Monitor Symptoms - Managing Your Asthma: Asthma

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Monitor symptoms

In one sense, you can judge the severity of your asthma based on how much it affects your life. If you are having frequent asthma symptoms, are limited in your ability to exercise because of asthma, have impaired lung function, and often experience attacks that require emergency care, your asthma is severe and out of control. If the opposite is true — you rarely have any asthma symptoms, you can exercise without provoking symptoms, your lung function is almost always normal, and you never suffer severe flare-ups — then you have well-controlled asthma.

How would you answer the following questions?

• How often in the past year have you had to go to the doctor's office or to a hospital emergency room with a severe attack of asthma?

• How often have you had to stay home, miss work, or cancel plans for the day because of asthma?

• How often do you awaken at night because of cough, shortness of breath, or tightness in the chest?

• How often do you have to limit your physical activities because of your asthma?

• How often do you need to use your quick-acting bronchodilator medications for relief of your asthma symptoms?

Ideally, your answer to the first four questions is "never," and your answer to the last is "no more than once or twice a week." If you answered differently, it may be time to work with your doctor to reevaluate your asthma treatment regimen.

Last updated:	September 27, 2007