Personalized Medicine: Tailoring Asthma Treatments to the Individual

The Golden State ranks 4th for Health Care Quality and Public Health. The state’s residents enjoy having a #7 ranking for health care in general. That’s great news for anyone dealing with asthma. 

California is known for innovation in many sectors, including healthcare and tech. Personalized medicine is a big part of this picture. Many of California’s doctors focus on personalized approaches instead of one-size-fits-all treatment options. Premium Allergy believes that allergy patients deserve personalized asthma treatments. It’s important for managing asthma.

Personalized Asthma Treatments: What Does It Entail?

Humans are unique with different genetics, tolerances, lifestyles, living environments, and daily routines. When it comes to health, a one-size-fits-all approach may work well for one person but fails miserably for you. You have different triggers. Your asthma may be more severe than another’s. 

Many factors can make your experience with asthma different from someone two towns away.

• Air quality isn’t the same from one region to the next.
• Your home environment may be damper, more prone to mold, than another’s.
• Your job may have you working outside every day.
• You may exercise more than someone else.
• There could be a genetic factor in your asthma.

Your symptoms also differ. You might go through the main symptoms: chest pressure and pain, cough, shortness of breath, and wheezing. You might only experience a severe cough. Because of this, you need treatments that work for your exact situation. That’s where personalized asthma treatments come in.

• Treatments are targeted directly to you, lowering the risk of side effects and ineffective medications.
• You’re not guessing at what medication or treatment option might work best.
• There’s no more trying one medicine, moving to the next when the first isn’t the right fit, and then trying another.

What Should an Asthma Sufferer Expect During the Initial Appointment?

In the first appointment, you’ll spend time getting to know the allergist. The allergist also gets to know you.

Offer your complete medical history in as much detail as you can. Your primary care provider will share records, but depending on your age, there may be gaps that you’ll need to fill in.

• Provide any medical records you have from your childhood. The more information you can share, the easier it is to start building an effective asthma treatment plan.
• Share your experiences with asthma. Think about what you’re doing when an asthma attack hits, what time of day it was, when in the season, how long it’s been happening, and if the severity is worsening with time.
• Talk about your parents’, siblings’, children’s, and even grandparents’ health histories, especially if any of them also experienced severe allergies or asthma.

Once your health history and experience with asthma are covered, you’ll start getting to the pertinent aspects of a treatment plan.

Start by discussing the possible treatment options. Ask questions about tests that help build a personalized treatment plan, such as biomarker or genetic tests. You want to know as much as you can regarding how they’re performed, what the results might indicate, and what happens once you have the results.

As you start defining your asthma type, it’s easier to find effective treatments. Here are the most common types of asthma.

• Allergic asthma – Asthma symptoms are triggered by your allergies.
• Asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS) – You have COPD and asthma together.
• Cough-variant asthma – The only symptom you experience is a cough.
• Exercise-induced asthma – Exercise and physical activity trigger your asthma symptoms.
• Occupational asthma – Your work environment triggers asthma because of the chemicals, fumes, or particles you breathe on the job.

How Do Personalized Asthma Treatments Work?

After the initial meeting with an allergist, a blueprint is built and testing begins. Allergy doctors use a variety of tests and tools to explore how asthma presents itself in your specific situation.

1. Testing and Diagnostics:

Some of the tests that may be performed include:

• Advanced Lung Function Testing – While the standard lung function test, known as spirometry, dates back over 175 years, science keeps advancing. Advanced lung function testing provides a lot more detail. Plethysmography shows how much air your lungs can hold. A bronchial challenge test shows how well your lungs function after exposure to an asthma trigger. The Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test (CPET) looks at how well your lungs and heart work together when you’re exercising.
• Biomarker Testing – Biomarkers are tests that detect when inflammation is present. If there is a high level of white blood cells after exposure to a specific allergen or activity, it helps narrow down the type of asthma you have.
• Pharmacogenetics – It’s a test that studies how your body processes different medications. This is essential in determining which asthma medications are most effective. The problem is that these tests don’t always consider your lifestyle or environment, which can impact the usefulness.
• Spirometry – This is one of the most common breathing tests. You breathe into a tube that measures the force or amount of air you breathe in and out.

2. Environment and Lifestyle:

Your doctor also needs to look at your work and home environments and your lifestyle. These can all play important roles in asthma triggers. Personalized asthma management plans require a level of avoidance of triggers when it’s possible. 

For example, you live nearer the woods where pine pollen is prevalent. You may need to run an air purifier to keep allergen counts down in your home. When you’re outside, you need to wear a mask.

If you can’t avoid a trigger, such as those you experience with occupational asthma, you can have effective medications that minimize the symptoms you experience.

3. Digital Health Tools:

Tracking your symptoms is important. Smart inhalers track your usage and provide a wealth of information to your doctor, especially if you pair those records with entries about where you were and what you were doing. Plus, they remind you when it’s time for asthma medications.

Other examples of real-time data that can be useful are the air quality reports you find on AirNow.gov. Tracking the air quality when you experience asthma symptoms is another useful tool for your doctor.

4. Biologics

One area your allergy doctor may discuss is newer asthma medications called biologics. They help reduce inflammation by targeting how your immune system triggers an asthma response.

Our Allergist Offers Personalized Treatments for Asthma Symptoms

When you work with an allergist for personalized asthma treatments, you need to be involved. Ask questions, do your own research, and keep your allergy team informed of anything that seems new, different, or concerning.

Personalized asthma treatments help you reach a point where your asthma is more than managed, it’s fully controlled. With a heightened understanding of your triggers and treatments that control severe attacks, you’ll feel free to get outside and enjoy all California has to offer.

Schedule an appointment online or by phone and let the team at Premium Allergy and Respiratory Center guide you towards lasting solutions.