Is It Bad to Use an Inhaler Without Asthma?

An inhaler is a divine gift for people who have asthma, COPD, or any respiratory issue. A person can easily carry this small handheld, portable device and effectively fight asthma, COPD, and other lung-related problems. Although asthma patients mostly use an inhaler to control asthma symptoms, people also benefit from it for other respiratory issues.

So, if you want to use an inhaler for any respiratory issue without having an asthma problem, you might look for an answer: is it bad to use an inhaler without asthma? To get the answer to this question, you have to read the article thoroughly. Here in this article, I’ll show you what would happen when you use an inhaler without asthma.

What Is An Inhaler?

An inhaler is a medical tool that delivers asthma medications to the lungs through the airways in an aerosolized form. The medicine contained in the inhaler remains in the form of mist or spray so that it can quickly go to your lungs.

It’s mostly used by asthma patients as a rescue medication and maintenance but it’s also effective for people who have COPD or other respiratory issues. Asthma patients mostly benefited from it because it delivers asthma medicines quickly to the lungs and opens up the blocked and narrowed airways.

When you look for an inhaler, you’ll find three different types of inhalers: metered-dose inhalers which are also known as puffers, soft mist inhalers, and another one is dry powdered inhalers.

Metered Dose Inhalers

MDI or metered-dose inhalers are a medical tool that assists a person to take a certain amount of medicine to the lungs. It’s a self-administered device that delivers aerosolized medication in the lung through short bursts.

Dry Powder Inhaler

DPI or dry powder inhaler delivers the medicine in your lung in the form of dry powder. It’s an alternative to metered-dose inhalers or aerosol-based inhalers. You’ll find this inhaler in two different forms, one of these holds multiple doses up to 200 doses and another one is a single dose inhaler.

Soft Mist Inhaler

A soft mist inhaler is a propellant-free inhaler that is a little bit larger than a metered-dose inhaler. These inhalers deliver a low-velocity aerosol mist that inhales the medicine in your lung for a longer period of time compared to dry-powered and metered dose inhalers.

How Does An Inhaler Work In The Body?

An inhaler is a very effective and powerful medical device for people who have lung-related issues. The main reason behind its high effectiveness and huge popularity is it directly delivers the medication to your lungs. Therefore, it doesn’t need to be explained that an inhaler is mostly used for treating different types of lung-related conditions, such as Asthma, COPD, etc.

As the inhaler delivers the medication straight into your lung, you’ll require less medication compared to other medicines that are in tablets or other forms. So it means you have fewer risks of common side effects of medicine while getting the most effective treatment.

Let’s figure out how an inhaler works with your body with different lung-related issues:

Reliever Inhalers

Reliever inhalers are used to open up the blocked airways that are caused by asthma or COPD. By taking this inhaler you can expand your narrow airways and let the airflow go more freely to your lungs. Consequently, you’ll get relief from breathlessness and wheezing. Relievers inhalers work instantly within a minute and last for a couple of hours.

You may need to use the inhaler occasionally if your asthma is well controlled as per your asthma action plan. Remember the less you take medicine the better it is good for your health, so strictly follow your asthma action plan to consume less medication.  Focus more on physical activity and breathing exercises to control breathing without taking drugs to enhance your lung capacity and lead a normal life.

Preventer Inhalers

Preventer inhalers don’t work instantly like reliever inhalers but it’s as important as relievers. You have to switch to these inhalers when your symptoms aren’t controlled by occasional puffs by using your reliever medicine. Preventer inhalers stop the symptoms from getting triggered.

Although the different forms of these inhalers work in different ways, the ultimate goal is the same. Preventer inhalers reduce the inflammation in your airways by opening the airways up.

How Inhalers Works With Asthma

Asthma is a long-time disease that swells and inflames your lung and triggers different symptoms, like breathlessness, coughing, tightness in the chest, wheezing, etc.

The saddest truth about this chronic disease is it has no permanent solution and no cure. But with the right treatment, such as asthma medicines, well-maintained physical activity, and breathing exercises you can reduce the risk of asthma attacks.

Fortunately, an inhaler is a great invention of medical science that helps you to keep asthma completely under your control. There are different types of inhalers available in the market.

Which one you’ll use depends on your symptoms, its frequency, and how severe it is. Whatever you choose, all of these have a common goal to keep asthma under your control by quickly delivering the medications to your lungs.

How Inhalers Works With COPD

During the early stage of COPD, you’ll occasionally need a reliever dose of an inhaler. But with the time being,  if you don’t quit smoking, you’ll find yourself more limited in doing different physical activities and exercise.

In such a situation, you have to start taking inhalers on a regular basis. Remember, inhaling medicine helps a lot when your lungs get mostly affected and not in the good condition as they were used to.

Is It Bad To Use An Inhaler Without Asthma?

If you don’t have asthma but want to use an asthma inhaler for other respiratory issues then you are probably looking for an answer: is it bad to use an inhaler without asthma?

Well, it’s completely safe to use an inhaler even if you don’t have asthma. But, you should keep one thing in mind that consuming any medication for a condition that you don’t have isn’t good practice. It’ll weaken your natural immune system.

However, if you take inhalers without asthma problems, you don’t need to be worried about that. Because it has relatively lower risks if you compare it to other medications like diabetics medicine that has a dangerous effect on the bloodstream by dropping the blood sugar.

The best practice for managing any respiratory issue is to control breathing without taking drugs in a natural way.  Despite that, when you take any reliever medication or bronchodilator inhaler, it’ll open up your airways and help to relieve spasms in your airway muscle.

But when you have no spasms it won’t put any effect on your airways. The potential side effect of taking an inhaler without asthma will increase your heartbeat and you might feel very shaky.

How Do Doctors Determine Whether You Need An Inhaler Or Not?

For asthma, COPD, or any other respiratory issues when you consult with your health care provider or doctor they won’t suggest you an inhaler instantly. After completing some diagnosis process your doctor will determine whether you’ll require an inhaler or not.

The diagnosis process is held by analyzing your past history and according to your symptoms usually for asthma, COPD, or other respiratory issues. After that, the doctor will confirm it by doing your lung function testing.

Generally, asthma patients will encounter obstructions due to narrow airways during the lung function test. After taking an inhaler if the obstruction resolves then the doctor will suggest you use an inhaler.

Conclusion

An inhaler is a prescribed medical device for asthma patients. Sometimes people without asthma also use this device for their respiratory issues. However, if you don’t have asthma but are feeling breathlessness or any respiratory issue and want to use an inhaler. Then you may want to know: is it bad to use an inhaler without asthma?

In the above article, I have briefly discussed the matter. If you read the entire article you’ll have your answer. To conclude this article, I’ll suggest you don’t use any medication or medical tools for a condition if you don’t suffer from that. For your respiratory issue, you can do breathing practice with an OPEP device which is drugless and recommended by doctors and pulmonologists to increase your lung capacity.