Asthma is an ongoing respiratory condition. You can’t cure it, but you can surely control it and ensure that it doesn’t affect the quality of your life. There are several steps you need to consider for minimizing the effects of asthma on your physical well-being. 

In this post, we will try to glance over all the things you need to consider for reducing asthma effects.

Devise an Asthma Action Plan and Rigorously Follow It

If you are an asthmatic, your physician may already have made you an asthma action plan. This action plan outlines everything that helps manage asthma. From regular medications to emergency dosages and tips to manage sudden asthma attacks, an asthma action plan covers it all. However, it has been noticed that many people have an asthma action plan, but they rarely remember or implement it.

As a result, a sudden asthma attack becomes quite excruciating for them. Therefore, an asthmatic must know their asthma action plan by heart. Besides inhalers, they must always carry medicines that need to be administered during severe asthma attacks. They should also memorize the exercise or tips that their physician has taught them to assuage the effects of an ongoing asthma attack.

Identify and Avoid Asthma Triggers 

There are multitudes of asthma triggers. From mold spores to dust and pet dander to bottled fragrances, people may respond to different triggers in a different way. For instance, an asthmatic individual may not mind wearing colognes, but another asthmatic can’t stand them due to their triggering effect. Similarly, some people get their asthmatic symptoms worsened during winters. 

In short, if you suffer from this chronic pulmonary condition, you need to identify your unique triggers and actively avoid them. For avoiding asthma triggers, you need to be mindful of your surroundings all the time. In the beginning, it may seem quite cumbersome. But as you will become regular with this mindfulness, you will succeed in avoiding the triggers. 

A person who can avoid asthma triggers can significantly cut down the effects of this debilitating respiratory condition.   

Get Regular Vaccination for Pneumonia and Influenza 

It is essential to understand that the asthmatic symptoms are not just the function of asthma itself. Other diseases and medical conditions can also aggravate the effects of asthma. Pneumonia and influenza are the leading diseases that often result in asthma flare-ups among asthmatics. 

If you experience acute asthma, you need to be regular in getting yourself vaccinated for these two diseases. By saving yourself from these two health conditions, you manage to prevent the one-two punch of diseases led by asthma symptoms.

Keep a Check on Your Diet

You also need to be diligent about what you eat if you want to reduce the effects of asthma. Like environmental allergens, some foods can also act as asthma triggers. For instance, dried fruits, eggs, cow’s milk, soy, peanuts, and spicy foods in general can trigger asthma attacks. Like asthma triggers, you need to identify the foods that aggravate your condition and red-flag them.

On the other hand, you also need to increase the uptake of foods that prove to be beneficial for asthma. For instance, vitamin D-rich and magnesium-rich foods are considered good for asthmatics. You can increase the consumption of these two micronutrients by eating more fruits and vegetables. 

You also need to keep a check on your diet in terms of weight control. A careless diet with lots of calories will eventually increase your waistline and weight. Keep in mind that obesity always amplifies the effects of asthma.

Carry Out Breathing Exercises

Scientists are yet to find the root cause of asthma. For now, we just know that it happens due to the combination of environmental and genetic factors. However, we know the primary symptom of asthma, i.e., shortness of breath. We can address the shortness of breath through breathing exercises to reduce the effects of asthma. 

There is a range of respiratory exercises that can improve breathing for asthmatics.

• Pursed-Lip breathing:Breath in from the nostrils and breath out from the pursed lips in a long stretch.
• Belly or Diaphragm Breathing:It is used to activate the dome-shaped muscle layer beneath the lungs. By diaphragm breathing, you get to use your abdomen to carry out effortless deep breathing, which helps reduce asthma effects. 
• Device-assisted breathing:You can also use respiratory training devices to strengthen your inspiratory and expiratory muscles for subsequently taking the edge off of asthma effects. You can easily find training devices for asthma online that are affordable and easy to use.

A respiratory training device like Orygen Inspiratory Valve can come in useful in reducing asthma effects. The regular and right use of this device strengthens your inspiratory and expiratory muscles. Those strengthened respiratory muscles improve lung function and enable you to manage asthma effects in a better manner.