Ask the Expert: Questions and Answers About Uncontrolled Asthma

Even if you live thousands of miles away from a wildfire this summer, there’s a good chance wildfire smoke will impact, or has already impacted, your air quality. Air quality plays a role in everyone’s lung health, but it’s especially important for people with asthma to pay attention.We spoke with Nora Barrett, M.D., associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, about how women can recognize the signs of uncontrolled asthma and regain control of their condition. What are signs that asthma is well controlled? When you have two or fewer symptoms in a week, that’s considered well controlled. If you’re getting three or more symptoms in a week, that’s a sign your medication isn’t working well. It might be time to change your inhaler or increase your dose. What symptoms indicate that asthma is uncontrolled? Symptoms are chest tightness, coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and trouble breathing. Another sign your asthma is uncontrolled is when you wake up with asthma symptoms around 3 or 4 a.m. That’s the time when the natural steroids your body makes are at their lowest. It’s a sign that you’re just on the edge of control, and it’s a predictor of worse problems to come, ...