You can control the impact asthma has on your life by following your asthma plans consistently. A management plan can reduce inflammation to decrease the severity, frequency, and duration of asthma attacks. Following your plans may be difficult due to the many different factors involved.

To help yourself remain consistent in following your asthma plans:

• Educate yourself about asthma. By doing so, you can learn to control symptoms and reduce the risk of asthma attacks. This questionnaire can help you determine what you already know about asthma and what you may need to discuss with your doctor.
• Understand your barriers and solutions. What may prevent you from following your plans? These may be physical barriers, such as living far from your doctor or pharmacy, or emotional barriers, such as having undiscussed fears about the condition or unrealistic expectations. Discuss your barriers with your doctor, and work to find solutions.
• Develop goals that relate to your quality of life. Being able to measure your success gives you greater motivation to follow asthma plans consistently. Decide what you want to be able to do. Have symptom-free nights? Be able to exercise on a regular basis? Feel secure in knowing you can deal with an asthma attack? Work with your doctor to see if your goals are realistic and how to meet them.

Your asthma plans generally consist of the following:

• Seeing your doctor regularly to monitor your asthma. The frequency of checkups depends on how your asthma is classified. Checkups are recommended about every 6 to 12 months for intermittent or mild persistent asthma that has been under control for at least 3 months; every 3 to 6 months for moderate persistent asthma; and every 1 to 2 months for uncontrolled or severe persistent asthma. Bring your asthma plans to appointments.
• Following your daily asthma treatment plan. This plan helps you control your asthma and describes which medications to take every day. A daily treatment plan also may include an asthma diary where you record your peak expiratory flow, symptoms, triggers, and use of quick-relief medication for asthma attacks. This valuable tool helps you and your doctor manage your asthma. A daily asthma treatment plan is often combined with an asthma action plan.
• Following your asthma action plan. This contains directions for the management of asthma attacks at home. It helps you better control asthma attacks by being aware of symptoms and knowing how to make quick decisions about medication and treatment. See an example of an asthma action plan(What is a PDF document?) .

For more information on how to monitor and treat asthma, see:

Asthma: Taking charge of your asthma.

Asthma: Using an asthma action plan.

To effectively manage your asthma and use your daily asthma treatment and action plans, you will have to know how to monitor your peak airflow, identify asthma triggers, and take your asthma medication correctly.

Monitoring peak expiratory flow