Asthma is not being able to expel the air in your lungs so you can refill them. Which leads to coughing in the attempt to clear them.
I had Asthma from the age of 3 until I had my last episode when I was 28, I am now 66. There was no actual treatment for Asthma back then. I was frequently given shots of adrenalin which did not help, occasionally I had to be put on oxygen (tent). When I was 12 our family doctor discovered an inhaler medication that another doctor invented for his son, it was Asthma Nephrin. Three inhales and I could breath.
My daughter who is 50 this year was not born with Asthma but was give Aspirin as a child when she had a temp. has severe Asthma, she has been hospitalized many times with such low oxygen levels they feared she would not recover. They for some reason no longer use Asthma Nephrin, guess the pharmaceutical companies did not make enough money on it, the now treat Asthma now with Steroids. Steroids cause severe weight problems when given in large doses and Diabetes.
Asthma nephrine was not dropped by drug companies because they could not make enough money, it was replaced by better medicine. The old medicines stimulated two different receptors, one speeds up the heart and raises the blood pressure while the other opens the airways. The olders medicines were available back when I was in training but weren't used because of cardiovascular effects. Newer medicines such provental stimulate the second receptor with minimal effect on heart rate and blood pressure. These medicines are still quite frequently used and are the "rescue inhalors" Their downside is that asthma is a complex chain of inflamatory reactions and these only treat the very end result of bronchiol constriction.
Steroid inhalors use steroids with a very short half life. The ammount of active steroid in the blood stream is almost unmeasurable. For severe episodes, oral steroids may be used and can aggravate diabetes and can cause a whole host of side effects. Sometimes benefits outweigh the risks however.
There are also a whole host of newer meds and drugs coming to the market that affect the inflammatory process at various levels without steroids.
I don't know if they still sell Primatine Mist but that is basically the medicine you are describing.
I am not an asthma specialist but I know that the most effective treatment involves breaking the inflammatory cycle before the first wheeze and relying on the bronchodialators for breakthrough symptoms.
The interesting thing about this story is that in some asthmatics, aspirin will trigger a sever asthma attack. These people also tend to have nasal polyps, hows that for useless information?