By Jacob Maslow

It is possible to be active and stay healthy, even when you're living with asthma. The key to living with asthma successfully is to keep it under control. Limit contact with asthma triggers by controlling your environment, monitor your condition with a peak flow meter, and follow your treatment plan strictly.

Develop goals that relate to your quality of life. Being able to measure your success gives you greater motivation to follow asthma plans consistently.
 
Develop an asthma plan with your doctor. The plan describes which medicines to take every day to help delay the long-term effects of asthma and the steps to treat asthma attacks. It helps you better control your asthma attacks by keeping you aware of symptoms and of how to make quick decisions about medicine and treatment. Emergency and doctor’s phone numbers should be included.
 
Keep an asthma diary of your meter readings and circumstances surrounding good and bad days so you can adjust accordingly. People often underestimate the severity of their symptoms. They may not notice symptoms until their lungs are functioning at 50% of their personal best measurement.
 
Take your medicines as your healthcare professional prescribes. It is important to keep track of the inhaler doses and discard the inhaler when you have used the number of doses indicated on the package labeling. This not only prevents you from having an empty inhaler, but it also prevents you from inhaling only propellant after the medicine has run out.
 
Reduce your dietary fat intake.  Researchers at the University of Newcastle in Australia have recently discovered a link between high fat foods and asthma inflammation.
 
Natural herbs, vitamins, and botanicals can help as well. For example, in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, asthma herbal medicine intervention has shown benefit to asthma sufferers in recent studies.  In a study of Japanese schoolchildren, vitamin D supplements taken during the winter and early spring helped prevent seasonal flu and asthma attacks.
 
In a recent study, there was a significantly greater improvement in the weekly number of asthma attacks, scores for drug treatment, and peak flow rate, in the group who practiced yoga. Deep abdominal breathing and massage therapy may help you breathe easier by increasing relaxation, and destroying a common trigger, stress.
 
If you are currently struggling with asthma symptoms, consider these tips; it just might make a big difference.

Jacob Maslow runs the Allergy Blog for an online retailer of Allergy Control Products