Asthma - any alternative remedies/ideas?

[swedishmum]

Hi
I'm suffering from my annual vile asthma week - always October. Have a really chesty cough and doing anything is exhausting me so I'm taking it easy on the sofa. If anyone has any ideas in addition to the Qvar (don't like it) and Ventolin please could you pass them on? Did a steamy bath.
Thanks

Qvar?

Tbh if you're using your ventolin more than twice in a week then your asthma is not being well controlled. You should go visit your asthma nurse at your GPs surgery for a review. Uncontrolled asthma can be very very dangerous.

There's some great medication out there now for asthma sufferers. 99% of the time I don't even know I have asthma now it's well controlled. You don't need to go through this, you really don't. By all means look for some alternative therapies too, but in conjunction with a proper medical asthma plan. Your breathing is just too fundamental to take the risk...

A helpful site is Asthma UK - they also have trained asthma nurses on a helpline who can be incredibly helpful if you want to talk through options or clarify something you were told at surgery, etc. Also worth reminding yourself about What to do in the event of an asthma attack .

Hope you feel much better soon.

(It does sound to me like you should be on some sort of preventative medication, not just the ventolin - these can be brown or purple inhalers that you take once or twice a day to help strengthen and protect your lungs - they take a couple of weeks to kick in though, so don't expect instant results).

I treat my son with frankincense aromatherapy oil - as recommended by qualified aromatherapist. I am a qualified massage therapist, and I use it in a base oil and massage his back, neck and shoulders, and do some percussion physio to loosen the secretions and he coughs it all up.

It is vital to bump up the use of the "preventer" inhaler as well as the reliever. My son also does breathing exercises and steam/olbas oil inhalation if his chest is congested.

I would say that the preventer inhaler is very important to work in tandem with the reliever. Have you reviewed your treatment with your asthma nurse? If your chest is bad, you may need to use a spacer to take your inhalers.

Hopr this helps - it is miserable I know.

The Qvar is a preventer but I preferred the last one - flixotide. Our surgery changed them all as a cost cutting exercise! Think I'd rather see a doctor as the asthma nurse (well, regular nurse who does clinic) is batty. I bump up the Qvar (grey anddark red) but it never seems to work for my annual bout. At least I haven't been hospitalised for many years now. Thanks. It's such a pain being unable to do much! Fortunately dh is home at the moment and 3 of the kids are old enough to realise I'm on go slow! Off to docs tomorrow then.

Hmm definitely get a review. I haven't heard of either of those. FWIW, I'm on Seretide (which is a mixture of Serevent and Becotide, if I remember correctly, and is a purple inhaler) which has a preventor AND a long acting reliever all in one. I then use Ventolin as and when I need it (which to be honest, I can't remember the last time I did - in fact, I may even be in danger of it going out of date ).

I also up my dosage of Seretide around September time throughout the whole of winter (colds and being run down seem to be my big triggers). I've seen vast improvements since I've been on it.

Obviously the doc will want to prescribe according to your particular circumstances, but wanted to demonstrate that finding the right treatment really does make a tremendous difference. Does seem like you're not on the right one for you yet!

The other thing to review, is are you using your inhalers properly? I know it feels daft if you've been taking them years, but I slip up and get lazy then realise later that I'm only getting a tiny amount of the dose!

The seal around the inhaler should be a good one, breathe in as you press the button, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, you should be breathing in/holding your breath for 10 seconds (count 1-elephant, 2-elephant, etc in your head to make sure you're getting full seconds) or as long as you can possibly hold it for. Otherwise you're just breathing it straight back out again and not getting the benefit!

Also, if you need your ventolin, did you know it can take up to 10 minutes for it to take effect? The best way to take if you can is one puff (remembering to hold for 10 secs), wait ten minutes sitting calmly and breathing deeply if you can, THEN decide if you need a second puff. Avoids that horrible shaky feeling when you take a bit too much

I'm on seretide as well Georgina but think I am on maxium dose all year round , still has made a difference for me as well.
I totally agree with you about method, every one gets slack from time to time, I am not so good in the evening when I am tired, tend to do it too quickly.
Big hijack, did you ever go to gp about OC symptoms, or was it allergy based?

I'm seeing a homeopath for the OC - made huge progress, although still getting some allergic response.

Her opinion is that I probably won't be fully rid until I get rid of the Mirena as it's thrown my body out of balance, and I agree with her. Still waiting for dh's snip though and having researched all the other contraceptive methods there's none else I'm prepared to "risk" as we definitely DON'T want any more children

Thanks for the Ventolin tip Georgina - I'll try it.

Have yoou been allergy tested? It sounds as if you are allergic to something. By identifying it you may be able to helpyourself

thanks for the update Georgina, I feel a health bond with you, not only are you the only Asthmatic that I know who is also on Seretide (not that uncommon surely?), we also have the dubious honour of OC
Going to make an appt for a herbalist for help with Asthma as worried about what I will be like this winter and also for severe pmt symptoms

I know what you mean about the health bond thing