What has helped your asthma?

[Shellydon]

I have cough variant asthma.  Once it is triggered by a minor illness or allergies, I cough for months.  By 5:00 most days, I am coughing to the point of vomiting if I do anything other than sit.   I am on an inhaled steroid, singulair, nasal spray, Zyrtec.  I do breathing treatments in the evening.  Would adding a supplement of some sort help?   When I go to the allergist and get a short acting steroid shot, the coughing completely stops for a couple of days.  Oral steroids do not work nearly as well.  Any suggestions are much appreciated!

[prairiewindmomma]

Have you heard the notion of an asthma “bucket”? It’s where you address all of the little things that are causing inflammation. 

We had to go hard core....we already had no pets in the house, but we removed all carpet, switched to leather furniture, minimized our home for easy cleaning, wash all bedding weekly, bought HEPA filters for the HVAC, vacuum, and standalone units for bedrooms, etc. We never opened windows and we would change and shower after being outside on high pollen days.

Ds did well on advair at the worst of it. We also added high quality fish oil, highly bioavailable magnesium and some other stuff to our diets. Tumeric/curcumin does nothing for my asthma (I take 1000mg a day for other reasons) but apparently helps PeterPan.

[PeterPan]

Washing the dog (I'm allergic to him), ROOMBA, ROOMBA, ROOMBA, and turmeric.

The turmeric got me the last 20%, but it was the hygiene, getting down what I was reacting to, that did 80%.

[PeterPan]

52 minutes ago, Shellydon said:

By 5:00 most days,

If it's worst in the morning, is there anything in your bedroom that is a problem? I took out feather bed/duvets, the dog bed, began dusting and running the roomba religiously, etc. Even some slight mold in the attached bathroom will set it off. So the mold you get around the base of your shower, the gunk in the toilet, or the black bits on the ceiling that you haven't gotten to. 

Is it worse at a certain time of year or year round? Is there carpet in your room that you could change out to a solid surface?

[Pen]

I get that post illness asthmatic cough and nothing I have found solves it .  However some reduction in symptoms seems possible.

Various vitamins including D and C

omega fatty acids esp fish oil

ginger and maybe peppermint tea

anti inflammatory and airway opening supplements...

Old Indian Cherry Bark cough syrup.   My links haven’t been working but should at least help you find it: Herbals Old Indian Wild Cherry Bark Syrup Planetary Herbals 16 oz Liquid https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DZ5BR86/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Z1-5Db6QJ8HGS

[PeterPan]

14 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

We had to go hard core....we already had no pets in the house, but we removed all carpet, switched to leather furniture, minimized our home for easy cleaning, wash all bedding weekly, bought HEPA filters for the HVAC, vacuum, and standalone units for bedrooms, etc

Yup, that's how it is here. 

And yeah, the turmeric was not in place of the environmental changes. I'm taking 3-4 capsules a day. I'd like to bring in a real tree this year, and you don't see me doing that, lol. I might. But no, I'm gonna put up the fake tree downstairs, clean some more, and think about it. It's risky, and I don't want to be sick again. I've been off antibiotics almost a year and a half now.

[Pen]

If I start season with regular D3 etc, I seem less likely to get the post illness asthmatic cough in first place, even if I get sick. 

[sbgrace]

In your place, I would probably be pretty aggressive in trying to reduce my allergy and viral exposure because I would feel I was incurring lung damage. 

Supplement wise, you might look into pycnogenol. It's expensive, but it's really helped my son's allergies and asthma both. You can look into research on it--there are have been studies. I agree the turmeric might be something to try. Sounds to me as if you need something with systemic effects. 

For my son, we are really careful about the home environment, maybe more careful than  you would want to be, but it's made a huge difference here. I mean we have allergy friendly hard flooring, everyone showers before coming inside during pollen seasons/highs, HEPA units, etc. When we moved I even had the air ducts replaced to try to make this home pet dander free. At a minimum, try to make your sleeping space as allergy friendly as possible (HEPA unit, shower and fresh clothes before bed, allergy pillow covering and bedding wash/dry on hot weekly if dust is an allergen for you, allergy friendly flooring if possible).

If you could tolerate it, I wonder if a nasal rinse regularly would help. 

Do all you can to avoid exposure to viruses. My son takes some immune support supplements, but handwashing is the most important aspect of this for sure. Boring and obvious--but changing habits (ie, not absentmindedly touching your mouth while thinking) can be hard. 

 

[Stacia]

For my mom, sometimes drinking a very strong cup of black coffee helps.

[Loowit]

The only thing that has helped long term for my DS has been allergy shots and keeping down allergens in our house.  We put hardwood flooring in his bedroom and all of the downstairs living areas, make sure he has pillow and mattress covers, etc.  He still struggles a bit when he is sick, but not near as bad as it used to be.

[Murphy101]

Reduce your irritants as best you can.

singilair and inhaler use 

Nasal flush every morning

Shower before bed every night 

b12&b complex shot every week. 
 

make sure all vitamin and minerals are where they should be and check everything else you can too.  Asthma can be irritated by a lot of things and can mask a lot of other issues too.  
 

Edited December 4, 2019 by Murphy101

[Carol in Cal.]

