Ok so i tried the quacks i tried a healer and i persuaded myself i was getting better i end up in HOSPITAL for 3 days,
Before i tell my story i never leave the house with my symbicort and if i am out of town i have my symbicort and ventolin. This stuff saves your life dont ever forget it .
So i done the professors 2 in fact first one could not stop giving me tablets i ditched him and went to another guy he gave me symbicort ventolin and spiriva he performed loads of tests x rays etc .
i wont fault him he was good so after about five years with him he say Ger we at the end of the road it s prednisolone or the next step is injections.
So over the last 3- 4 months i have reduced carbs did a bit of fasting long days and an odd 24 hours I have done belly breathing while sitting at home in the car or whatever and i did over the last 2 months cut out sugar fruits fizzy drinks juices all that shite i cut down on take out and i try with a few month to give up grains oh man thats tough. i have eaten lots of meat and veg .
I did not cut out alcohol but i must i drink brandy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i have the cough and run out of puff .
I go to A and E about twice a year getshot up wit steroids and sent home .
So I also found a local honey supplier who gives me real honey locally produced small spoon morning and evening ( dont use anything metal in the honey man said it destroys the enzymes i really just about got through work and could not do tasks at home like strimming hedge cutting etc but last week i went out strimming and usually after 10 minutes i am wheezing head spinning etc not good so i stop and say f that.
i was cutting away for 30 minutes no bother it was unreal !!!!!!!
i feel better i am better its been slow i cant say its one thing in particular but i for so long thought many on the net were just nutters i tried so much but it takes time and clear your system of processed shite.
the work goes on i did 2 days or so at present with no symbicort and not taking speriva or ventolin
at all at present i might be on the way to almost curing my asthma and 2 stone lost all is good
next is exercise and proper sleep less tv etc.
Starting is though i am giving this one good go this year to see can i sort myself out
So far looking good and very happy .
Everything is cooked in virgin olive oil no canola oil soyabean oil vegetable oit sunflower oil rapeseed oil that stuff is poison check the packets every packet stuff is full of these oils
and the chippers are poisoning us with vegetable oil and battered this and that
Ger
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picboy
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Well, what a story. I commend you for changing your life with all the dietary improvements you've made. Incredible.
I'm also pleased you advocate sticking with prescribed inhalers and agree they're our lifesavers and of course essential to our survival.
I also use local honey but didn't know about the metal spoon so thank you for that tip. (I might get myself a small bottle of brandy & have a tot before bed too)!
I quite agree that eating properly, doing your breathing exercises, getting fitter, can all greatly help your body handle asthma.
It does not though cure your asthma, but just makes you more resilient.
Just stopping taking your inhalers and spiriva is dangerous, you may well be OK for a few days without them, but it leaves you more and more defenceless, when your asthma reoccurs.
As you improve your general health, by all means go to your medic and ask him or her if it is OK to partly decrease your inhaler use, but do it in a controlled way. Just stopping taking them is very risky, so please talk to your medic.
Totally agree Homely2. Generally healthy lifestyle changes are a good thing, and some foods can trigger asthma for some people so cutting those out if they affect you can help.
But there currently isn't a cure for asthma and I completely agree that it's dangerous to just cut out medication. It's also possible to have a lot of airway inflammation that you can't necessarily tell is there as it doesn't always give daily symptoms.
Please do this carefully, with medical guidance, and don't just cut out medications by yourself, or try alternatives as a replacement (they can also trigger asthma for some people - I personally would need to be cautious of honey in case it has my plant triggers in it).
Wow, this is really interesting and I'm pleased to see you have made some improvements with diet and weight loss!
As others have said, its probably a very bad idea to stop your preventer inhalers and better to cut down doses on doctor / asthma nurses advice.
I am really interested in the link between diet and allergies, as I am someone who has very bad allergic asthma.
Some steps I have taken have been to increase omega 3 , by eating more fish like salmon and taking some supplements with 600/500 EPA & DHA. Apparently there is link to omega 3 helping improve allergic reactions and we have too much omega 6 in our diet from the processed foods you mention.
I also take turmeric extract to reduce inflammation with extra 2000iu of vitamin d3. Again, vitamin d is linked to improving asthma.
lastly, i take 500mg of quercetin a day, as this also has natural anti alleric benefits. This is found naturally in some fruits.
I would like to say that these suppletments help, alongside my asthma medication and not a replacement, but I am still struggling very much. but trying my very best to stay calm, as stress makes me much much worse.
I believe that bioligic treatment will be the best thing for my severe allergic asthma attacks i have every night, and hoping I can qualify soon, but I am also interested to see what else I can do to help things. I need to get more excercise, but its hard when you are sleep deprived and outdoor pollen in the evening is dangerous.
