Asthma medications explained

Asthma medications include many different varieties

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the lungs and the airways. It is characterized by the presence of decreased airflow from time to time, production of mucus and cough. Thus, the main aim of the medications used to control this disease should be to reduce the inflammation within the respiratory system and maintain the patency of the air passages without allowing them to narrow or be blocked with mucus from time to time. However, there isn’t a medication that can completely wipe off asthma yet, and it is essential that those who are suffering from asthma understand and utilize the most appropriate medications without missing too many doses throughout their lives.

Among the medications that are being used to treat asthmatic patients, the two main categories are the anti-inflammatory medications and the bronchodilators. Following is a brief description of each of these medications.

Anti-Inflammatory medications

Given the fact that Asthma is a chronic disease, which can affect a person throughout his or her life, anti-inflammatory medications are perhaps the most important among asthma medications. The reason being that anti-inflammatory medications are capable of reducing the sensitivity of the airway lining and therefore the airways will not be as responsive as it was to any allergen that might otherwise cause an exacerbation. In addition, it can reduce the swelling and the excess secretion of mucus within the airways as well. Corticosteroid is one such medication belonging to the group anti-inflammatory medications.

Bronchodilators

These medications act on the muscle lining which controls the diameter of the airway lumen and will be able to relax the said muscles to expand any narrowed respiratory passages. At the same time, bronchodilators will also reduce the amount of mucus produced within the airway cavity and therefore will further improve the air passage into the lungs. However, bronchodilators are not able to prevent an asthmatic attack but its usefulness is when the symptoms are emerging or when one expects the symptoms to manifest after certain actions or events. For instance, taking bronchodilators will enable a person to resist becoming breathless when engaging in exercises. At times, it will be useful if someone is aware of a particular trigger and there is no way to avoid the same. However, most importantly, bronchodilators are essential during an asthmatic attack in which other medications will not be much of a use to save the life.

Apart from the above categories of asthma medications, there are new types of asthma medications, which might not fall into any one of these categories or may have mixed effects from both categories of medicines. In any event, even within the mentioned categories, there are different types of long-acting and short-acting medications, which should be used with the guidance of a medical professional.

In the following blog entries, I will deal with different types of asthma medications, which you can use to control your symptoms and to prevent a future asthmatic attack.