Asthma is a lung disease. It is not an emotional or psychological problem, or an illusion. Don’t let anyone tell you your asthma is just in your head. It is real!

Fortunately, we know a lot more about asthma today than we did just a decade ago, and we have a much better understanding of how to treat it. In fact, based on what we now know, most people with asthma should be able to gain control of it—and keep it under control for a lifetime.

“You Can Control Asthma” is a common theme among NHLBI materials. Get started with the materials below today.

Also visit the So You Have Asthma Home page for more information at http://hp2010.nhlbihin.net/asthma.

Read About Asthma

Get important information on controlling your asthma.  Learn about the four parts to effective asthma management. This guide offers tools and step-by-step guidance for monitoring asthma and communicating with your doctor to develop a plan for managing your asthma.  You will learn about ways to avoid things that can make your asthma worse, how asthma medicines work, and how to use a peak flow meter.   In an upbeat style, it helps you realize that you can make good asthma management a part of everyday life. Also includes a symptom diary, an asthma assessment checklist, and a list of information resources.

Check out the graphical illustration of “How Asthma Affects Your Airways” on page 5.

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Use the My Asthma Wallet Card

This handy wallet card for patients lists common warning signs of an asthma attack and topics to discuss with your doctor to learn the best ways to control your asthma.   It also provides space to record your peak flow numbers, medicines, and phone numbers to call in an asthma emergency.

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Make an Asthma Action Plan

Managing asthma requires you to do things and make decisions, each based on your own pattern of asthma.  An Asthma Action Plan is a personalized practical tool to help you keep your asthma under control. It summarizes the action steps you need to take daily, such as which medicines to take, how much to take and when to take them.  It provides benchmarks of good control based on symptoms and peak flow measures against which to check how good your level of control is.  It also gives the action steps to take if your asthma is not in good control and it starts or continues to worsen.

Use this plan together with your doctor to write down how to manage your asthma, routinely on a daily basis and during an attack. For help in controlling things that can make your asthma worse, look on the back for a list of possible asthma triggers for you and ways to avoid them.

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Especially for Physicians – Download the EPR-3 Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma Summary Report

Delivers important information from the full report about selecting treatment based on an individual’s needs and level of asthma control.  Summary information focuses on long-term control of asthma by implementing effective and comprehensive asthma management that includes diagnosis and initial assessment, routine follow up care and monitoring, patient education, control of factors that can worsen asthma, and medications. Key tables and figures from the full report are included for easy reference.

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