What makes asthma worse

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Call your doctor or a hospital emergency room for advice today. Start taking an oral steroid medicine or increase the dose. Call your doctor now! If you can't reach your doctor, go to a hospital emergency room. Call your doctor at any time if you have any of the following problems: Your asthma symptoms get worse even though you're taking oral steroids or Inhaled quick-relief medicine isn't helping you for as long as four hours or Your PEF stays at 50 percent of your personal best or gets even lower even though you're using your action plan.

Where can I find out more about asthma? You can find out more about asthma by telephoning or writing to the following groups: American Lung Association Telephone to find the local office nearest you : LUNG-USA , or check your local telephone directory Internet address: www.

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Earn up to 6 CME credits per issue. Since these often come from plant or other natural sources, they can be kinder to your airways. If you make these tweaks and are still struggling with your asthma when you clean, Dr. They may recommend you take additional steps to keep your asthma under control while cleaning, like wearing a face mask since the act of cleaning kicks up dust.

Casciari says. Driving with the windows down on a warm day feels amazing, but it can set you up for an asthma attack if pollen is your trigger, Ryan Thomas, M. Kleva says. Casciari notes. Anyone with asthma can have issues breathing when they exercise, Dr. But people with exercise-induced bronchoconstriction sometimes called exercise-induced asthma experience asthma symptom flares that are specifically tied to physical exertion. If you have exercise-induced bronchoconstriction, you may regularly cough, wheeze, and experience chest tightness when you work out, according to the Mayo Clinic.

If exercise is a trigger for your asthma, your doctor might prescribe a pre-exercise medication, like an inhaler with a short-acting beta agonist to open your airways, according to the Mayo Clinic. Toting your inhaler around with you and remembering to actually use it can be annoying and inconvenient.

You might forget here and there…which may turn into never using it and just pushing through workouts as best you can. It can make your exercise-induced asthma symptoms much more severe than they would be with your meds, Dr. Foregoing your pre-workout asthma drugs can also make working out feel so awful that you start to avoid it.

This is a shame, because regular exercise and being physically fit are associated with better asthma control , Dr. Thomas says. Staying physically active makes your muscles more efficient, so they need less oxygen to function.

This taxes your lungs less and helps keep them in better operating condition. If that includes using an inhaler before you exercise, so be it. Genetics, pollution and modern hygiene standards have been suggested as causes, but there's not currently enough evidence to know if any of these do cause asthma. In some cases, asthma is associated with substances you may be exposed to at work.

This is known as occupational asthma. Paint sprayers, bakers, pastry makers, nurses, chemical workers, animal handlers, timber workers, welders and food processing workers are all examples of people who may have a higher risk of being exposed to these substances.