Subtyping Asthma: The New Direction for Asthmaniacs!

Asthmaniac has launched a new approach to the management of asthma.

This change is driven by a more refined understanding in the science of asthma about the existence of different asthma subtypes, each  requiring unique strategies for successful control.  The science-driven modification will eventually be adopted by all practitioners, but Asthmaniac will be among the first!

What Changed in the Science of Asthma?

The symptoms of asthma have not changed.  Night cough, wheezing, and shortness of breath are still the problems that wreck a normal life for asthma sufferers.

The reliever or rescue medicines have not changed either.  Bronchodilator medicines such as albuterol and  ipratropium will still be needed to reduce the wheeze and shortness of breath that is central to asthma.

What has changed is the range and types of control medicines along with a more detailed understanding of which medicines are effective for each subtype of asthma.

This more advanced understanding explains why some controllers we have prescribed heavily in the past simply don’t work in some people.  Getting a person’s asthma subtype aligned with a medicine that is laser-focused on the underlying problem makes all the difference.

This new understanding has emerged along with the development of medicines that are actually designed for each subtype.  This means your treatment plan will be more personal than ever before.  Instead of lumping you with asthma sufferers of the same age and clinical background, this new approach digs deeper for “markers” of how your asthma is different and how best to treat it.

How will this shake out practically? 

Here is what I expect to happen.

The world of asthma sufferers is divided as follows:  Those that know and have been diagnosed with asthma and those that have asthma symptoms but have never been diagnosed.  In both of these groups, special testing in individual patients will show differences in markers that will lead to classification according to an asthma subtype or “endotype”.  With each endotype comes a set of proven interventions along with a new appreciation that some standard treatments won’t be helpful.

The result will be that each asthma sufferer will have better short-term control of wheezing, night cough and shortness of breath.  In the long term, the superior treatment plan with lead to reduced long-term, permanent lung damage (we call that “remodeling”).  The sooner we get this new approach going, the better it will be for preserving best lung function for life!