Masks during moderate air quality?

[Beefull8]

Hi. I’m traveling where the air quality tends to be moderate. The last time I had an asthma flare and ended up on prednisone. I’m hoping to avoid that this time and wondering if masks help. Or does anyone have advice on tips to mitigate moderate air quality? Thanks!

[Homely2]

I would take a mask, but also work on your breathing exercises beforehand, I do much better if I am using nasal breathing.

[Beefull8 in reply to Homely2]

What kind of breathing exercises?

[Homely2 in reply to Beefull8]

asthmaandlung.org.uk/living...

I went to a physio, I use my mouth a lot for breathing, she taught me to switch to breathing through my nose whenever it was getting dodgy. She also taught me how to get my breathing under control when I was losing it, through pursed lip breathing and rectangular breathing.

I attach a link to the asthma UK website, which has lots of material on it on the subject. I also did their breathe easy six week online course. You can alternatively just Google, asthma UK breathing exercises, or asthma UK courses. That is better than my trying to explain the techniques.

It does not get rid of the issues learning to breathe better, but it makes you much more resilient.

[Beefull8 in reply to Homely2]

Thank you! I feel like focusing on my breath is triggering so not sure if it would make it worse. But I appreciate the link and maybe will try it again.