Asthma and Illness

Everyone gets sick sometimes. Not being well adds stress to your life and you already know that when you are under stress your asthma plays up. Asthmatics get asthma in 89% of the colds they catch. To make your illness have a minimal effect on your asthma try the following tips:

1. Increase your fluid intake to avoid dehydration
2. Eat small, regular meals and avoid alcohol. How many times have you had a bad asthma attack after eating a big meal and half a bottle of wine?
3. Get plenty of rest but sleep for slightly shorter periods than you usually do. More asthma attacks occur while people sleep than at any other time
4. Keep warm but avoid hot, stuffy rooms
5. If practical, avoid known triggers. For example, if petrol fumes give you asthma, then get someone else to fill up the car this week
6. See your doctor about increasing your medication while you are sick. You might need a short course of oral steroids to keep you stable
7. If you have an infection then get it treated. A long-term low-grade infection is enough to give anybody asthma
8. Don’t over-exert yourself. If you are usually a couch potato then now is not the time to take up running
9. If at any point of your illness, you feel worried about your asthma, then get help, don’t wait at home until you get better!