2. Using alternative medicines such as herbs or other traditional medicines
3. By using alternative therapies such as Yoga, Acupuncture, etc...
Every type of therapy has its own scope and time span. The first and the most widely accepted therapy is the conventional medicines and procedures. In this procedure of asthma treatment, the patient is treated in two ways
1. Short term treatment
2. Long term treatment
Short term asthma treatment involves the instant relief of the patient from asthma attacks. Short term treatment involves the administration of inhalers and orally administered drugs. Asthma cannot be cured, but the scope of asthma can be controlled with the help of a proper asthma management program.
Short term treatment is done mainly by using Metered Dose Inhalers or MDIs. Dry powder inhalers are also gaining favor in the treatment of asthma.
For those patients who cannot use the MDI's, nebulizer therapy is used.
Long term asthma treatment involves more of Parallel treatment and lesser use of drugs.
In parallel asthma treatment, environmental components and surrounding analysis is done to minimize the factors that lead to Asthma attacks. In this type of treatment environment components such as pollen grains, allergens etc are minimized from the patient's surroundings to minimize the chances of an asthma attack.
For this it is necessary that the patient's place of residence be cleaned every week, the patient must be kept away from pets with fur or feather, weekly washing of the bedding of the patient in hot water.
Avoid using synthetic material in the patient's bedding, replace upholstery based furniture to vinyl or leather ones.
Remove carpeted floors. They may contain dust particles that could cause problems to the asthma patient.
Use the Air conditioner to protect the patient from subtle temperature changes.
Keep the house dry. Humidity effects the asthma patient.
After the parallel asthma treatment is completed, lung functioning is monitored to look for effective changes. After this, medicines like corticosteroids and bronchodilators are administered. Periodic check up is necessary to know about any changes in the condition of the patient.
For patients have persistent asthma attacks, an annual dose of influenza vaccine is necessary.
