You’re enjoying an evening out with friends when your chest suddenly tightens. You cough. Then the wheezing begins. These warning signs are all too familiar: they signal an impending asthma episode. Knowing your early warning signs helps you reduce the severity of an asthma episode. But wouldn’t it be better if you could spot trouble earlier?

You can. The key is to use your peak flow meter. This portable, handheld device measures the maximum volume of air you can expel from your lungs. Think of your peak flow meter as your personal radar detector. Once you learn to use it, it will alert you when your lung function is less than normal — the time when an episode is more likely to occur. Tracking your airway function with a peak flow meter can help you predict and prepare for asthma episodes. Your radar detector’s early warning can lessen the severity of an episode, because it tells you when it’s time to use your inhaled quick-relief medication (also called reliever or rescue medication) before the wheezing begins. The information your peak flow meter provides may even tell you it’s a good idea to cancel your aerobics class, helping you to avoid an asthma episode altogether.

Using your peak flow meter

Your peak flow meter doesn’t do any good if you don’t use it correctly. Ask your health care provider to demonstrate proper peak flow meter use, step by step. Then, have someone on your doctor’s staff watch you try it yourself, so you can be sure you’re doing it right. The following recommendations for peak flow meter use are excerpted from the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP, a project of the National Institutes of Health).

The basics

1. Before use, be sure the sliding marker or arrow on the peak flow meter is at the bottom of the numbered scale.
2. Stand up straight. Take as deep a breath as you can, put the mouthpiece in your mouth, and close your lips around it. Do not block the mouthpiece with your tongue. Blow out as hard and as quickly as you can until your lungs are nearly empty.
3. Note the number on the meter, closest to where the marker or arrow stops.
   Finding your personal best

4. Repeat steps 1-3 three times in a row. All three readings should be similar.
5. Record the highest of the readings.
6. Repeat steps 1 through 5 at least once a day for two to three weeks (or as instructed by your health care provider). The highest reading you record is your personal best peak flow rate — your own “normal.”

Once your personal best peak flow rate has been pinpointed, your health care provider can use that number to help design your asthma management plan and your asthma action plan. Your asthma management plan tells you how to avoid asthma symptoms, and your asthma action plan tells you what to do when symptoms flare. While measuring your peak flow rate regularly may be part of your management plan, peak flow is central to your action plan. In both cases, using your peak flow meter the right way and recording the readings accurately are crucial to living well with asthma without being slowed by symptoms.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 11:07 am and is filed under Adult Asthma. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.