Perhaps seeing a private allergy specialist may be benneficial to discuss diet.
I know there are also other supplements and things like nettle which can help, but one other avenue I am really curious about is probiotics, as there are some that can reset the gut and help with allergies. Finding the right ones seems like a bit of a mine field as some of them could makes things worse!
Anyway, sorry for rambling. At the end of the day, these things may seem to help, but unfortunately can't cure our problems, but hopefully we can make some improvements.
I have severe eosinophilic asthma and started biological alongside my usual medication and cannot believe the difference it makes I now have a life !!!
that's amazing. I hear so much good things about it. i'm going through the process right now to see if I can qualify. had consultation and waiting on results of reversibility test. getting up with asthma every night, multiple flare ups / prednisolone and ambulance out a couple times recently, yet it is difficult for me to 'prove my asthma' . Really hoping I can get this treatment soon.
i have not given up my meds well i have except for symbicort but its always with me and if i am going far from home far is more than 5 miles i bring ventolin as well i wont leave the house without symbicort ever !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
that’s great you haven’t given up meds and can get out further. My asthma seems to be getting worse and don’t feel up to getting out and doing the things I love like bike riding. Missing out on socialising (although did go out with friends the other day but not drinking). Just feel consumed by all this asthma and allergy problems. The medication and supplements don’t seem to be enough and i can only see my condition getting worse as I get older and become more unfit , sleep deprived and put on weight. I generally try to stay positive but sometimes struggle . Just waiting to see if I can get biologic treatment. If not then I really don’t know what I’m gonna do… but I guess seeing an allergy specialist and changing diet is an option . Pleased it worked for you .
Great to hear that your lifestyle changes are reaping such great health rewards. I totally agree about processed foods and plant based oils - they are loaded with omega 6 and our modern diets overdose on omega 6 without sufficient omega 3. To keep up with that, the recommended balance between omega 3 & 6 has changed considerably over time. I don't even use olive oil for cooking, only a touch occasionally on salad. Kerrygold for cooking as it's from grass fed cows. Unfortunately, so many animals raised for meat are fed on soya, but grass fed raised meat is very expensive.
The next challenge is to keep up your regime and I wish you great success with that. I've restarted my low carb/intermittent fasting regime - being Irish I love my carbs, but they pile the weight on. The regime is great for controlling my asthma along side Fostair, no carbs till Christmas! I've even bought a spiraliser in order to make vegetable "pasta".
People look at my house and say isnt he a lazy ffffer my dad used to keep the garden perfect mine is gone a bit wild but i am not worried and will sort it in my own time only asthma sufferers know how useless you can feel at times even simple tasks ae so hard Good luck every one
I agree about the benefits of lifestyle changes, but I would not consider one "cured" (there currently is no cure), and I would continue taking the inhalers as prescribed. I also once thought that I was "cured", while it was just the allergy shots and Xolair properly kicking in. So I stopped taking steroid inhalers. Asthma came back with vengence (not immediately, it took time).
Regardless of how good you feel, always remember to keep the ventolin handy. You never know what may set the asthma off. One time I suffered for ages thinking I had a chest infection but it was the exhaust from the lawn mower (very old one) that set me off.
sorry for sending another reply. Just wondered where you found the best recommendations for diet changes?
I’ve started going down the rabbit hole of researching histamine intolerance, high histamine foods and auto immune diseases. I’m now getting adverts on my social media from some of these holistic type healers offering courses, which I need to take with a pinch of salt!
Something I see talked about a lot is the relationship between stress and our gut / histamine responses. Plus long covid and exposure to mold.
We had water damage in our house a while ago which could have caused me some issues but is mostly fixed now. I have also had a lot of stress from this, work and the asthma and also wonder if I had Covid in October when things started to get much worse (my sinuses haven’t been the same since)
I’m now trying to manage my stress, eat healthier and taking the supplements like vitamin d, omega 3/tumeric circumin/ quercetin, but frustrated I’m still having all this post nasal drip and allergic asthma. My ige count from blood test was high - showing allergies to almost everything like dust mites , pollen and animals.
Getting desperate to try anything now and just hope I can become eligible for biologics! Trying to stay calm and positive but feels like I’m doomed if I can’t get this treatment. Such long waiting lists on nhs! so Private allergy specialists seems like an avenue to explore?
I cut out dairy in the past, having been told by a nutrional specialist that dairy causes phlegm. I swapped to soya as an alternative and got very ill with my asthma. Turned out I couldn't tolerate soya but I was absolutely fine with dairy.
