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While the majority of the more than 25 million Americans living with asthma enjoy active, healthy lives, for others, severe symptoms are part of daily life, despite using high dose asthma medicines and avoiding triggers.

Does this sound familiar? If so, you could have severe asthma, a type of asthma that affects approximately 5-10 percent of those with the condition. Increasing the risk of death, illness, and depression, and limiting the ability to work or go to school, severe asthma is dangerous, and is responsible for 50 percent of all asthma healthcare costs. Control is the key and is attainable even if you do have severe asthma.

Is your asthma under control? To find out, start by visiting the American Lung Association website, where you can take the My Asthma Control Assessment and access a downloadable summary of its findings to take to your next doctor’s appointment. Visit Lung.org/severe-asthma for more information, as well as to access questions that you can ask your doctor for a more productive conversation.

Better understanding your asthma is the first step to taking better control of your symptoms. (StatePoint)