I gave this a bit of a broad title, but I’m interested in the non-medication things we can do to help. My couple of points might be obvious but wanted to see what others found helped. Significant lifestyle changes aren’t possible for many of course.
- Exercise; I found going walking, in a ‘fresh air’ environment like park or countryside, helped; I think this was both the exercise and the cleaner air. I however avoid the woods in autumn as I find it can make it worse - tree spores maybe.
- Pollution; A big thing was moving house (for other reasons) out of a town to a more semi-rural place, getting away from the main road busy traffic and bus route (even our washing on the line sometimes smelled of diesel), but now we have lower polluted air
- Coast; Still on subject of air, a trip or short break to the coast does wonders, I’d maybe move there if I could. Is it that sea air is cleaner or moisture laden maybe
- Work; Changed the focus of my work away from being on construction sites to being more design stage, so less time in the cold, dust and fumes
- Stress; Lowering stress, again by changing my work. I have also been teaching myself its ok to say ‘no’ sometimes
- Pets; this one has made it worse, getting a cat especially having a litter tray which makes that room air dusty to me - so the plan would be Not getting a cat!
What are your changes/observations/tips?
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Wheezy_1
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Exercise helps a lot, but only with proper mask protection, the blue inhaler use, and avoiding overdoing it. At home, I have an air warmer/humidifier/purifier rig that blows straight into my mouth while I spin on a stationary bike.
>>> tree spores maybe.
Trees do not make spores, mushrooms and fungi do :).
Regarding living in the country side -- for me it's a mixed bag. When the farmers use fertilizers, spread manure, or burn wood, it's bad news. Generally, unless I am next to a major road, I find small towns more manageable than pure countryside (and there is a higher chance of having a hospital nearby). Mountain air is good, so I am moving to Switzerland, actually.
I have asthma and scoliotic restrictive lung disease. Pulmonarywellness.org has so much free information and a FB support group. The information covers the topics you describe. I am a retired nurse anesthetist and I learned a lot.
Just a general comment here that anything people share may be quite personal to them, and either not work at all or make some people worse!
***Also, not seen any issues with this so far but just as a reminder, please can people avoid straying too much into recommending home remedies/alternative treatments on this thread? healthunlocked.com/asthmalu... ***
The preferred climate seems to be quite different between people as different weather seems to be better/worse. And it can change over time. I used to find the seaside was good for me and now it seems worse - and perhaps neither is true as it may be a coincidence. I was once sure I was allergic to a cat and in fact I was reacting to a freshly painted room. I have family on at me to move to the country which I would hate - and I've pointed out that there are still plenty of my triggers in the countryside. Plus I'd likely walk less, practically speaking, than I do now (I don't need a car here).
For me, a big difference was going freelance, which I didn't do for health reasons at all but has helped with that side. I still have fairly rubbish asthma but I've had a relatively long gap in admissions (though my consultant-approved home nebuliser also helps me get on top of things earlier - this does NOT mean everyone should have one though).
I think the main factors that helped with freelance are:
1) I'm not going to work in central London every day, on the tube. I will admit that the air quality probably didn't help me when I was doing it most days
2) I don't catch stuff much now - especially with anti-COVID measures (helps that I don't have nor work with kids)
3) I can be more flexible so I'm not trying to force myself into the office - this isn't a stress thing for me, as stress isn't a trigger for me. It's a being able to set my own schedule thing and more rest (which I actually like to pretend I don't need so don't tend to ask for). My last job did let everyone do WFH flexibly even pre-COVID which was great, as I could manage better if I didn't have to go in if I felt less than great lungwise but not bad enough to be off sick. A few times I hadn't realised my lungs were unhappier than they seemed and my colleagues got to go on trips to A&E with me.
3) I'm not trying to force my social life in on top of the work stuff - this is again not about stress but about not physically overdoing it, and means I can do something at the weekend or whatever and rest after if needed, not force myself back in to avoid missing work. In my 20s I decided that I was definitely not going to be stopped by having an annoying health condition and would try to pretend it didn't exist and I could do things normally. That didn't really work.
Reducing work stress for me helps. I used to jointly run an organisation of 50 people and advise lots of clients in stressful situations. That made my asthma unstable.
Making work paperless helped a lot, my issues at work were often linked to dust and paper.
Doing client visits in a pair helped a lot, it reduced stress and meant that I was safe when stairs and dusty offices were involved. A fellow director put in a rule that I could not attend clients by myself.
My main objective at present is to be able to go to restaurants at nighttime again. At present going out for an evening meal will very likely cause a nasty asthma attack. So I am looking at wearing a mask when leaving the restaurant and eating less, and simpler food.
I couldn't do with not having cats. They are brilliant animals . I think improvements to help asthma depends on what causes asthma. In my case cold infections make it worse.I did used to stop when walking outside to rest when walking because I was becoming wheezy. For another reason I decided to lose weight, by changing what I eat, not a diet, but a permanent change. As a result in 5 months I've gone from a 43 inch waist to a 38 inch waist and no longer have to stop when walking to catch my breath.
absolutely agree - I regularly Nordic walk - mostly slowly but often uphill, I think I am fitter now than I was when I was younger! I took up XC skiing in Norway - took me 5 trios to actually be any hood but definitely feel the benefit and missed in in 20-21 dus to travel restrictions. The biggest benefit was not replacing our lovely cat when she died at 19 years - yep I was silly enough to have a cat - life changing improvement… now really notice the problem when we visit friends and relatives with cats and dogs.
Dehumidifier has been my biggest improvement. Followed by a wedge pillow that helps me sleep more upright.
I also find sea air beneficial. I don't know how accurate it is, but I read an article that said the iodine (I think it was iodine) in sea air is calming to the respiratory system, which is why so many people with breathing issues do well near the sea. I'd love to live near the sea some day, but meanwhile, we try to get a couple of short breaks a year near it.
Does anyone else have problems with walking in cold or cold/damp weather? Walking is of course great, but I do find it exhausting in the cold in spite of scarves and walk. I need to walk incredibly slowly when it is cold, the older the slower, at times so slow my hips start aching from the effort of keeping it slow.
Something I do need to pay attention to is indoor air pollution, so avoiding any version of air fresheners, any fragrant or scented cleaning materials, paying attention to how I cook so I have reduced anything to do with roasting or baking or smoking. Etc, etc. It certainly has helped me.
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