Many asthma treatments can ease your symptoms. Your doctor will work with you to make an asthma action plan that will outline your treatment and medications. They might include:
Inhaled corticosteroids. These medications treat asthma in the long term. That means you’ll take them every day to keep your asthma under control. They prevent and ease swelling inside your airways, and they may help your body make less mucus. You’ll use a device called an inhaler to get the medicine into your lungs. Common inhaled corticosteroids include:
Beclomethasone (QVAR)
Budesonide (Pulmicort)
Fluticasone (Arnuity Ellipta, Armonair Respiclick, Flovent)
Leukotriene modifiers. Another long-term asthma treatment, these medications block leukotrienes, things in your body that trigger an asthma attack. You take them as a pill once a day. Common leukotriene modifiers include:
Montelukast (Singulair)
Zafirlukast (Accolate)
Long-acting beta-agonists. These medications relax the muscle bands that surround your airways. You might hear them called bronchodilators. You’ll take these medications with an inhaler, even when you have no symptoms. They include:
Ciclesonide (Alvesco)
Formoterol (Perforomist)
Mometasone (Asmanex)
Salmeterol (Serevent)
Combination inhaler. This device gives you an inhaled corticosteroid and a long-acting beta-agonist together to ease your asthma. Common ones include:
Budesonide and formoterol (Symbicort)
Fluticasone and salmeterol (Advair Diskus, AirDuo Respiclick)
Fluticasone and vilanterol (Breo)
Mometasone and formoterol (Dulera)
Theophylline. It opens your airways and eases tightness in your chest. You take this long-term medication by mouth, either by itself or with an inhaled corticosteroid.
Short-acting beta-agonists. These are known as rescue medicines or rescue inhalers. They loosen the bands of muscle around your airways and ease symptoms. Examples include:
Albuterol (Accuneb, ProAir FHA, Proventil FHA, Ventolin FHA)
Levalbuterol (Xopenex HFA)
Anticholinergics. These bronchodilators prevent the muscle bands around your airways from tightening. Common ones include:
Ipratropium (Atrovent FHA)
Tiotropium bromide (Spiriva)
You can get ipratropium in an inhaler or as a solution for a nebulizer, a device that turns liquid medicine into a mist that you breathe in through a mouthpiece. Tiotropium bromide comes in a dry inhaler, which lets you breathe in the medicine as a dry powder.
Oral and intravenous corticosteroids. You’ll take these along with a rescue inhaler during an asthma attack. They ease swelling and inflammation in your airways. You’ll take oral steroids for a short time, between 5 days and 2 weeks. Common oral steroids include:
Methylprednisolone (Medrol)
Prednisolone (Flo-pred, Orapred, Pediapred, Prelone)
Prednisone (Deltasone)
You’re more likely to get steroids injected directly into a vein if you’re in the hospital for a bad asthma attack. This will get the medication into your system more quickly.
Biologics. If you have severe asthma that doesn’t respond to control medications, you might try a biologic:
Omalizumab (Xolair) treats asthma caused by allergens. You get it as an injection every 2 to 4 weeks.
Other biologics stop your immune cells from making things that cause inflammation. These drugs include:
Benralizumab (Fasenra)
Mepolizumab (Nucala)
Reslizumab (Cinqair)
Tezepelumab-ekko (Tezspire) is a first-in-class medicine indicated for the add-on maintenance treatment of adult and pediatric patients aged 12 years and older. Taken by injection, it targets a specific molicule that causes inflammation in the airways.
Home remedies
Medication will probably be key to getting your asthma under control, but you can do some things at home to help.
Avoid asthma triggers.
Exercise regularly.
Stay at a healthy weight.
Take care of conditions that can trigger symptoms, such as GERD.
Do breathing exercises to ease symptoms so you need less medication.
Some people use complementary treatments such as yoga, acupuncture, biofeedback, or supplements like vitamin C and ding chuan tang. Talk to your doctor before trying any of these.
