How Well Controlled Is Your Asthma?

The question of control in many ways ties into the severity of your asthma. Control, however, does not necessarily translate into severity, as you can have a severe asthmatic with wonderful control and a mild asthmatic with horrible control.

 

Like severity, the control question also involves hospital and emergency-room visits. Most asthmatics never see the inside of an emergency room, while some asthmatics are in the emergency room weekly. If you've been in the hospital or emergency room even once over the past two years, I would be concerned about how well controlled you are.

 

Steroid use is sometimes an indication of poor or difficult control. Some people with mild, normally well-controlled asthma occasionally need a short course of steroids to help them over a rough spot, such as after a cold. At the other end of the spectrum is the severe, steroid-dependent asthmatic who is well controlled as long as he or she keeps taking steroids. Like emergency-room visits that don't necessarily correlate to asthma severity, steroid use when examined alone doesn't offer much information about how well controlled an asthmatic is.

 

When evaluating asthma stability, most physicians will look at medication use as well as hospital and emergency-room visits. If you have unstable asthma, I suggest you throw yourself at the mercy of the medical profession to stabilize your asthma. Once your asthma is stable, then you and your doctor can talk about cutting back on medications.