Over the years I've worked out what made me wheeze; avocado, chickpeas, soya products, processed foods, sulphites, alcohol and preservatives. Turns out omega 6 rich foods are my nemesis. And that's quite common for any asthmatic with aspirin sensitivity but rarely shared information. The UK still advises asthmatics with aspirin sensitivity to avoid salicylates, but research has moved on from that. Taking VitD3 is also recommended for those with aspirin sensitivity, as research has shown those asthmatics with nasal polyps have low levels of vitamin D.
So for me it's a matter of eating more omega 3 rich foods and avoiding alcohol, omega 6 rich foods and processed foods. But finding that out has taken years.
Aside from that, my weight can also exacerbate my asthma. So I currently have 2 meals a day, about 6 hours apart and avoid carbs. Works well for me.
There's so much information out there, it's difficult to establish what, if anything is going to help us with our own asthma experience. I'm in my 60s now and it's taken that long to work out what works best for me and my asthma type. Keep exploring James.
Wow, thank you so much for all this info. That’s amazing that you have put in all the years of research and sharing this info with us.
As you say though, your experiences might be different to others. I’m unsure if I have aspirin intolerance and I don’t have nasal polyps. All I know is that I have very bad allergic asthma that has gotten much worse in the last year and I am frustrated, trying to find a solution and waiting to hear if I can get biologics. I’m willing to try other things as well.
I don’t really find any issues with dairy . It may cause a little extra phlegm but sometimes get bloated after eating too much bread or drinking beer (which I have stopped drinking alcohol. Had some wine at a wedding recently and that’s all). Also like eating avocados , but hard to say if this is a problem or not.
Now eating more fish and taking the omega 3 supplements and avoiding veg oil. I love soy sauce with Asian food. But perhaps I need to take a food tolerance test. I really don’t want to go down the route of using private or holistic experts as it’s hard to know who or what to trust.
My asthma has got a tiny bit better lately now the grass pollen has dropped slightly. but still waking every night with it and post nasal drip. I know I need more exercise too but it’s hard when you’re always sleep deprived. just hoping I can get biological treatment and my normal life back!
For some reason, aspirin screening isn't standard. I only found out I had an intolerance when I experienced 2 anaphylatic reactions, but nearly didn't mention it to the consultant. Glad I did, as they changed me to dry powder inhalers and my asthma was transformed overnight. But we're all different and sometimes the triggers are just not obvious, but they make our lives so miserable.
I took part in a research project run by my respiratory team a few years back. It was only then that they were able to pinpoint my asthma endotype by examining the dead lung cells in my phlegm samples. Amazing what they can find out by looking at our lung cells. So now I know that Prednisolone doesn't help but Azithromycin does. But so much more research is needed to find better treatments. I had a look at the current respiratory research projects and they're quite varied and only a couple are asthma based. Ideally, each of us would be a research project!! Sometimes I think we're very individualistic and one size of treatment doesn't fit all.
Good luck in your endeavours to find the answers fir your asthma.
Thank you so much for this information Poobah. I have also just discovered that Azithromycin helps more than Prednisolone. Also years ago, when Ventolin went CFC Free, I discovered over a period of months that I was allergic to the propellant - It gave me asthma. I also now only take it in powdered form. At the time I told my doctors; I rang up GlaxaSmithKline and told them. I wrote to them. I told any doctor I saw. No one would listen. They fobbed me off.
I have for many years also had the suspicion that I had latent bacteria in my lungs, When I asked my doctors they basically told me that only viruses can be latent. I now know this to be untrue. I felt that I wasn't being given a long enough dose of antibiotics to fully get rid of it. In December 2023 I suffered a severe lung infection which lasted 4 months. I had had a tightness near my breastbone for years which I couldn't fully dislodge and which was the first place that I would feel a lung infection beginning in my chest. This time after a couple of months of antibiotics and antivirals I finally thought I was over it. The next morning I coughed up a wad of phlegm. It was from that tight spot and I suddenly felt freer- less tight. Wow. this is good I thought. Unfortunately whatever was there went into the rest of my lungs. My whole lungs went crazy. I couldn't walk 3 metres without taking salbutamol. I was a mess. I was on Augmentin Duo and started prednisolone. I also went alternative and had infusions of Vitamin C and anything else that I thought might help. (They came to my house). My Respiratory Specialist then gave me Azithromycin. It helped but the bacterial infection kept coming back when the tablets stopped. I wasn't on a lot of prednisolone and stopped it gradually to see which helped - the Azithromycin or the prednisolone. It was definitely the Azithromycin. My doctor now has me on a maintenance dose. (I do take probiotics). I'm not good with taking things and when I'm feeling good I forget to take them. Then I start noticing the phlegm in my lungs and the need to take more salbutomol. I go back on the Azithromycin and, in a couple of days, it clears up.
