People with mild asthma may not need daily medicine to prevent flare-ups, as doctors now recommend. A study found that patients who take medicine only when asthma attacks occur fare about as well as those who swallow a pill or use inhaled steroids every day. If a bigger, longer study confirmed the results and patients with mild asthma switched to attacks-only treatment, about $2 billion a year would be saved on medication in the United States, lead researcher Dr. Homer A. Boushey said. His team found that over a year, patients who took daily medicine to limit airway inflammation had about the same number of severe asthma attacks and changes in lung function, and reported similar quality of life, as those who used asthma inhalers only when flare-ups occurred. Asthma attacks can include wheezing, shortness of breath and tightness in the chest.
