My allergies trigger my asthma. I hope everyone gets better. This is not fun.. The one place I want to be is outside. I am very limited to being out there. I am Thankful for for every breath I get to take..

thanks so much and nature is a great thing............... some people and there attitude is a liability!!!!!!!!

CConatser, I hear you on being thankful for every breath! And Jasmine, feel free to join in our conversations on our online Asthma Support Community -- we have lots of folks with great attitudes there!

Salt Rooms are very beneficial and while MDs in the USA are not interested in them (they have enough on their plate) people who want true respiratory relief and less need of medication should be proactive and do their own homework. With google it isn't hard.

@Maxmakc , what does your allergist or asthma specialist recommend about salt therapy? Is it part of a complementary medicine treatment plan? AAFA has a great blog post talking about the differences between complementary medicine and alternative medicine . Glad the salt therapy works for you. I guess there's no one-size-fits-all for everyone who suffers from asthma.

Sadly, my daughter's allergist is not at all interested in learning about Salt Room Therapy. We discovered it through a friend and researched it carefully. It has trasformed a severly asthmatic child on lots of meds to a very mild case needing very little medication (who even runs cross-country now). I understand a doctor's hesitation to learn something new, but to scare people away from it is just plain bad doctoring...

Maxmakc, that's great that salt room therapy has helped your daughter so much! And congrats to her being able to run cross-country now! I recently started biking and am learning how critical it is to have my asthma controlled. One of the hesitations that many doctors have about salt therapy is that it has not been well studied in a scientific way. There are lots of anecdotal stories of how it helping people. But there is also the potential of it irritating the airways. Since there are no...

Yes the chance of irritation is present, but that 'irritation' is a productive kind, as mucus is being discharged from the airways it blocks. The Russian doctors are believers in medicine and say that sometimes medicine may initially need to be increased to calm the increased cough, as we experienced with our daughter. But beyond that it did not occur and her meds were much less needed. Interesting how this natural therapy is so scary to MDs, but the inhalers which have huge potential...

I would just like to say I have been diagnosed with asthma along with copd and early stage emphysema.... I have never smoked but have lived with smokers during my childhood... their smoking has condemned me to a certain outcome of death... i have gotten bronchitis every year for the past 35 years, walking pneumonia and whooping cough..... pollen aggravates my allergies and I have not slept more then 4 to 5 hours a night because of the coughing for the past 5 years..why do i have to pay the...

Hugs, Msshale68! It sounds like you have definitely had a frustrating time. Have you checked out AAFA's blog post about What to Do If You Can't Afford Your Asthma Medications ? You may be eligible for other help as well - AAFA has a list of other patient assistance programs, . Could you talk to your doctor about both the trouble you're having affording medications? You could also talk about whether it would be right for your particular health situation to do a trial of the salt therapy to...

Most Salt Rooms offer greatly reduced costs when purchasing multiple sessions, which chronic sufferers really need. I don't believe in those cheap salt inhalers - there are no studies to support their effectiveness. Some very minor, short-term relief might be possible, but most chronic sufferers won't be helped by them. A certain saturation of tiny salt particles is necessary and it simply is not present with those cheap inhalers.

Unfortunately, there is no incentive for properly conducted trials of salt therapy ... or any other non-conventional therapy ... for asthma. There is too much money at stake for big pharma! Being a breathing disorder, if you can't breathe, then you are in big trouble and the drug companies know that! When an Advair Diskus or similar sells for $400, something is very wrong! With my health insurance, I have access to regular medications, but with all the potential side effects of those...

Hi and Welcome to AAFA Mark!

A sign of the times? ... I don't know if anyone else has observed any kind of trend locally, but I recently learned that my pulmonologist had closed his practice. I was visiting my regular doctor (whose office is on the same floor of the same building as my pulmo doc) and there was a letter taped to the glass door - the practice was closed with no forwarding address. When I asked my regular doctor what happened, he said that with the modern medications available for asthma, COPD, etc.,...

This line is the article..."Patients should also know that inhaling concentrated salts (hypertonic saline) has been proven to irritate the airways, causing cough and mucus, which can make asthma worse for some people." Yes, because hypertonic saline is used to induce a reaction for testing. That is a known. The water is what makes that happen. However, that does not happen to that degree with dry salt therapy. It may make your throat tickle, and cause you to cough up more mucus, but that is...

Hi Gina! Welcome to AAFA! How long have you been dealing with asthma or allergies?

I've been going to pulmonologists, ENTs ,Allergists , holistic options , over and over again for 3o years. Asthma just got worse. Chronic cough. Even went to Cleveland Clinic Cough Clinic. Cough would never stop. Tried all drugs prescribed. Did test for gerd twice. DiD Everything and was compliant. Been going to salt suite near me for past 3 weeks- hour and half day and I HEAR the silence of not coughing ALL the time and lungs feel not as tight. No other changes so I'm sticking to it.

Lisa, I'm glad your cough is better -- are you working with a pulmonologist or allergist now? What other medications besides Advair are you on? Feel free to start a new topic on our AAFA asthma support community so you can share your story and journey with us, or join in with a topic like dealing with irritants Recently diagnosed and trying to figure out treatment Explaining adult onset asthma to friends and family

Oh my and i really am loving this because this really helps with my hyperventilating.

It sounds like it's helpful for you to destress. That can certainly be a good thing since stress can be an asthma trigger.

Yeah I tried some Himalayan pink salt from the indian grocery store and it seems to be having a really good effect on me because I get a good feeling and feel very rejuvenated..........I guess it helps clear the dust out of my system and breathing better.

It definitely helps for me and maybe more people who Asthma should be required to live by the ocean. I mean maybe this is something that should really be considered by lawmakers because it is all so hurtful for me dealing with my condition.