Success story!!!
What is Open Airways? Here's a quote from American Lung Association's website:
The American Lung Association's Open Airways For Schools program educates and empowers children through a fun and interactive approach to asthma self-management. It teaches children with asthma ages 8-11 how to detect the warning signs of asthma, avoid their triggers and make decisions about their health.
The session I taught was last year, but one of the students remembered me when he saw me at a county fair. He said, "Do you remember me from the Open Airways class?" Yes, I did! He said that he didn't have an inhaler when the Open Airways course started, but talked to his mom about getting one so he could use it at school if he had an asthma attack there.
He got one, but he was having a hard time using it, because every time he tried to take a puff from his inhaler, the spray of medicine would land on his tongue. Well, one of the things we teach the students about is the importance of using a spacer. It's a tube that fits on the inhaler and it gets the medicine down into your lungs. Without a spacer, you have to try to time it just right so you know when to breathe in, and when to press on your inhaler. With a spacer, you just press the inhaler which sends a puff of medicine into the spacer, then you can easily breathe it in.
The medicine in an inhaler comes out at 50 miles per hour. So, if you don't time it just right, the medicine will land on your tongue or the back of your throat. When you use the spacer, you breathe in deeper, drawing the medicine down into your lungs.
Spacers are pretty cheap, mine was $20. It makes a BIG difference in making sure the medicine gets to my lungs and not the back of my throat.
If you don't have one, talk to your doctor about getting one. You will feel the difference in how your medicine works. And that's important when you are having an asthma attack. You want the medicine in the right spot, otherwise you are just wasting your inhaler.
The spacer is a little bulky, so I use a big purse to carry everything. But I am so glad I have it when I need it!!
Thank you for the work you do to make kids and their parents more aware of how to manage their asthma.
ReplyDeleteI just wish more folks would look at the Buteyko Breathing Technique as away to manage their asthma.
I learned Buteyko while living in Europe and within a few weeks my severe asthma had all but stopped. I'm now asthma, allergy and medication free and have been for 8 years. And I know many other asthmatics who have had the same experience.
It appears to be safe and effective if you read the data from the 6 clinical trials. Even the US Department of Health and Human Services has validated in September of 2012. Same for Great Britain, Australia and Russia.
Everyone should give it a try.
Hi Don,
DeleteI actually have looked into Buteyko Breathing technique. Unfortunately, our allergies are such that they require daily medication, nightly showers and keeping the doors and windows shut. Otherwise it causes asthma flares.
Since there's no one size fits all with asthma, just because it wouldn't be a good fit for us doesn't mean it wouldn't work for someone else.
Here's to breathing a little easier!
Andrea;
ReplyDeleteMy hope is you'd give The Buteyko Breathing Technique a second look. Full disclosure, I'm now a Buteyko Breathing Technique Educator.
I see amazing results with those suffering from the worst asthma can bring. Everyone of those I've worked with have gotten better, less medication and a new lifestyle that let's them do what they want. Most actually find their asthma disappear if they work at it.
I hate to hear stories like yours. Having to stay indoors with the windows closed for fear of an asthma attack but I understand it as I've seen others with the same.
PLEASE, please, please give Buteyko not only another good look but a give it a try. If I can be of any help, let me know.
All the best and health,
Don