Autumn flare up

[mrmisterly]

Hi all, I’m new on the forum 👋🏼 - find myself hear because my asthma keeps flaring up since September. Had a course of oral steroids from doctor, but it didn’t fix it. Everyone else talks about lovely autumn colours and I think “oh no! Drizzle, rotting leaves and viruses” - Does anyone else’s asthma flare at this time? What could I do to calm my respiratory system down? It is getting me down that my chest is constantly getting tight.

[twinkly29]

Maybe it's a sensitivity or allergy to something like a particular mold that grows in the autumn? Not all tightness etc is caused by asthma (tightness can be caused by many things), even in asthmatics, and if steroids/asthma meds aren't helping then it might suggest it's something else causing it.

If your doctor does think it's your asthma then maybe they need to think about changing your preventer inhaler. New ones take about 8 weeks to become fully effective so wouldn't be an instant fix but long-term might be better for you.

[Oldandgray]

. At this time of year it’s the spores from toadstools and mushrooms. I think this year is the first time for a few that haven’t resorted to prednisolone but managed with just ventolin!

[Gareth57]

Hi, I have got into a routine of being under control during the summer (except for taking antihistamines for pollen) then getting tight and uncontrolled in the autumn, (it seems to be moulds and pollens and possibly not getting as much air through the house when it's cold) back to not too bad in winter then rubbish again in spring. So I take Fostair 100/6 when I expect to be ok and Fostair 200/6 when I expect to be rubbish. We trialled this last year with reasonable success so it's now on my repeat prescription so I can fine tune myself.

[Poobah]

If this is a regular, seasonal thing then talk to your asthma doctor or asthma nurse about an asthma plan that takes into account the fact that autumn is a bad time for you. Discuss your treatment and how you can step it up in time to prevent a flare up, or at least to reduce the worst of the symptoms. This would involve increasing your preventer inhaler in good time and keeping that up until the season was well and truly over.

It doesn't hurt to review the effectiveness of your current treatments, especially as they're not sufficient at certain times of the year. There are a variety of combination inhalers to choose from and Montelukast is good at addressing seasonal allergies. Any change in treatment will take about 8 weeks to build to an optimum affect. In the meantime, another course of steroids may help together with a step up of your preventer inhaler.

As Gareth57 has described, he has two strengths of his preventer inhaler and can swap to the more potent one when necessary.

[Anniecath]

Could be mould spores. I always have flare ups in autumn and in summer, hay fever season. Don't know of a way round it except upping doses if you can.