Writing Your Asthma Diary

To live an active asthma free life, it is important to monitor the severity of your asthma symptoms. For this you can use peak flow meters and by practicing other self management peak flow zones.

Asthma is a form of respiratory disorder and its nature varies from patient to patient. It is vital to have enough knowledge and information about this disorder and of course your personal triggers. It is often difficult to evaluate what actually triggers your asthma. Managing your asthma is not something related to your medication or dosage instructions; it is actually the vital phase of keeping your asthma well under control. What you need to do is to look for symptoms that trigger your asthma and keeping the record of these symptoms show the importance of having an asthma diary.

Asthma diary can be used as an effective tool for monitoring asthma, as it contains all the progress and symptoms that trigger asthma. Asthma diary is very easy and simple to use. What you need to do is to buy a simple notebook or three-ring binder from any office supply store. The plus point of having a binder is that you need not to draw your weekly charts as you can have a copy for future use.

This diary will help you to keep a track of your asthma symptoms and make you familiar with their sharpness. In case you have a severe attack of asthma, immediately call for your doctor, or at any time you feel that the situation is getting out of control better to have your doctor called in. in many situations; people wait for the end moment before calling their doctors. Remember minors symptoms are easier to cure than severe asthma attack.

Every doctor suggests their patients to seek medical help when your asthma is in early stage rather than waiting for things to get worse. If you are worried about your airway status, contact your doctor and inform him about your peak flow readings and symptoms. This would be easy to tell as you have already recorded them in your asthma diary. Never hesitate to contact your doctor in any way. Your health is that all you concerned about and your doctor is the only one who can guide you well in retaining your health.

You can get a template for your asthma diary from internet or you can have a sample asthma diary from your health care provider. The key elements involve in asthma diary are given below:

- Remember each page in your asthma diary covers the progress of one week.
- There are different columns or rows with the headings: My Predicted Peak Flow, My Personal Best peak Flow, My Green Zone (OK, 80 to 100 percent of personal best), My Yellow Zone (Caution, 50 to 80 percent of personal best), and My Red Zone (Danger, below 50 percent of personal best). You need to fill them according to the plan set by you and your doctor.

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