Five Novel Treatments For Asthma

Some of the most useful interventions in treating asthma don't involve using inhalers or taking drugs. Here are five tips for reducing the frequency and severity of asthma attacks that most asthmatics overlook.

1. Get your exercise at the pool, not at the gym.

Moist air reduces the responsiveness of the airways to airborne-stimulants, and air does not get a lot moister than the air you breathe while you are swimming.

There are fewer particulate pollutants in the air at a pool than in the air in your home or at your place of work, and there are relative few asthma-inducing fungi in the air at the pool itself--although you probably don't want to spend too much time in the locker room. Excessive chlorination of the water in the pool causes its own problems, but moderate use of antibacterial agents in the pool makes the water ideal for exercise.

2. Listen to, or better yet, make your own music to relieve dyspnea (breathlessness).

A study at the Jagellonian University in Poland found that music therapy reduced anxiety and dyspnea (shortness of breath) and improved lung capacity in both male and female asthmatics, although the effects were more pronounced in men. The Beth Israel Hospital in Boston in the USA has used make-you-own music therapy (with a flute-like instrument known as a recorder) with success for children who have asthma. In Australia, playing the didgeridoo has been prescribed in the treatment of both asthma and sleep apnea.

3. If exercise triggers your asthma attacks, consider cutting back on salt and salt tablets.

A large number of scientific studies confirm that consuming more sodium in the diet leads to higher rates of exercise-induced asthma, although scientists don't really know why. If your asthma attacks occur when you exercise, don't eliminate salt in your diet, but avoid the pickles and heavily salted fries, and don't just take salt pills and water when working out in hot weather. Drink fruit juice, Gatorade, or coconut water instead.

4. If your kids have asthma, ask them to avoid sugar-sweetened soft drinks.

A study commissioned by the US Centers for Disease Control found that 9% of school-aged children who didn't drink any sugar-sweetened soft drinks at all had asthma, while 15% of school-aged children who drank three or more sugary soft drinks a day had the disease. Stopping or cutting back consumption of sodas and energy drinks containing high-fructose corn syrup may not cure asthma, but it probably will help.

5. The first time you have sexual intercourse with a new partner, don't forget your inhaler.

Doctors classify some especially severe asthmatic attacks as "honeymoon asthma," asthma triggered by the physical exertion and stress of having sex with a partner for the first, and sometimes, second or third, time. When asthmatics begin physical relationships with new partners, it is especially important to have all other asthma-inducing factors under good control.