Looking after your asthma on holiday

If you’re thinking about booking a holiday this summer, there are a few things to think about if you have asthma. Leanne is a Respiratory Nurse Specialist for our Helpline and has some top tips to help you plan a stress-free holiday in the UK.

Planning a trip with asthma means considering what you will need to stay well while you’re away. This summer, with coronavirus restrictions still limiting travel abroad, you might be thinking about booking a holiday in the UK. Here are my top tips and things to think about before you book.

What to think about before booking a holiday in the UK

Accommodation

When thinking about where to stay on holiday, think about what triggers you might encounter. This could be dust, log burners, animals or another asthma trigger that sets off your symptoms. If you’re holidaying in the UK, you might want to think about taking your own bedding, if you’re sensitive to dust mites.

Physical activity

If you’re thinking of booking a holiday that involves some sort of physical activity – whether that’s walking, swimming, climbing, or something else – you should be able to enjoy it, providing that your asthma is well controlled. More often than not, if physical activity triggers your symptoms, it’s because your asthma is not well controlled, so it’s a good idea to book an appointment with your GP or asthma nurse if this happens to you. It’s also crucial to know what to do if your asthma gets worse during exercise.

Signs that you need to stop and take your reliever inhaler coughing, wheezing and breathlessness. After exercising, it’s normal to be breathing faster, but tell-tale signs of an asthma attack are if you’re more breathless than you usually get after physical activity, or if your breathing isn’t calming down after stopping. 

Get to know your good days and bad days, and your personal triggers, like pollen, dust or heat, as this will help you plan any physical activity during your trip. Know that it’s OK to let yourself off and rest. Asthma UK has great advice on how to stay well with your asthma during physical activity, which I recommend to our callers.

Weather

Whether you’re at home or on holiday in the UK, the summer months can be difficult for people with asthma and we often get calls from people who find that their symptoms are triggered by heat.

We also get asked why heat can trigger asthma symptoms. The two possible reasons for this are that:

• breathing in hot air can cause your airways to narrow – this can make you cough and be short of breath

• there are often higher levels of pollens and pollutants in the air when it’s hot in summer. 

You can read about what to do if hot weather triggers your asthma on our health advice pages.

Pollen

You may find your asthma is worse in the summer months and that your symptoms are set off by pollen. This is a common asthma trigger and during the summer months, grass pollen reaches its peak in the UK, along with many types of tree pollen.

I recommend that if people take antihistamines for their hay fever, to start taking them up to four weeks before they normally get symptoms. Starting them early means that when the pollen that triggers your symptoms starts being released, the medication has already built up in your bloodstream, meaning you may be less likely to react.

If you usually use a steroid nasal spray, it can take up to two weeks to start working - so again, start using it before your personal pollen trigger is released. If you’re not sure what your pollen triggers are (you can have more than one over the course of the year), I recommend callers to look at the Asthma UK pollen calendar. Make sure you remember to take your hayfever medication with you on holiday as well as your asthma medication.

Claire Fisher, Asthma UK and British Lung Foundation Respiratory Nurse, also shares some top tips on dealing with pollen if you have asthma in her latest blog.

What to think about in the lead up to your holiday

Book an asthma review

If you haven’t had an asthma review this year, try to book one before you go on holiday. This will help ensure that your asthma is well controlled and during your review, you can update your action plan together. Make sure to take your action plan with you on holiday, so you know what to do if you get any symptoms.

Tell the people you’re going with about your asthma

It’s a good idea to tell the people you’re going on holiday with about your asthma, particularly what to do if it gets worse or you have an asthma attack.  

Know what to do in an asthma emergency

For going on holiday in the UK, it’s a good idea to take a copy of your prescription with you. This could be a paper copy, or you could take photos on your phone. You could also download the NHS app, where you can view your medical records.

Keep your medicines, and equipment like your peak flow meter, in their original packaging, with the prescription label attached.

Also make sure you keep your reliver inhaler in a place that’s easy to get to if you need it, like a trouser pocket or a front pocket of a bag.

Make sure you have the contact details of your doctor to hand, in case of an emergency. It’s also a good idea to find out how you might be able to get more supplies of your asthma medicines at your holiday destination, in case they get lost or damaged. Look up where your nearest pharmacy will be, so you know where it is if you need it.

And remember, enjoy yourself! If you want more tips and advice about travelling with asthma or travelling with severe asthma, take a look at our health advice pages.

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