Asthma Medications: Understand Long & Short Control Medications For Asthma Relief
Types of asthma medications:
There are two basic types of asthma medications: long-term control medications and short-term rescue drugs. While most people suffering from mild asthma use only the latter category, those unlucky enough to have moderate-to-severe asthma need to take control asthma medications too, to improve their over-all condition and decrease the chance of having an asthma attack.
Long-term control medications:These asthma medications are used: 1. To provide long-term relief 2. Reduce chances of asthma attacks 3. Help recover after the attack by reducing airways' inflammation and relaxing the airways muscles. They are commonly used in most mild-to-severe |
asthma cases and they should not be used in place of rescue medications. The long-term medications act too slowly to bring any relief in case of an attack – it may often take days before the first results become visible.
Long-term asthma medications include:
* Inhaled steroids
* Lleukotriene inhibitors (for example Singulair)
* Long-acting bronchodilators
* Cromolyn or nedocromil sodium and aminophylline (in older drugs)
Short-term rescue medications:
Rescue asthma medications are used to bring relief during the attack. They are generally short-term medications with little impact on longer term condition. This means that they do not reduce the chance or the severity of future attacks and they certainly do not help patients recover from the attack – their only purpose is to bring quick relief, usually by quickly relaxing the airways muscles.
Virtually all quick relief asthma medications rely on various short-acting bronchodilators and sometimes on oral corticosteroids.
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