What you need to know about asthma medicines

Each patient’s asthma is different. Each patient’s airways react to different triggers at different times and with different symptoms. This means that you must work closely with your doctor to find the medicine plan that works best for you. The plan will tell you what medicine to take, and when and how to take it. Always be sure to follow this plan.
The two kinds of medicine used to treat asthma are bronchodilators (bronco-die-laters) and anti-inflammatory (anti-in-flam-a-tory) medicines.

Bronchodilators

• Relax muscles that have tightened around the airways and open up the air passages so that more air can flow through.
• Must be taken at the earliest sign that your asthma is getting worse.
• May be prescribed by your doctor to be used before exercise, if exercise is one of our “triggers.”
• Examples include albuterol and other beta2-agonists (bait-a-2-ag-o-nists).

Anti-inflammatory Medicines

• Reverse or prevent airway swelling and mucus production.
• Must be taken every day, even if you don’t have symptoms.
• Examples include corticosteroids (core-ti-co-stare-oids) and cromolyn (crow-mo-lin).
• Sometimes you may need to change your medicine plan. DO NOT STOP taking the medicine until you talk to your doctor first. Call your doctor if:
• You have side effects from your medicine.
• You are taking your bronchodilator to relieve asthma symptoms every day or if you use it more than four times in a single day.
• You are following your medicine plan and you still have asthma symptoms.