• Keep asthma medicine with you at all times. Take your scheduled medicines even if your signs go away.
• Avoid cigarette, pipe and cigar smoke.
• Stay away from foods, medicines or things that cause you to have signs of asthma. These are called triggers.
• Avoid contact with people who have a cold or flu.
• Rest and drink plenty of liquids at the first sign of a cold.
• Breathe through a scarf or other covering in cold weather.
• Talk to your doctor about an exercise to strengthen your lungs.
• Reduce stress.
Call your doctor right away if you：
• Have a cough, are wheezing or are having trouble breathing.
• Feel you need to take more medicine than your doctor has ordered.
• Have a temperature over 101 degrees F or 38 degrees C.

Asthma is a disease in which the airways into your lungs become narrow and produce mucus. When this happens, it is hard to breathe. Some things that can trigger an asthma attack include allergies, cold viruses, medicines, dusts, chemicals, exercise or emotions.

Signs
• Breathing faster than normal or trouble breathing
• Wheezing or noisy breathing
• Coughing that may be worse at night or early in the morning
• Feeling tight in the chest
• Having a fast heartbeat
• Having head congestion
• Having a itchy, scratchy or sore throat
• Being tired
• If your doctor ordered a peak flow meter, having a drop in peak flow meter readings

You may have more signs of asthma if you:
• Have allergies
• Have a family member with asthma
• Are sensitive to air pollution
• Are exposed to smoke
• Have stress

Your Care
Your care may include:
• Taking different medicines to:
─ Open airways
─ Decrease your body’s response to allergens
─ Decrease the swelling of your airways
─ Decrease congestion
• Finding out what causes your signs.
• Allergy testing.
• Using a peak flow meter to check and prevent asthma attacks.
• Drinking a large glass of liquid every 1-2 hours. This helps keep your mucus thin. Thin mucus is easier for you to cough up and decreases the swelling in your lungs. Clear liquids are best, such as water, fruit juice, tea, broth and clear soups.
• Avoiding milk products when wheezing because they can thicken your mucus.

● Keep your blood glucose as close to normal as possible.
● Use dental floss at least once a day. Flossing helps prevent the buildup of plaque on your teeth. Plaque can harden and grow under your gums and cause problems. Using a sawing motion, gently bring the floss between the teeth, scraping from bottom to top several times.
● Brush your teeth after each meal and snack. Use a soft toothbrush. Turn the bristles against the gum line and brush gently. Use small, circular motions. Brush the front, back, and top of each tooth
● If you wear false teeth, keep them clean.
● Call your dentist right away if you have problems with your teeth and gums.
● Call your dentist if you have red, sore, or bleeding gums; gums that are pulling away from your teeth; a sore tooth that could be infected; or soreness from your dentures.
● Get your teeth cleaned and your gums checked by your dentist twice a year.
● If your dentist tells you about a problem, take care of it right away.
● Be sure your dentist knows that you have diabetes.
● If you smoke, talk with your doctor about ways to quit smoking.

If you have one or more of these problems, you may have tooth and gum damage from diabetes:

● red, sore, swollen gums
● bleeding gums
● gums pulling away from your teeth so your teeth look long
● loose or sensitive teeth
● bad breath
● a bite that feels different
● dentures—false teeth—that do not fit well

Tooth and gum problems can happen to anyone. A sticky film full of germs, called plaque, builds up on your teeth.

High blood glucose helps germs, also called bacteria, grow. Then you can get red, sore, and swollen gums that bleed when you brush your teeth.People with diabetes can have tooth and gum problems more often if their blood glucose stays high. High blood glucose can make tooth and gum problems worse. You can even lose your teeth.

Smoking makes it more likely for you to get a bad case of gum disease, especially if you have diabetes and are age 45 or older.