Keeping an asthma diary puts the state of your health firmly in your own hands and you can keep it there with a dedicated record of your asthma. It's going to empower you more than you think.
No two people are identical (not even identical twins) and how our bodies react to asthma triggers varies from person to person. In terms of disease and epidemics, asthma is different: it affects over 20 million people in the US yet no two cases are identical. Medically, it is recognized as having a genetic link, meaning you inherited your tendency toward asthma from your parents or grandparents (someone has to be blamed!). The asthma symptoms are all very similar but what differ in people are the triggers which cause the attack.
Common Triggers
The most common asthma triggers are easily identified (dust, dog, cats, rabbits, exercise, laughing, cold air). With a little thought and common sense, a pattern will soon emerge if these affect you. There are, of course, degrees of intolerance to each trigger (known or unknown trigger) and this can be confusing. This is where a dedicated asthma diary will show you just what your body reacts to with an asthma attack.
You may already have an awareness of whether or not pets bring on an asthma attack. Exercising, speaking excitedly, laughing, breathing in cold air - these are all potential triggers which you may already have identified as being definite triggers. But are there times when they act as triggers and other times you are not so sure?
Keeping Your Asthma Diary
With a diary, we can record more information than just the time and place of the attack. For example, when recording physical exercise, note the weather and temperature. Where did you exercise and what was in the environment? Should there be any change in the environment (i.e., flowers, drapes being open/closed, deodorant, perfume -- even worn by other people), note that too.
Food is another item worth recording as your trigger may be a certain ingredient, e.g., wheat, sugar, cheese. While investigating your body's reaction to food, it is helpful to eat very simply. Plain meals at home make that easier as you know exactly what went into them. A plain omelet one night may be OK while a cheese omelet another night may trigger an attack. Immediately, you would suspect the cheese - unless of course you went out on a cold night to visit a friend who owns a cat!
Baked potatoes are a good place to start as you can give them different fillings -- provided the potato itself is not a trigger. You may find that eating proteins and carbs at different times will improve your tolerance, so a potato on its own is not a problem, neither is tuna fish, but together they may bring on an asthma attack.
Test Your Control Pause
Complicated? Yes, but it is not forever. A few days are probably all it takes to see a pattern emerge. As a measure of your progress, test your Control Pause. You do this by counting the number of seconds you can hold your breath following the out breath. Do this simple test in the morning before getting up. Just breathe out normally and check the number of seconds before your body requires you to breathe in again -- do not wait until you are gasping!
You may not even be able to wait one second, and that is OK. What we do is try to last marginally longer each morning, without causing distress. Right now, you will not believe it possible but one day you may reach a control pause of 40 seconds or more -- with ease. You can increase your control pause by doing breathing exercises. Many people have found their asthma attacks stop when they have a Control Pause of greater than 20. This gives them the confidence to lead a normal life.
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