Diagnosed with your asthma condition? Now it is the time to use asthma drugs to cure your condition.
You can find number of asthma medications in drug stores. There are different types of these medications. They include:
- Prescription medications
- Over-the-counter medications
Prescription medications:
Most of these asthma drugs involve bringing therapeutic means that help you lessen the symptoms of asthma directly into the lungs. This can be achieved by using one of two forms such as aerosol or powder.
The advantages of prescription asthma medications:
- These asthma drugs don’t have to go to the liver first, which is where many drugs are broken down and rendered useless.
- The asthma medicine doesn’t enter into your bloodstream. This means that side effects are felt in other areas of the body and are kept to a minimum.
There are two types of prescription medications used to treat asthma. They are
- Quick relief medications
- Long-term control medications
Quick relief medications:
These asthma drugs give quick and temporary relief. Most asthmatics have a salbutamol inhaler or something similar which they take whenever they feel the need. A powerful bronchodilator contained in the inhaler will give quick relief and reduce the amount of inflammation and constriction in the airways that lead to the lungs.
This is the main reason behind preferring this medication. These asthma medications give a rapid control of the condition in order to prevent a severe attack or to stop further attacks from occurring.
There are two types of quick relief asthma drugs. They include beta-agonists and systemic corticosteroids.
Beta-agonists relax the smooth muscle within the bronchioles. These inhalers are strong enough which keep your asthma attack at bay. Sometimes these are not strong enough to stop the attack; in this case you can use nebulizer. This asthma medicine is much higher in concentration.
Systemic corticosteroids – initially they are given as injection to give instant relief and then in the form of tablets for the next few days until your lungs recover from the attack. When beta-agonists and nebulizer won’t give any effect then you can use corticosteroids such as prednisolone or cortisone. This asthma medicine will give instant relief since these are the powerful anti-inflammatories.
Long-term control medications:
The two most common long-term control medications include:
Long-acting beta agonists – These asthma drugs are often prescribed as an inhaler. You need to use it for every 12 hours in order to get the full benefit in the morning and in the evening. These asthma drugs include salmeterol which help to prevent asthma symptoms rather than relieving from them.
This asthma medicine is prescribed in tablet form and this also has side effects. So, they are only prescribed when absolutely necessary.
Inhaled corticosteroids – These asthma medications are prescribed in combination with inhaled corticosteroids. These asthma drugs help to strengthen the lungs and the airways and are prescribed to all patients who have regular persistent symptoms. These medications also have number of side effects because of the dosage of inhaled corticosteroids.
Over-the-counter medications:
These asthma drugs are invented earlier than prescription drugs. They include epinephrine and ephedrine. Both these medications work in much the same way as prescription drugs. These drugs are not that much strong as prescription asthma medications and these are suitable for only mild symptoms.
If you have severe symptoms, these drugs show no effect.
You can find epinephrine in a variety of concentrations. You can take it either with inhaler or as a solution with saline through a nebulizer.
Ephedrine is taken as either a capsule or tablet. This acts slowly than epinephrine. It takes 20-60 minutes to give relief. It causes irritation when you first use it. So, it is not suitable for asthmatics that have mild symptoms.
Ephedrine as asthma medicine is actually absorbed into the body, so it shows adverse reactions. Some potential side effects include insomnia, nervousness and anxiety, rapid heart beat, tremors and nausea.
These asthma drugs can also interact with some other drugs that you are using for some other medical conditions. So, you must consult your doctor before taking these asthma medications, if you are being treated with any one of the below mentioned conditions:
- Diabetes
- Disease of the prostate
- Disease of the thyroid
- Heart disease or
- High blood pressure
The above given asthma medications give you relief from your asthmatic conditions. But, they are not suitable for long-term use. Along with these medications you should follow some asthma preventive tips.
