Helping your Asthma

Steps to getting help before an Asthma attack

Asthma being a chronic, inflammatory lung disease, it is important to quickly seek out "help for your asthma". Getting help for asthma starts with recognizing the history of your asthma attacks and what triggers these attacks. The individual needs to recognize the subtle symptoms prior to an asthma attack. Some subtle symptoms range from irritability, scratchy throat, dry mouth, or just being tired. If you measure your peak flow on a consistent basis, a tell tale sign you could be heading for an asthma attack is a drop in your peak flow meter reading. You need to identify and recognize your "triggers for asthma" in order to help asthma before an attack occurs. Although, these don’t help you with your asthma they can help you prepare mentally for the possibilities of being faced with an asthma attack.

Seeking out help should always start with your doctor. However, many people not only have to deal with seeking help for their asthma, they have to deal with the monetary side of dealing with Asthma, this Is why prior to seeing your doctor you should contact your insurance company to see what they cover and more importantly what they don’t cover. The simple fact is if your doctor prescribes a medication that you can not afford and your insurance company will not cover you most likelywill not purchase the medicine or take the medicine as perscribed. This also causes unnecessary stress on the individual and does little to help their asthma. It is better to obtain medical coverage information related for helping your asthma before you ever visit your doctor. The point is when you finally sit down with your doctor to discuss the maintenance of your asthma or how to help asthma you will already know what is covered under your insurance.

Questions you should ask your insurance provider prior to visiting your doctor. Is there classes provided to help deal with your Asthma? Does the provider recommend a doctor that specializes in helping asthma patients? If the doctor suggests you purchase a peek flow meter will the insurance cover this cost? What asthma medication does the insurance cover? Will they cover brand name drugs or do they just allow generic medications treating asthma. Will the generic drugs have the same effect to help asthma? What are the generic medications covered by the insurance’s pharmacy? Additionally you will want to know how often I can refill my prescriptions. Does the prescription plan allow you buy 30, 60 or 90 day supplies? The benefit of purchasing your prescriptions based on 90 day supply is the individual only has to worry about purchasing medications 4 times a year. Whether it be singulair,advair or another form of asthma medication it still helps to have a supply available.

To help asthma there are some basic lifestyle steps which can be completed. One of the first steps to help asthma is to agree on a treatment plan with your doctor. The second is to continue to follow the plan you established with the doctor by routinely taking medications. Third, if you smoke then immediately stop, if you are around people who smoke you need to come to some kind of consensus to stop or briefly remove themselves by letting them know this does not help asthma.. Fourth, as with asthma prevention the best way to help asthma is to keep your surroundings dust free. Fifth, practicing controlled breathing when you have not having an attack. Finally, another way to help with asthma is to avoid allergens or a typical asthmatic trigger which of course does not help asthma.