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Natural Substitutes for Albuterol

Lung Health | Last Active: Aug 3 5:58am | Replies (6)

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@sueinmn

@saganjames In all my years with asthma, and with 2 asthmatic children, I never met any who "liked" albuterol, so I get it.
That said, there are some substitutes you can try - and all but one, caffeine, are totally physical and not chemical.
Depending on the severity of you asthma, you may be able to reduce your dependence on albuterol, or if yours is mild, eliminate it altogether.
You can read about alternatives to medication here:
https://allergyasthmanetwork.org/what-is-asthma/natural-asthma-treatments/
If these strategies do not help, or don't completely relieve the need for medication, there are other medications that can be used to treat asthma with fewer side effects. Here is an explanation of the various types of inhalers:
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/is-anyone-else-confused-about-all-those-inhalers/
In particular, levalbuterol usually causes less "jitters" than albuterol. And if you need an inhaler daily, there is a new protocol, Symbicort (or the generic version Breyna) that combines a long acting bronchodilator (formoterol) with a very small dose of inhaled corticosteroid (budosenide) - it is used daily to prevent asthma attacks and can be quite effective.

Even if you asthma and shortness of breath are relatively mild, please do not "just ignore it" - an asthma attack can turn deadly if untreated. And even if it doesn't, years of repeated, untreated asthma events can cause permanent lung damage.
I tried ignoring my asthma for about 20 years because I hated albuterol and nebulizers were "inconvenient", and ended up with difficult to treat asthma, repeated bouts of bronchitis, permanent lung damage known as bronchiectasis, and high susceptibility to lung serious infections.

How would you categorize your asthma? Have you talked to your doctor about alternatives to albuterol?

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Replies to "@saganjames In all my years with asthma, and with 2 asthmatic children, I never met any..."

Thanks for your kind and thorough information. I'm not quite sure it's asthma at this point as I'm sorting through possible allergy triggers. I'll be talking to my doctor this week. Once again thank you so much for the time it took to respond.

This is so timely! I was recently halted on my MAC medication bc it isn’t working anymore. In our discussion, my pulmonologist said she believes the shortness of breath I have isn’t related to my MAC/BX, but “to your asthma.” What!?!? I was never, ever told I had asthma. But now we know I can’t do steroids bc of the fungus I carry and just bc I won’t ever sleep. I’m excited to try some of theses ways to help myself without meds. Thank you!!!