Tips for an Effective Asthma Action Plan

  Tips for an Effective Asthma Action Plan

The Importance of a Daily Asthma Action Plan for Adults

When you have asthma, it’s important to work with your doctor to manage your condition. Maintaining a partnership with your doctor and playing an active role in your asthma management can lead to better outcomes, according to a survey published in Annals of the American Thoracic Society in January 2017.
Working with your doctor to create a daily asthma action plan can help you better control your asthma and prevent emergencies. The asthma action plan gives a broad overview of how to manage your asthma from day to day. It offers specific guidance on managing symptoms, coping with asthma flares, and dealing with severe asthma that requires urgent care. Your asthma action plan outlines your daily treatment regimen, including what medications you need to take and when to take them. It should also cover:

• Factors that can worsen asthma
• Tips for reducing your risk of symptoms
• Steps for responding to symptoms
• Signs that indicate asthma is getting worse
• Advice on when to call your doctor
• Instructions for what to do in an emergency

Describe Your Medication Regimen

Your asthma action plan should include detailed information about what medications you take, your prescribed dosage, and when your doctor recommends taking them. Asthma treatment typically relies on long-acting drugs that you take regularly (even when you don't have symptoms) and short-acting ones to help respond to symptoms.
“Controller medicines need to be taken as prescribed at the same time every day," says pulmonologist Jennifer Trevor, MD, assistant professor in the division of pulmonary, allergy, and critical care medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and director of its Severe Asthma Clinic. "Rescue medicines are to be used only as needed to treat sudden worsening of asthma symptoms." If you use an inhaler, ask your healthcare provider to teach you how to use it correctly. Your action plan should also let you know what to do if your medications don't relieve symptoms, such as coughing, wheezing, chest pain, and shortness of breath.

 Create Action Zones

One way to organize your daily asthma action plan is with a color-coded system that highlights different action zones. The American Lung Association (ALA) has a color-coded action plan template online that you can download, print, and fill out. The green zone means you're doing well. The yellow zone indicates what to do when you're having mild to moderate worsening of symptoms. And the red zone focuses on the actions you should take when you experience a severe worsening of symptoms.
“My action plan tells me which medicines to take when my symptoms match the green, yellow, or red zone description,” explains Melanie Carver, vice president of digital strategy and community services for the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. Carver, now 38, had asthma as a child. After a long period without symptoms, her asthma returned in her twenties, and she relies on her color-zone asthma treatment plan to better control her condition.

Keep Tabs on Your Symptoms

Paying attention to your symptoms can help you maintain better asthma control over the long term. According to the ALA, adult asthma symptoms might include:

• A tight feeling in your chest
• Shortness of breath
• Wheezing
• Coughing
• Dizziness
• Fatigue
• Waking up at night with a cough

Your action plan can be linked to changes in these symptoms or to peak flow, a measure of how well your airways are working, notes the ALA. “In my experience, most adults with asthma prefer to guide therapy by symptoms rather than peak flow reading," Dr. Trevor says. "However, certain individuals may find using a peak flow meter to be a preferred means of monitoring and managing their asthma." If you're interested in a peak flow meter, ask your doctor to show you how to use it correctly and make sure your action plan outlines the steps to take based on the meter’s results.

Identify Your Asthma Triggers

Your asthma action plan should include notes about the factors that can worsen asthma symptoms, asthma triggers to avoid, and how to be prepared when avoidance isn't possible. "Patients should do their best to avoid situations in which they know these irritants will be encountered,” Trevor says.
But avoiding triggers isn’t always possible, especially when it comes to sudden changes in the weather, irritants in the air, or emotional triggers like anger or fear. That’s why it’s also important to know what steps to take if you're exposed to asthma triggers. Additionally, Trevor recommends talking to your doctor about allergy testing to uncover any triggers you have yet to identify. Taking anti-allergy medications as well as making changes in your home, car, and workplace can also help reduce asthma symptoms.

Always Carry Asthma Essentials With You

You don't want asthma to slow you down, but you do want to take a few moments every morning (or before you go to bed at night) to make sure that your asthma treatment medications and any other needed supplies are packed in your purse or backpack before you head out. “A helpful tip is to use a permanent marker to write your doses for each asthma zone on the plastic parts of your inhalers,” Carver says. Also, include a copy of your action plan and any medications you might need to control an allergic response. Once a month, as part of this prepping, take a few seconds to check expiration dates on your medications and replace any that are about to expire.

aintain an Asthma Log

Take notes every time you notice asthma symptoms, such as coughing, wheezing, or waking up at night with a cough — and share the log with your doctor. “Through my notes, I figured out that I was having pretty significant allergies and asthma attacks around the same week of every year,” says Carver, who underwent allergy testing and learned it was necessary for her to reduce indoor pollens. “I also noticed that I was having a really hard time every time I caught a common cold or respiratory virus.” Laughter was another trigger that Carver discovered through her notes. Today, she factors these observations into her action plan. “Before I watch a really good comedy, I make sure I have my rescue medicine nearby,” she says. Keeping detailed notes not only helps you identify triggers, it lets you and your doctor know if your asthma control is improving or becoming less effective, Trevor says.