Emergency room visits can surely be minimized , inspite of increasing incidence of asthma.
The key issues are to accept the diagnosis and follow the methods which can control the disease and improve the quality of life. Often people have the tendency to deny the label of Asthma , they consider inhalers as habit forming , they fear steroids in inhalers and have a myth that this should be the last resort.
Even educated and not so much moneyed have shopping around behavior for the above fears.
They are ready to accept very prolonged and troublesome treatment with hidden salts and unscientific alternate therapies in spite of no definite health benefits , but they fear proven scientific inhalers. The symptom free periods in seasonal asthma are automatic , but they give credit to homeopathy or aurvedic salts.
Health education on continuous basis in friendly way is the only method to keep patients on appropriate scientific treatment.
There is always some amount of ongoing inflammation in the airway even in asymptomatic phase. Doctor , with the help of lung function tests and eosinophil counts etc will decide when to stop and when to restart the inhaler. In seasonal allergies the inhaler may start in preseason even if there are no symptoms.
Patients worry the restart of inhaler as though doctor is useless because she could not stop the inhaler for ever.
The aim of treatment should be good night sleep, being able to do all physical and other activities with pleasure , minimal side effects of medicines , being able to control the attacks oneself with help of rescue inhaler and no emergency room visits. This will improve quality of life and is possible with all the instructions of qualified doctors
Most asthamtics I know irrespective of awareness, education levels etc continue to avoid inhalers unless needed. I think they need to be explained of like BP medicines for instance, where medicine does less harm to a person than the condition itself!
ReplyDeleteVery good example indeed. In hypertension , with the help of BP lowering medicines it is good to keep blood pressure under control so that life threatening complications of high BP are avoided. Similarly in Asthma continuous and titrated inhalers would keep the lung function optimum and life useful. same applies to Diabetes and other chronic diseases where medicines , even if life long are your friends and uncontrolled disease an enemy!
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