For asthma patients, there are several short-term as well as long-term asthma relief systems available. Knowing about these treatments for faster and persistent asthma relief can be helpful for you or your dear ones, and you can consult your doctor more confidently as knowing can give you a better idea when to call a specialist in the event of an asthma attack.

Steroids and anti-inflammatory medicines: Asthma medications have several types, and these can be divided into two broader groups, namely steroids and other anti-inflammatory medicines. The second group, mainly the inhaler ones, are very much vital for maximum patients and act by decreasing swelling as well as mucus generation in the air passages.

Bronchodilators: These are effective by relaxing muscles that tighten the airways and opening the passages. The short-acting inhalers are known as rescuers and important for faster asthma relief from coughing or chest congestion, breath shortness. People getting affected by exercise-induced asthma can be treated with these inhalers. But using more than two times in a week can be depicted as an uncontrolled condition.
Whereas, the long-acting inhalers or bronchodilators can be used in combination of inhalable steroids/corticosteroids in case of persistent cases. These aren’t prescribed or used alone for asthma relief treatments.

Asthma inhalers: Undoubtedly the most common and useful technique to introduce asthma medications into the lungs. While some inhalers use one medicine, others use combination of drugs

Asthma nebulizer: These with mouthpiece/mask are prescribed when patients have difficulty in using smaller inhalers. Kids and older patients use these machines; these alter the drugs into a mist for making it easy to be inhaled into the lungs.
Though asthma is very common, serious conditions need proper checkups and aimed diagnosis as well as treatment. Here’s a list of available medications for asthma relief. The appropriate medicine will allow patient to live a normal life.

Long-term control drugs
The most useful one inhibits the airway inflammation, and the physician can prescribe a combination of an inhalable corticosteroid with other kinds of drugs, such as long-acting beta-agonists. This type of drug is bronchodilator. Apart from this, another kind of drug is long-acting anticholinergics. These relax as well as dilate the airways to the lungs and make the breathing easier. An example is Tiotropium bromide which is anticholinergic and good for kids above 6 and older. There are Leukotriene modifiers that inhibit chemicals which result in inflammation, Mast cell stabilizers that decrease the chemical release causing inflammation and Theophylline, which is also a bronchodilator, which is used as an add-on medicine for asthma relief. An immunomodulator is a shot or injection, given in case of medium or serious condition due to allergic reactions and which aren’t respondent to some specific medications. Reslizumab is this kind of maintenance medicine which is prescribed along with daily asthma medications. It acts by decreasing a particular type of WBC, eosinophils which are important to result in asthmatic signs. Mepolizumab is also a similar type of medicine that targets the number of eosinophils and given as an injection.

Quick-relief asthma medications
These types of medicines are important for quick relief of asthmatic signs like chest tightness, cough, wheezing, etc. These medications incorporate short-acting beta agonists, anticholinergics which are bronchodilators as well as systemic corticosteroids which are anti-inflammatory medicines to control such symptoms.

Are OTC asthma drugs available or not
It’s not suggested to get over-the-counter (OTC) drugs for asthma as clinical diagnosis and checkups by a physician is important as per the symptoms. Besides, OTC drugs aren’t for long-term prevention and mustn’t be used regularly for treating the asthmatic signs. Older people or those with high blood pressure, diabetes, thyroid complications, and cardiovascular issues should avoid these.

Are allergy shots a useful asthma relief treatment
Kids who are given allergy shots are less prone to asthma as per recent studies. Now there are allergy injections for adolescents as well as adults. Allergies are caused by asthma triggers so controlling them can lead to fewer asthma attacks. However, a complete cure is very difficult, and the patient needs to take medications, depending on the severity of the complications.

It’s important to learn about the medicines for asthma relief as these are the fundamental of proper asthma control. The side-effects, doses, variety, and uses are important to know for getting expected results and plan if proper responses aren’t achieved. Do not allow a condition when you might be run out of medicines. You must store the drug names, doses, pharmacy contacts for easy access. Follow the treatment plan accurately. The treatment must be flexible as well as dependent upon alterations of the signs. As an example, fewer doses of medicines can be prescribed for well-controlled asthma. In case of severe condition, serious checkups, and higher doses are given. Check the pills and liquids, in case of discoloration or crystallization, do not use them and buy new ones. Consult with your doctor vividly if you’re already on other medications. There are a few medicines which do not work well in combination. It’s better to ask the physician or the pharmacist beforehand and report if found abnormal.