are studies suggesting this. What is clear however is that there are a firmly established range of health benefits from fish oil supplementation, fish oil being the primary source of the Omega 3 fats.

Anyone who suffers from asthma may well find an improvement in their asthma from increasing their intake of the Omega 3 fats. Or they may not. Either way there are so many other health benefits from getting more fish oil in your diet that everyone, including people suffering from asthma, should be increasing their intake of the Omega 3 essential fatty acids.

How to do this? Why not just eat more fish? Well of course you can, however fish is becoming extremely expensive and it is now well known that much fish is contaminated with Mercury and other toxins.

The good news is that there are extremely high quality Omega 3 supplements on the market that are much more cost-effective to take every day, and if you choose the right ones are completely free of any contamination.