I am an asthmatic and having had 2 near fatal attacks my doctors will always prescribe anti-biotics if I go to them with asthma symptoms - but I know that usually the asthma has been triggered by a viral infection......so they won't work.
I am not advocating that anyone should disregard their doctor's advice - but if prescribed anti-biotics it is worth asking the doctor if they feel they are REALLY necessary, and sometimes when questioned the doctor will advise that you take the anti-biotics IF the symptoms get worse.
The only thing that really sets my asthma off badly is a chest infection. I've had 2 in the last 30 years, one that put me in hospital over the millenium, and the other when I was 13, which also put me in hospital. I had them more frequently when I was younger, I think, and was in hospital at least a couple of times with them as a young child. We lived in Southern Ireland for a few years, and had private medical care provided by the company Dad worked for, and when I was ill there - several times; the damp climate didn't agree with me at all - our private doctor did daily home visits until I recovered. (Obviously, it was in his financial interests to do that rather than admitting me to hospital, but it was also a lot less stressful for my family and myself, which I think actually helped with my recovery because a stressed asthmatic tends to be one who can't breathe very well!)
That's why I've chosen to take antibiotics at the first sign of a chest infection. The consequences of missing it are liable to be quite serious.
a regular steaming helps loosen up grime and goop thats got trapped and clear your chest. A spoonful of vapor rub mixed with a bowl of hot water, with your head under a towel for about 10mins, does the trick. I do this once a week through the winter, to help prevent infections.
This doesn't help me at all. Damp air of any temperature has a very negative impact on my breathing. The best thing for me is to get out and exercise until I'm breathing hard, which triggers a loose cough to clear the gunk.
most unfortuantly involve milk in one form or another (yoghurt) and even when I could have dairy products, staying completely away from all dairy whilst ill (cold/cough/flu/any infection) was 100% essential for myself and many other asthmatics would benefit from it was well... so its probiotic capsules only...
I forgot about your problems with dairy. Yes, that's a pain. I love my daily probiotic drink.
It's interesting about asthmatics and dairy. According to some well-read people on a diet and fitness forum I'm a member of, inability to tolerate dairy generally occurs in people who have some degree of Asian descent because Europeans have been consuming dairy products (specifically cows' milk) long enough to have evolved to tolerate them. It would be interesting to trace the genealogy of a group of genuine asthmatics (as opposed to the, "Oh, dear, your overweight and inactive child can't breathe properly, here's an inhaler," kind of asthmatics) and see whether that theory holds up for us. I know I have a mild intolerance to cows' milk - specifically one of the proteins, I think - so I use alternatives where I can, but I'm not giving up cheddar or yoghurt (although I do have goats' or sheep's milk yoghurt when I can get it).
Asthmatics also benefit from staying away from aspirin and taking paracetamol instead....
Again, my understanding is that this varies between individuals. According to a huge asthma text book that I've got (and I'd like to quote, but can't actually find, which is irritating), intolerance to aspirin only occurs in asthmatics who also have nasal polyps. I've certainly never had problems with aspirin myself, and it's actually helpful (with paracetamol and caffeine) if I get a head cold because taking it dries up the cold before it has a chance to move onto my chest. If that doesn't dry up the cold, I move onto Day Nurse, supplemented with aspirin, if that's what it takes, because a bad cold will always move onto my chest if I don't get the symptoms under control quickly.
I'm not sure about others on here, but my asthma was very badly controlled when I was a child, to the point that I was absent from school more often than I was present. According to some research my last asthma nurse quoted to me, uncontrolled asthma in childhood causes permanent damage to the lungs, which leads to reduced peak flow levels and greater susceptibility to infection in adulthood, even if the asthma symptoms themselves appear to have gone away. This may be the reason why doctors are so quick to prescribe inhalers to children at the first sign of breathing difficulties now.