The tightness near my breastbone has never fully come back - but I admit it's only been 3 months.
Sometimes our instinct is ahead of the game, we just have to wait for research to catch up. But it's so frustrating when we're not listened to.
I couldn't persuade my GP that the new LABA inhaler was making my asthma worse, back in the 90s. He insisted that it couldn't possibly be this new magical treatment. My consultant at that time was very relaxed about me not taking it and took it off my prescription. At that time the LABA was a stand alone inhaler, taken along side a steroid only inhaler and Ventolin. Around a year later, I saw an article in the newspaper stating that the FDA in the States had withdrawn the licence for LABA inhalers as the death rates in asthmatics had risen and the common factor was the LABA medication. I felt totally vindicated.
The pharma companies argued that the issues were around patients not taking their steroid inhalers rather than the LABA medication. So they created the combination inhalers containing steroid and LABA and secured their licence. The duo therapy is now considered safe and I find Fostair very helpful.
It's good to hear that you've been able to enjoy the benefits of Azithromycin and I hope you continue to improve.
Interestingly, one comment caught my attention when the CFC free ventolin was first brought out. It pointed me to the fact that I was allergic to something in it. I was not getting any real help from the ventolin. I could feel it coursing through my veins but I still couldn't breathe properly and, for the first time, had the "steel band" feeling across my chest.
A chemist asked me how I was going on the CFC free ventolin. I asked why and he said that some people were having difficultly and the "researchers" felt that it was because people were not breathing it in properly. It puzzled me. I know that asthmatics know how to get the most out of every breath. They seemed to be blaming the person and not looking any further. I assured him that I was getting it in and had no trouble with the new CFC free device. I then went home and thought about how my asthma had gotten worse over the last 10 months and realized it was from around the time of change-over to the new CFC free ventolin.
I went back - asked if he had any of the old non-CFC free ventolin. He did as most people wanted the new type. I bought his stock and used that. Within a week my asthma was back to normal. I could cough up any phlegm in my lungs and No Steel Band across the chest - and I've never had that steel band feeling since.
I did tell my doctors and rang up GSK to tell them - even wrote a note. No one listened. When I couldn't get any more of the old ventolin, I went onto the rotahaler with powdered ventolin, This worked very well for me until they stopped the use in Australia and I now have to import, through my pharmacy, the Easyhaler.
By the way if you check out the propellant chemical, it makes sense.
Tugun, that's so interesting. Good for you for resolving the problem by sourcing a better alternative. Great ingenuity.
Medication triggers can be random, but almost every medication has additional ingredients and these can also be randomly problematic. It's always a balancing act when creating these treatments but then it's a balancing act for the patient, especially when you're the one in 10,000 or 100,000 who have the rarer side effects. Then your doctor has never had a patient who has reacted that way to this medication and they're not convinced about the patient experience.
I'm routinely surprised at how unaware some health care professionals are about side effects in general, unless it's a common reaction and well publicised. My old pharmacist was very good at warning his customers about drug interactions and took side effects seriously. His retirement was a loss to our community.
I'm so glad we have this forum to support each other and share our experiences. All the best Tugun.
I really don't know why the stand alone LABA was worse for me back in the 90s, but they did have their licence withdrawn in the US because of unexpected deaths. I was fine before I started taking it and things resolved once I stopped taking it. I was taking my Becotide inhaler (preventer) religiously, so it wasn't because I became sloppy with my treatment.
Some research has indicated that a small proportion of asthmatics will have an adverse reaction to stand alone LABA meds as they are a specific genotype. It means that there's an inflammation response rather than reduced inflammation.
I rarely take Ventolin, but the LABA was prescribed as a regular treatment. The research does show that the relevant genotype does reverse the good effects of the short acting bronchodilator if used regularly or too often. I have no idea if I have this genotype.
I hadn't heard about that before. Am I right in saying that the LABA caused an inflammation response in people with a certain genotype? At present I only take ventolin/salbutamol as I react to the preventers - they make it harder to cough up phlegm.
At times (Chest infections), I have had to take a lot of ventolin to free my airways. It has always worked for me and so far, the effect of salbutamol has never reversed.
You mentioned the thick phlegm that gets stuck in your throat. I have had that happen with the preventers but also if I still had infection in my lungs. In December/January I had the flu and chest infections and I discovered that by staying on azithromycin, I did better than when on prednisolone - although I would still go on prednisolone if required. My lung specialist then extended the azithromycin to three days a week. I would sometimes forget but if I got a bit chesty, I'd go back on it and the lungs would once again clear. I had stopped taking it for awhile as I was better but recently caught another flu - so back on it again as the flu virus would always trigger a bacterial chest infection in my lungs.
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