Asthma Medication: Inhaler vs Oral Medication

Inhaler vs. Oral Medication

There are many safe, effective medicines that can help control asthma. There are two main kinds of asthma medicines: preventer medicine and rescue medicine. Each medicine is important, and each medicine does a different thing to the lungs. For most people with asthma, the doctor will prescribe both kinds of medicine

    1.       Asthma preventer (controller) medicine: You take your preventer medicine every day, even if you have no symptoms, to make sure your airways stay clear and to prevent redness, mucus and swelling.

2.       Asthma rescue medicine: You keep your rescue medicine on hand and take it only when you need it - during an asthma attack, if your breathing gets bad, or (sometimes) before exercising.

There are two ways you can take asthma medication. Either by inhaler or oral administration (pills or liquid). Usually doctors may prescribe both where inhaler as asthma rescue medicine and oral medication for preventer medicine. For preventer asthma, the most widely use drug are the combination of corticosteroid and beta 2 agonist.

Corticosteroids are man-made drugs that closely resemble cortisol, a hormone that your adrenal glands produce naturally. Hormone steroids help control metabolism, inflammation, immune function, salt and water balance, development of sexual characteristics and your ability to withstand the stress of illness and injury. This drug work by decreasing inflammation and reducing the activity of the immune system. It reduce the production of inflammatory chemicals in order to minimize tissue damage that occur in the air pathway during asthma attack. By reducing the immune response, mucus production can also be decreased.

Another drug combined is beta 2 agonist. It mainly affects the muscles around the airways (bronchi and bronchioles). When asthma occur, bands of muscle around the airways tighten, making the airways narrower. This often results in breathlessness. Beta-agonists work by telling the muscles of the airways to relax, widening the airways. This results in easier breathing. There are two type of beta 2 agonist; Long Acting Beta 2 Agonist (LABA) or short acting beta 2 agonist. In preventer asthma medicine, it is usually use LABA.

Beta 2 Agonist can cause a minor side effect. It mainly affects the muscles in the airways. They may also affect the muscles in the heart and around the bones. When the muscles in the heart are affected, a fast heart beat and palpitations (fluttering feeling in the chest) may occur. These medications may also affect the muscles of the bones (called skeletal muscles), causing shakiness and cramping of the hands, legs and feet. Often this combination of a fast heart rate and shakiness causes anxiety (nervousness) and worsens breathlessness. These side-effects can last for a few minutes and may go away after a few days of regular use.

Method of Medication:

1.       Inhaler

An inhaler is a device holding a medicine that you take by breathing in (inhaling). Inhalers are the main treatment for asthma. By inhaling the medicine into the breathing tubes, the medicine goes to the lungs and very little of it gets into the rest of the body, meaning the risks of side effects are very small.

There is side effect of using inhaler, most side effects happen in the throat:

·         Hoarseness and sore throat

·         Thrush or yeast infection (looks like a whitish layer on your tongue).

It can prevent thrush by rinsing mouth, gargling and spitting out the water after you use the inhaler.

2.    Oral Medication

Corticosteroid oral medication may make the episode shorter and prevent early recurrence of episodes. The length of treatment with corticosteroids can be different depending on the person. It your attack wasn't very severe, you could take corticosteroids for only 3 days. People with severe persistent asthma may need to take corticosteroid pills or liquid by mouth daily or every other day to control their symptoms.

Oral medication travel throughout the body before reaching the airway. This results in more side effects and more serious side effects than with inhaled corticosteroids, which treat inflammation in the airways only. Some of the side effects of long-term use are:

·         Glucose intolerance

·         Peptic ulcer

·         Bloating

·         Weight gain

·         Elevated blood pressure

·         Osteoporosis

To minimize or prevent side effects of corticosteroids keep the dose of corticosteroids as low as possible while still maintaining asthma control.

Which one is better; Inhaler or Oral Medication?

Inhaler is commonly used as an asthma medication compare to oral medication because;

	Inhaler				Oral Medication
	Simple handling – only breath in the drug				Need to swallow the pills with water and
					taste bitter
	Only go to the lungs. The possibility for				More likely to cause side effects because
	side effects is low when a short burst is				they are carried to all parts of the body
	used.
	Can act as either "rescue" medications				Used only for asthma control to prevent
	when immediate relief is needed or used				asthma flare-ups and not used to relieve
	to control asthma symptoms from				immediate symptoms.
	occurring.