Reviewed by Phillip Waite, Ph.D.
Asthma as an illness is often underestimated. Due to the sheer number of people suffering from it, the general perception of asthma is that of a harmless ailment. This, as anyone suffering from it will know, is far from the truth. This is why today we're bringing you six great tips to revolutionize your health.
Detect What Triggers You
The most important thing when living with asthma is how to tell it’s going to come. It's important to know one’s own signs when it comes to asthma. These will often be allergies, in which case a blood test is recommended, however, sometimes it's other things more specific to you as a person.
If you notice a pattern is giving you asthma attacks, heed to it even if it's not one of the more common triggers. After detecting your triggers, it should be simple to avoid them, or at the very least take precautionary measures.
Drink Coffee
Recent research has suggested that drinking coffee might lead to improvement. This is because caffeine naturally provides bronchodilation for a few hours. Of course, this doesn’t have to be strictly coffee, caffeine is also found in other beverages like energy drinks, tea et cetera.
It's important not to go overboard with these as well because caffeine can be harmful in large quantities. This, while less effective than an inhaler at temporarily relieving asthma symptoms, can really help if you’re in a pinch or forgot your inhaler at home.
Carry A Rescue Inhaler That Works For You
A rescue inhaler also called a short-acting inhaler is one that relieves asthma symptoms quickly. While there also exist so-called long-acting inhalers, they are much more dangerous to the asthmatic’s health and can often lead to adverse side effects in consumption.
This is why rescue inhalers are generally regarded as superior, and you should carry one with you anywhere you go. An important thing to do, however, is to pick the right inhaler for you, there’s a good reason for there being so many brands, and the small amount of money you spend extra is worth the increase in health.
Get An Air Purifier
This is probably the priciest thing on this list, however arguably the most worthwhile. Air purifiers have only recently entered the sphere of asthma treatment research and already doctors everywhere are recommending them as a viable option for treating asthma symptoms.
They have been medically proven to treat asthma symptoms, though their benefits in asthma prevention are still being explored. Generally, they're the most useful in the room they’re placed, your first priority should be the bedroom, as you should spend 7 or 8 hours there. Here it’s important to know what triggers your asthma, as certain purifiers are more effective against certain things than others.
Seeing all the stuff regarding air purifiers, there’s no wonder they’re heavily recommended for asthmatics.
Get A Flu Shot
While asthma doesn't intrinsically make you more susceptible to the flu, it can make the symptoms of the flu escalate and wreak havoc on your body. An annual flu shot is recommended to all people, however, this goes double for asthmatics that can rack up some serious consequences from what would, to someone else, be just a passing cold.
It is recommended that you don't take the nasal spray version of the vaccine, as it contains the live virus and can be quite counter-productive. Instead, you should get the injection, which while painful, is much easier for your immune system to deal with.
Exercise And Diet
While exercise and a good diet will do wonders for anyone’s health, it'll improve the condition of those with asthma much more. Asthmatics are at a larger risk of developing obesity, which is easily prevented by regular exercise. In addition to this, a bad diet has been suspected to correlate with asthma. This isn't heavily researched yet, however eating your greens definitely won’t make you suffer worse!
In addition to this, asthmatics can have worse symptoms from many illnesses, which are prevented by living a healthy life. If you want to adhere to the research currently out there, it’s recommended to eat a fruit, vegetable, and fish based diet.
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