Asthma: A Beginner-Friendly Start

A long-term condition in which the airways become inflamed and narrow in response to triggers.

Key takeaways

• Quick-relief (rescue) inhaler: a short-acting bronchodilator such as albuterol, works in minutes
• Controller medicine: often an inhaled corticosteroid, taken as prescribed even when you feel well
• Most useful single change: Take your controller medicine as prescribed, even when you feel well.
• Commonest mistake: Relying on the rescue inhaler while skipping the controller.
• See a doctor if any of the signs under "When to speak to a doctor" below apply to you.

Why bother

Good control means few or no symptoms, and the most common dangerous pattern is relying on the quick-relief inhaler while skipping the controller.

Start here

Two to start. There is no prize for doing all of it in week one.

• Take your controller medicine as prescribed, even when you feel well
• Have your inhaler technique checked at every visit

Then add these

After that, these.

• Use a spacer or valved holding chamber with a metered-dose inhaler if advised
• Get a written asthma action plan and keep it up to date

The numbers, in one place

Common early mistakes

• Relying on the rescue inhaler while skipping the controller
• Ignoring increasing rescue inhaler use
• Medicines such as NSAIDs or beta blockers if they trigger your asthma

Related topics

• What the Guidance Really Says About Asthma and Allergy (Allergies)
• The Evidence on Occupational Asthma, Without the Hype (Workplace Health)
• What the Guidance Really Says About Air Pollution and the AQI (Environmental Health)
• What the Guidance Really Says About Flu Versus a Cold (Infectious Diseases)

Where to go next

• The Asthma Checklist: What to Do and What to Skip
• Popular Beliefs About Asthma, and What Is Actually Published
• Asthma — the reference entry
• Respiratory Health: The Complete Guide
• What the Guidance Really Says About COPD
• What the Guidance Really Says About Breathlessness

When to speak to a doctor

Call 911 if your rescue inhaler is not helping, if you are too breathless to speak in full sentences, if your lips or fingernails look blue or gray, or if you are struggling to breathe. Contact your doctor promptly for increasing rescue inhaler use, waking at night with symptoms, or falling peak flow readings. Always see your doctor after an attack, even if you recovered.

Where this comes from

• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute — 2020 Focused Updates to the Asthma Management Guidelines
• CDC — Asthma Action Plan
• American Lung Association — Asthma

How this page was put together

Every figure, recommendation and warning above is taken from the guidance named in Where this comes from. Nothing on this page is inferred, summarized or generalized beyond what those bodies publish: where they give a number, it is their number, and where they are silent, so are we. Pages are rebuilt whenever the underlying record changes. Sign-off by a named clinician, where it has happened, is shown at the top of the page along with the date.

Medical disclaimer

This article is general information, not medical advice. It cannot account for your own history, medication or circumstances. Always speak to your doctor, pharmacist or another qualified health professional before making changes that affect your treatment, and never delay seeking medical advice because of something you have read here. In an emergency, call 911.