Asthma Treatments

An asthma attack can be a frightening and sometimes life threatening occurrence, but with the right treatment plan, patients can manage their asthma and lead a normal lifestyle without being in fear. Your physician will work with you individually to develop a personalize asthma management plan to fit your personal needs. We will work together to ensure you can maintain the highest quality of life while keeping your asthma symptoms under control.

Long-term Control Medications

Long-term control medications are used to minimize the inflammation in the airways to prevent asthma symptoms. Most often, these types of medications are used daily depending on the type and severity of asthma. Either inhaled medications or oral medications will be used to manage your asthma symptoms.

Inhaled medications are the most common type. They are used to maintain the healthiness of your airways and prevent any symptoms associated with asthma. These inhaled medications may contain inhaled corticosteroids, long-acting beta agonists (LABAs) or a combination of both medicines that serve as an ant-inflammatory.

Oral medications are used to help prevent asthma symptoms for up to 24 hours by keeping the airways open. These are less commonly used.

Your physician will help determine which would be best for you based on your age, type of asthma and severity of asthma.

Quick-relief Medications

Quick-relief medications, also referred to as “rescue” medications, are designed to provide immediate, short-term relief of symptoms during an asthma attack. Also these are used prior to exercise.

For most asthma patients, inhaled medications are used to provide several hours of relief within just a few minutes. Oral medications and intravenous corticosteroids are sometimes used as well, but not long term due to some serious side-effects that it can form.

Biologics for Asthma

Our doctors are highly experienced experts in the use of so-called biologics for severe subtypes of asthma. These biologics include Xolair (omalizumab), Nucala (mepolizumab), and Cinqair (reslizumab). New treatments like these are coming, and we will be ready to use them to treat severe conditions when they become available.