May is Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month. Spring is in the air and for some of the 22 million people in the US with asthma that means trouble. Springtime allergens can cause severe breathing problems, but new asthma guidelines may help you and your doctor come up with a better treatment.

Who doesn’t enjoy the tell-tale signs of spring? Flowering shrubs and trees… green grass. All nice to look at… but for some asthmatics, it can make them sick.

Michael Dowell, an asthma patient said, “Coughing, which is impacting my work and my sleeping ability, incredible amount of congestion.”

Michael’s asthma is allergy-induced. The first doctor he saw prescribed antibiotics and cough medicine and neither helped.

Michael said, “There would be days though when I could only breathe in oxygen through my mouth.”

Now Michael sees an allergist. Who says new asthma guidelines can help doctors better assess their patients.

Doctor Allen Lieberman said, “It’s asking the right questions, you know, can you exercise, do you wake up at night short of breath? But also what we’re starting to realize is that asthma is really being thought of as a syndrome.”

The new guidelines emphasize - asthma assessment and monitoring, patient education, controlling environmental factors, and monitoring other conditions and medications.

Doctor Lieberman says lung function testing is critical to properly diagnose asthma. Initially, Michael did poorly. Now… with proper medication and monitoring, he’s improved dramatically.

Doctor Allen Lieberman said, “I really think we’d pick up many more cases where people sitting comfortably in your office and not very short of breath and not wheezing, and they do have significant airflow obstruction which is sometimes very hard to diagnose.”

Michael now enjoys springtime weather without worrying about his asthma.

The new guidelines also emphasize the importance of doctors demonstrating the proper technique in using asthmatic devices, like inhalers. For more information on the new guidelines, contact the national institutes of health at http://www.nih.gov.

FAST FACTS:
About 22 million Americans have asthma.
Annually, asthma is responsible for about 12.3 million visits to doctor’s offices, 1.8 million emergency department visits and 4,210 deaths.
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute/National Asthma Education and Prevention Program has issued new guidelines to help physicians properly diagnose patients and better manage asthma symptoms.
For more details, refer to our comprehensive research summary.

For information about the new guidelines: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/guidelines/asthma/index.htm

For general information about asthma:
American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, http://www.aaaai.org
Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, http://www.aafa.org
National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/lung/index.htm