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Dr. Horwitz describes the different inhalers available for asthmatic patients.
Dr. Horwitz:
There are different types of inhalers that are used for asthma and we group these into controllers and relievers. The controllers are for long-term control. You won’t feel the effect immediately, but over time they will have an effect and these are generally the corticosteroids, and these are used daily and what they do is they decrease the frequency of asthma flares, they decrease your airway hyper responsiveness which is a fancy word for twitchiness of airways.
The other group of inhalers are relievers. These are the ones you should always have with you if you have asthma. These are the, we call them the beta agonists, they are the PROVENTIL®, they are the Albuterols and these are ones that you keep in your pocket and when you need you take a couple of puffs, and it’s important to treat asthma when you need. A lot of people try to shy away. They are afraid to use their inhaler because they will become dependent on it. Very important to use those inhalers because they work very well and the consequences of not using them can be very severe.
So never be afraid to use your inhaler. You are not going to become dependent on it. Your primary care doc will adjust the dose of the controller if you are using the other inhaler, the reliever, the Albuterol too much. So don’t try to do it yourself without help.
About Dr. Randy Horwitz, Ph.D., M.D.:
Dr. Randy Horwitz, Ph.D., M.D., received a B.S. degree in biochemistry from the University of Illinois, and a Ph.D. in Immunology and Molecular Biology from the University of Florida. He received his medical degree from the University of Illinois, and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at University Hospitals (Case Western Reserve University) in Cleveland.
Visit Dr. Horwitz at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine