To ask why is dh's asthma OK in Corfu?

[Tuddlepops]

We're here now and dh hasn't used his inhalers at all. Been here since Thursday. We've been before and dh didn't then either. We thought that must have been a one off?

It's mild asthma but he is a but wheezy at home. It came on very late in life.

Any ideas? It's rained so not been dry every day.

^^

I never have asthma or eczema or hayfever when I'm abroad.

Are you staying somewhere with no upholstered furnishings/carpets/curtains (i.e. fewer house dust mites), no damp (i.e. no fungal spores), different pollen, no cats...?

No he uses preventer rarely blue one.

Hold on. He shouldn't stop using his preventer inhaler just because he's temporarily not getting symptoms.

@Tuddlepops how does he know he doesn't need his preventer then? If he takes a preventer inhaler twice daily he shouldn't feel any wheeze or chest tightness. He should still take it in Corfu.

I know someone who developed asthma after moving from the east to the west coast and it was triggered by a damper climate.

Air quality is very important

My very asthmatic friend lives in Birmingham, she bought a caravan in Wales and feels much better there.
I grew up in Liverpool, brothers very asthmatic - also much better on our annual North Wales holiday
So much less pollution

Firstly it's the drier air ( it's the damp air that makes my asthma bad)

Also if he's taking antihistamines to stop mosquito bites that may be helping g his asthma ( I have allergy asthma and antihistamines are part of my prescribed meds)

OP, I'm not sure what you mean here so I'm going to play safe and describe everything in excruciating detail.

Preventers are inhalers you take every day to prevent asthma symptoms. Usually steroids like beclometasone or similar. If the preventer is the one he's taking regularly, he needs to see the asthma nurse to check he's using it properly and maybe increase the dose or change the inhaler, because he's still getting wheezy.

The blue one asthmatics usually have is salbutamol, which opens up your airways and calms the asthma, and is what people mean by "reliever" (even if you take it preemptively before something you know will trigger symptoms, like exercise or going in a house with cats in it). He should be taking this every single time he gets wheezy, even a little bit. Untreated asthma symptoms can cause permanent damage and you really don't want that.

@MiaFeysImprobableBosom he uses the orange one daily at home. Blue as needed but not often.
He isn't taking antihistamines but we've just been saying maybe he should try them at home?
I need to take some my mozzy bite are horrendous 😫

My adult DS has this too. His GP told him that as his Asthma, and other allergies, Hay fever, eczema are all getting worse every year in the UK that he may want to consider moving somewhere near the sea as the salt in the air is beneficial. He currently lives very near an airport in the SE where there is a lot of pollution, so could be the salt air in Corfu is helping.

@Jenasaurus we live by the sea. Is your son going to move?

Thanks for the explanation; I was a bit concerned because I couldn't work out what inhalers he was having and when, and it's amazing how many asthmatics out there are just doing entirely the wrong thing with their inhalers. (I knew a woman whose entire asthma treatment regime consisted of spraying a steroid inhaler in the vague direction of her open mouth from about eight inches away, any time she felt wheezy. Obviously, it did fuck all, but she thought she was taking her medication.)

@MiaFeysImprobableBosom yikes

He should try it. Benadryl acrivastine, relief tablets are good

I know I sound like a broken record but he needs to take his preventer (orange) inhaler while he's on holiday too even if he feels he doesn't need it.

Thank you I just told him

Dust, mould, pets, pollen

He's never had an asthma attack just wheezing. He coughs sometimes. Hasn't whilst away.

I've told him he should still be using Orange one.

I don’t have asthma however I suffer really badly with migraines but we’ve been in Kos a week yet I’ve not had one. Usually if I’d been at home I’d have had at least one and 2 or 3 headaches, but I’ e had nothing. It’s really weird. I’ve never had this when I’ve been to other places on holiday.

If he's still resistant tell him to look up airway remodelling. Any time you're coughing and wheezing, you're potentially adding a tiny bit more scarring to the inside of your lungs. Chronically inflamed lungs gradually become damaged, irreversibly. You can end up with COPD on top of your asthma, and living with someone with that combination, I see every day that it's not a pleasant way to live. That's why I'm willing to look a bit OTT when I'm replying to someone who I'm worried might be under-treating their asthma

@MiaFeysImprobableBosom thank you I will.

That sounds awful, that frequency. I suffer too. Are you using triptans ?

I always joke that I'm allergic to the UK and Ireland. I've lived in other countries so it's not just the holiday things like no carpets, and not just being near the coast. In France, I still get asthma and hayfever in the north, but once I hit the southern third or so, all clear, even several hundred miles from the sea. Never had a problem in Italy, Greece, Portugal ... I can even do things like horse riding abroad (including brushing horses & mucking out); if I tried getting that close to hay or animals in the UK it would literally take months to get back to baseline breathing.

I think it's partly different pollens, partly a less humid climate (hence why I still got asthma when I lived near a forest in central France), partly less pollution. Maybe some other stuff. It's been noticeable even when I'm only away for a short time, so still using all the UK toiletries and cleaning products.

@Fink that interesting. Such shame for you though.