Is medication for asthma the only solution to controlling it?

Over the last few years, since I’ve started practicing breathwork daily, I’ve used my asthma inhaler on a handful of occasions, and I’d noticed that when visiting friends who owned cats, my allergic reaction appeared to be less strong than those I had before beginning the regular breathwork, and so wondered whether I had de-sensitised myself a little to cats?

On the day I moved in I needed to use my inhaler multiple times, however at that point I was living out of tons of cardboard boxes, and was surrounded by them, and knowing that I am also allergic to dust mites, it was far from clear whether it was the cat, the dust, or both.

After two weeks of living there, it was pretty obvious the cat allergy was causing my regular wheeziness and shortness of breath. I now live in a very hilly area, and I was getting out of breath just walking up hills, whereas a few weeks before, I could walk up hills at a pretty fast pace with no issues. So last week I decided I needed to be proactive about this, and take some steps to address the issue.

But in short, I began this routine on Feb 9 and used the inhaler 3 times that day. My guess was it would take a few weeks for it to show some signs of improving.

As I had been using the asthma inhaler so frequently in the first two weeks of moving, it was running low. I contacted the new GP surgery I had registered with and requested a prescription for some new asthma medication. They told me I would need to speak with their “Asthma nurse”. It was a telephone consultation, which took place on Feb 10.

During the conversation with the nurse, she indicated she had never heard of the Buteyko method, and it was clear from her voice she was very dismissive of how any breathing protocols might help. She told me I needed to take the “Preventer inhaler” before sleep and after waking daily, but that it would take maybe a week before the effects really took hold, and so in the meantime, I might need to continue with the “Reliever inhaler” for a few days more, and to then come in and see her on March 17.

I told her I had started a routine to combat this and was quite confident that I would not need to take so much medication, and that I was feeling a little better already (that was the 2nd day of the routine). Again, she repeated I should take the medication twice a day and seemingly ignored what I had told her. Even though I had also informed her, I was trained as an instructor in these breathing methods.

The inhaler was used three times on Feb 9, once on Feb 10, and has not been used at all since then!

I’m writing this on the evening of Feb 14 and I feel immensely stronger than when I began this routine five days ago. I find it unlikely I’ll require use of the medication again between now and seeing the nurse on March 17, and it will be interesting to see how that conversation goes.

Here is a journal of how this progressed over a 5-day period:

Repeated for 20 minutes.

Used asthma inhaler 3 times.

Evening wind-down routine; 20 minutes session of BLBR

Used asthma inhaler 1 time.

Evening wind-down routine; 20 minutes session of BLBR

Used asthma inhaler 0 times.

Evening wind-down routine; 20 minutes session of BLBR

Used asthma inhaler 0 times.

Evening wind-down routine; 20 minutes session of BLBR

Used asthma inhaler 0 times.

Evening wind-down routine; 20 minutes session of BLBR

Used asthma inhaler 0 times.

Before moving into this house, I was pretty fit, and was alarmed at how quickly my respiration declined. However, the fact that it had been at a strong starting point was almost certainly a contributing factor to the speed of this recovery.

The above is not intended as advice. The routine that is right for a person depends on many different factors, including their age, fitness level, metabolism, time available to practice, how they eat, how their sleep quality/quantity is, and stress levels, to name a few.