Perhaps. But my daughter nearly died because her asthma was treated too routinely. She suffered an attack while driving and thought that she had time to get home. When she neared our town, she realized she would have to stop for help. By the time the paramedics arrived she was unconscious and the paramedics were down to the last step in their process before she responded. They were almost convinced that she would die before they could transport.
My research following this incident revealed that we had not properly educated my daughter to recognize and deal with the severity of her asthmatic symptoms. She was not able to recognize the onset of an attack early, and she did not appreciate the potential severity of an attack and the consequences of not handling it properly.
A key tool for educating her was an inspirometer. This device readily indicated that I am able to draw air into my lungs at twice the rate of my wife or my daughter, due to my larger lungs and airways.
After some experimenting with the inspirometer, my daughter was able to understand that her ability to breathe was reduced during an attack to a small fraction of the air she could normally breathe.
Also, she was able to realize that her need for air could be dramatically reduced by eliminating physical activity. An amount of air which is sufficient for comfortable resting would be entirely insufficient for an activity like driving a car.
Finally, she was able to develop a sense of when an attack was coming on, before the symptoms were at their worst. This helped her to anticipate the need for cessation of activity, medication, and access to help.
I believe that it is borderline negligence to diagnose a patient with asthma without training and educating them with an inspirometer.
You are probably right. Those with genuine asthma need to understand the condition and be prepared to deal with it at the onset. My point is that the doctor in our case took a complaint that it was "hard to breathe" on the first and only visit regarding this symptom and diagnosed asthma on the spot, after twenty seconds of listening through the stethoscope. He prescribed an inhaler, which was never used, and voila, we were part of the asthma "epidemic". I think the doctor took the diagnosis far too lightly and that impacts people like your daughter with genuine, life-threatening asthma.
An oximeter clipped to the tip of your finger gives the quickest, most accurate picture of your oxygen transport system.
This is for information, not an advert!
http://www.fact-canada.com/Sportstat/sportstat-pulse-oximeter.html
I'm sorry that I didn't catch this fundamental misunderstanding earlier. The basic problem in asthma, aka reactive airway disease(RAD) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD) is the dysfunction in expiration, also known as exhalation, from bronchoconstriction. The impaired airway exchange because they can't empty their lungs means that they retain carbon dioxide while starving for oxygen. That respiratory acidosis causes carbon dioxide narcosis which causes the person to pass out.
Beware of what you read on the net. If you want medical information, check out MedlinePlus first. Get some mileage from your taxes. I haven't caught them passing bogus information. The device is called a spirometer. It is used for gauging forced expiratory volume in one second(FEV1) and six seconds(FEV6), the latter being a substitute for forced vital capacity(FVC).