Question: What drugs help asthma?

Dan Lewis answered on 17 Jun 2016:

There are many different type of drugs that can help treat asthma, they are all slightly different from each other in the way they work and who is able to take them. Pretty much all the drugs available for asthma treatment come in the form of inhalers, where the person will shake the inhaler and inhale the drug into the lungs. Inhalers are an excellent for the treatment of asthma as they get straight to the area that causes asthma and they are fast acting.

The most common types of long term asthma controllers are inhaled corticosteriods and long acting beta agonists. Both of which normally are combined into one inhaler, these are excellent to help prevent asthma if the person takes them as the doctors says.

Quick relief (rescue) asthma inhalers include short acting beta agonists that are bronchodilators (relax the bronchi in the lungs during an asthma attack allowing oxygen to get back into them).

Here is a little explanation of what a beta agonist inhaler does;
Beta-agonists are medications that mainly affect the muscles around the airways (bronchi and bronchioles). When the lungs are irritated, 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.