Asthma Treatment Can Make a Troubling Condition Manageable

Would you be willing to kiss a frog to cure your asthma? According to an old Texas folk remedy, if you breathe into a frog’s mouth before daylight, the frog will die before sundown and take your asthma with it. Wouldn’t it be nice if it could be that easy? Unfortunately, asthma is one of those chronic conditions that hangs on despite your best efforts. It’s caused by a faulty immune system, although allergies, family history, and poor air quality may also be involved. You can have a mild case that you seldom notice, or it can be a constant companion.

During your lifetime you may take more than a hundred million breaths. Chances are you won’t pay attention to most of them, unless you have a respiratory problem like asthma. In that case, you’ll notice the wheezing and the frightening feeling that comes when you can’t get enough air.

Signs You May Be Dealing With Asthma

When something triggers an asthma attack, the muscles around your bronchial tubes tighten up and stay tight, shrinking your airways. Inflammation swells those airways and fills them with mucus. You cough, wheeze, and are short of breath. The breathlessness of an asthma attack just naturally causes panic and tension. Even with moderate or intermittent asthma, you need your doctor’s advice because a serious asthma attack can be fatal if it’s not treated promptly.

It could be that you’re out exercising when all of a sudden you start wheezing and coughing. Your chest tightens and you feel like you’re going to pass out. Don’t panic — it’s probably not a heart attack. You may have exercise-induced asthma (EIA). EIA happens when your airways narrow while exercising, making it difficult to take in air. Lots of factors trigger the condition, also called exercise-induced bronchoconstriction. But the most common triggers are cold or dry air, air pollution, high pollen counts, chlorinated swimming pools, and skating rink chemicals.

No matter what causes your attacks, the result is the same — coughing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and wheezing. The dangers of asthma come not just from attacks but also from long-term lung damage. The longer your airways remain inflamed, the thicker and narrower they get, and the less they are able to relax.

Treating Asthma

Here are some easy self-care options for treating asthma.

• Drink lots of water to keep your airways moist.
• Take ginkgo biloba, an herbal supplement that can prevent bronchospasms — a sudden narrowing in your air passages. Experts recommend 40 milligrams of ginkgo three times a day.
• Get some omega-3 fatty acids every week from foods like salmon, herring, halibut, wheat germ, and walnuts.
• Find out if you suffer from GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) and treat it. There is a link between this condition and asthma.
• Learn to breathe better. That means taking slow, deep, full breaths in through your nose and expelling all the air when you breathe out.
• Maintain a healthy weight through good diet and exercise.
• Take a 30-second cold shower every day to improve breathing.
• If your asthma is based on an allergy — to mold, dust, animals, etc. — control your condition by removing these triggers from your environment.
• Try fending off future attacks by filling your plate with E-excellent foods like sweet potatoes, fortified cereals, wheat germ, sunflower seeds, and canola oil. Too little vitamin E in your body seems to raise your risk for developing asthma, whereas upping your intake could give you an edge over this chronic illness.
• Give yoga a try. Yoga typically involves breathing exercises (pranayama), physical postures (yoga asanas), and meditation. While yoga won’t eliminate asthma, all three aspects may help you control your symptoms.