How to Track Your Daily Asthma Symptoms
Your doctor can also help you find your green, yellow, and red zones for future readings. When you're in your green zone, you have no symptoms and can do your regular activities without any trouble breathing. Yellow means you may be having a flare-up with coughing, wheezing, have chest tightness, or feel short of breath. The red zone signals a severe asthma flare or a medical emergency.
A peak flow meter can also help you understand how well your medicines work. If you start to have symptoms and you use an inhaler or take other medicine, you can test your peak flow again to see how much it improves.
Drops in peak flow readings can sometimes predict an asthma flare-up 2 to 3 days before it happens. That gives you time to adjust your medicine to prevent it. It can also be a good tool for parents whose children aren't old enough to explain what their symptoms feel like. Â
Parents of young children with asthma should also watch for small changes in how their kids look, act, and breathe. Sometimes children won't realize they're having breathing trouble -- they may say that they're just "feeling funny" in some way. This can happen hours or even a day before major symptoms like wheezing and coughing start.
Not everyone will show these early warning signs, and they can be different for every child. But if you learn to tune in and recognize these tiny hints, you may be better prepared for what might be coming. Older children and even adults may start to sense these subtle changes in themselves before an attack comes on.
Doctors call your asthma well controlled if you have symptoms no more than 2 days a week, your symptoms don't wake you up more than 1 or 2 nights a month, and you can do everything you usually do.
Watch for signs that your asthma might be getting worse -- your symptoms start to happen more often, get more severe, or start to wake you up at night. You may also notice that you're limiting your normal activities, or you’re missing work (or your child is missing school) because of symptoms.
Talk to your doctor if you have to take quick-relief medicines more than twice a week, if you have more than one asthma attack a year that requires corticosteroid pills, or if your peak flow drops below 80% of your personal-best number. She may want to change your asthma action plan so you can get better control of your symptoms.
Why You Need to Track Your Asthma Symptoms
In this article
- Keep a Symptom Diary
- Use a Peak Flow Meter
- Look for Early Warning Signs
- Aim for Well-Controlled Symptoms
Use a Peak Flow Meter continued...
Your doctor can also help you find your green, yellow, and red zones for future readings. When you're in your green zone, you have no symptoms and can do your regular activities without any trouble breathing. Yellow means you may be having a flare-up with coughing, wheezing, have chest tightness, or feel short of breath. The red zone signals a severe asthma flare or a medical emergency.
A peak flow meter can also help you understand how well your medicines work. If you start to have symptoms and you use an inhaler or take other medicine, you can test your peak flow again to see how much it improves.
Drops in peak flow readings can sometimes predict an asthma flare-up 2 to 3 days before it happens. That gives you time to adjust your medicine to prevent it. It can also be a good tool for parents whose children aren't old enough to explain what their symptoms feel like. Â
Look for Early Warning Signs
Parents of young children with asthma should also watch for small changes in how their kids look, act, and breathe. Sometimes children won't realize they're having breathing trouble -- they may say that they're just "feeling funny" in some way. This can happen hours or even a day before major symptoms like wheezing and coughing start.
Not everyone will show these early warning signs, and they can be different for every child. But if you learn to tune in and recognize these tiny hints, you may be better prepared for what might be coming. Older children and even adults may start to sense these subtle changes in themselves before an attack comes on.
Aim for Well-Controlled Symptoms
Doctors call your asthma well controlled if you have symptoms no more than 2 days a week, your symptoms don't wake you up more than 1 or 2 nights a month, and you can do everything you usually do.
Watch for signs that your asthma might be getting worse -- your symptoms start to happen more often, get more severe, or start to wake you up at night. You may also notice that you're limiting your normal activities, or you’re missing work (or your child is missing school) because of symptoms.
Talk to your doctor if you have to take quick-relief medicines more than twice a week, if you have more than one asthma attack a year that requires corticosteroid pills, or if your peak flow drops below 80% of your personal-best number. She may want to change your asthma action plan so you can get better control of your symptoms.
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