Medications To Treat Your Asthma: Asthma

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Medications to treat your asthma

Asthma medications have two main goals: to prevent or reverse contraction of the bronchial muscles, and to prevent or reduce inflammation of the walls of the bronchial tubes (see Figure 4). Bronchodilators and anti-inflammatory medications work on very different timetables. The muscles that surround the breathing tubes can be made to contract in minutes — as you know if you suddenly have asthma symptoms after walking briskly on a cold winter day — and likewise can be made to relax, with bronchodilator medication, within minutes. Inflammation of the bronchial tubes comes on more slowly and takes hours or days to respond to anti-inflammatory medications. Bronchodilators can be used intermittently for fast relief of symptoms, while anti-inflammatory medications need to be taken regularly over many days, and perhaps indefinitely. When you stop taking an anti-inflammatory medication, asthmatic inflammation of the bronchial tubes will recur within two to four weeks, unless you have successfully reduced your exposure to important triggers that provoke your asthmatic airway inflammation.

Figure 4: How medications treat asthma When you inhale a bronchodilator or controller medication, the drug acts directly on your bronchial tubes (A). (Medications taken as tablets reach your lungs indirectly, through the bloodstream.) Quick relievers act as bronchodilators, relaxing muscles in the bronchial tubes so that the restricted airway passage reopens — often within minutes (B). Controllers work to relax the bronchial muscles and reduce mucus production, swelling, and inflammation (C).

Asthma medications have come to be grouped in two categories: quick relievers and controllers. These terms reflect how the medications are meant to be used, rather than emphasizing the mechanism of airway narrowing they target. This division of asthma medications came about because some newer asthma medications seem to have both bronchodilator and anti-inflammatory effects, and because some newer long-acting bronchodilators are prescribed for daily use to prevent asthma symptoms.

For all but the mildest asthma, a good asthma management plan involves taking both types of medicine. All of the controller medications — not just the anti-inflammatory medications — are taken every day, whether you have symptoms or not. Quick relievers can be taken whenever you have uncomfortable symptoms of asthma. Virtually everyone with asthma should have a quick reliever handy at all times, just in case.

Last updated:	September 27, 2007