No carpets, no pets, no smoking.  Those are the big three in homes.

No scented products on anyone in the house.  Avoid the detergent aisle at the grocery store.  No perfumes.

Wash bedding in hot water frequently.  

I treat cold symptoms and GERD more than I 'normally' would, to hopefully prevent that cough from taking hold.  That means Allegra, Sudafed, and Mucinex as needed to control allergies, congestion, and cough respectively.  I use Ricola whenever I have to sing, even in church, and when I need to talk for a long time (over an hour) or at least I have it with me.  I drink strong steeped ginger to keep my stomach more healthy, pretty often, and I take prilosec when I'm experiencing reflux (overnight reflux was a big trigger for me at one time.)  I'm also pretty careful about not eating too much or too late at night, and I don't sleep on my stomach ever.

This all has reduced my asthma incidences to less than one per year, which is a huge improvement compared with before.

Edited December 4, 2019 by Carol in Cal.

[Pen]

12 minutes ago, Carol in Cal. said:

No carpets, no pets, no smoking.  Those are the big three in homes.

No scented products on anyone in the house.  Avoid the detergent aisle at the grocery store.  No perfumes.

Wash bedding in hot water frequently.  

 

We do All these!!! except the no pets part!

No smoking and no fragrance products are huge.   I can get migraines and asthma trouble very easily from those. 

Cleaning products and outgassing particle board can be triggers

I sort of assume anyone with asthma would already be keeping home free of those and as much as possible avoiding them when out too. But if that’s not yet the case do that.   You may need someone else to do the clean up and changes because you can’t be exposed and or can’t breathe well enough already.  

Ambient smoke and smog can also be a major problem.  

Also foods and cosmetics and personal care products can sometimes be allergy (thus also asthma) triggers 

My single biggest asthma improvement changes came from not being in Los Angeles and New York City ...    but I have less constant trouble where I am now from smog, and more intermittent trouble from herbicides, pollens, molds, wood smoke, other people’s fragrance and cleaning products.  Like dryer products that envelope the neighborhood

 

[PeterPan]

42 minutes ago, kdsuomi said:

It's worse in the morning because of lying down all night when sleeping

My bed itself was giving me problems. The chemicals, I don't know. I keep foil on it, and if the foil shifts or gets a lot of holes, my breathing flares up and I wake up tight. Guess it's the side effect of having been very chemically sensitive, sigh. But who knows, maybe it bothers other people? The bed is 10 years old and it's still offgassing, stupid hunk of toxic junk. (don't get me started)

[Pippen]

Allergy shots (long term), sinus surgery to minimize post nasal drip, and chiropractic all helped me. 

If I were that bad I'd be getting another medical opinion. Have you seen a pulmonologist to test for other conditions? I knew someone who was treated for asthma for years and it turned out to be another issue (in her case vocal cords).  

 

[PeterPan]

3 hours ago, kdsuomi said:

 

Beds are bad because they just hold everything in. I'm very sensitive sensory wise and wouldn't be able to sleep if mine were wrapped in anything, though. 

I get really groggy from the chemicals if I don't. I just put lots of layers *over* the foil so you don't feel it so much. 

[Tap]

I would go to a pulmonologist. 

 

[melmichigan]

Until a year ago I would say switching completely to nebulizer treatments on orders from my pulmonologist and blocking H1 and H2 every 12 hours with zyrtec/zantax (now zyrtec/famotidine) when I struggled.  A year ago I was in trouble and was doing everything on these lists, the daily cleaning and washing, the filters, and taking maximum doses of inhaled steroids, nasal steroids, antihistamine and H2 blockers.  In desperation I traveled to an allergist that uses the La Crosse Method Protocol and started oral sublingual allergy drops, three times a day. The difference has been life changing.  I'm not even on maintenance yet and we have already started tapering off some of my medications.

[ktgrok]

I had this as a kid and whenever I even started to feel a tiny bit tight in the chest with an illness my doctor put me on a high dose of steroids for a short period of time. Idea was to stop it before it really started. 

[Shellydon]

Thanks for all the responses.  Let me answer some questions-- entire house is either wood or tile, Roomba daily.  I wash sheets at least once a week, often twice. Allergy testing showed moderate allergies to a few tree pollens and rag week. I take a daily powder form inhaler and have been needing the use albuterol nebulizer at 3 and 8 each day too.   I haven't found anything like scents or cleaning products to trigger problems, but I do avoid those. 

My initial diagnoses 10 years ago was reactive airway disease.  Now it is usually called cough variant asthma.  The only time I haven't coughed is when given a very short acting steroid shot.  oral steroids do not make a difference. 

I already take a multi-vitamin, D3, fish oil.  I added turmeric this week.  I will call my doctor back on Monday and see if there is anything else she can do.

[Tap]

23 minutes ago, Shellydon said:

(snip)

I already take a multi-vitamin, D3, fish oil.  I added turmeric this week.  I will call my doctor back on Monday and see if there is anything else she can do.

Do you take an antihistamine?

[mominco]

Op do you have it year round?

[geodob]

One thing that I would ask? Is if you are a Nose Breather, or a Mouth Breather?
Is your mouth closed, when you breathe?