Alternative treatments

@glendamoseley This is how the inhaled saline can be beneficial. The saline is 7% sodium chloride. It is inhaled as a mist by using a nebulizer. The benefits are that it adds moisture to the phlegm making it thinner and easier to cough up. Phlegm is often very sticky and clings to the insides of your lungs and bronchial tube. Thick phlegm is attractive to mac and pseudomonas. They look for goo to colonize in. It also causes a mild irritation which sometimes will induce coughing. You want that. You want to cough up as much gunk as you can. Did your mom ever tell you to gargle with warm salt water for a sore throat? Well, it is kind of the same concept. You are putting a salt mist into the lungs. The salt kills bacteria or at leadt makes it inhospitable to bacteria. It is good lung hygiene to nebulize saline twice a day. I will pull the saline chart next for you to look at. Back in a minute.....

Hi Terri,
Thank you so much for this info regarding saline solution. So I need a prescription from my Pulmonologist?
I never saw the chart.
Also, on another response you sent regarding questions for my Dr. Thank you again. I have learned more from this forum than my Drs. I am assuming those questions are for both pulmonologist and ID Dr.
You mentioned an older mentor with great info. How do I find her ?
Yes I will be seeking Dr at Mayo. Any suggestions on nebulizers?

Hi @siliai, @poppins, @kjellis, my name is Nan and I read Stephen Buhner's book and tried his liquid tincture herbs about a year or so ago. He doesn't address MAC in particular but he did talk about mycobacterium a little so I tried the two herbs that were the closest I could find. Shari, @pfists also used these herbal antibiotics and she would probably be a little better at explaining. The two used were bidens and cryptolepis and I purchased them from a good website called Woodland Essence which is one of the websites that Stephen Buhner recommends. I mixed mine with juice and as I remember I did them two to three times a day. I don't have the book with me at the moment but maybe Shari could remember what pages he talks about these two. I think they're used for lots of different ailments. I am free of MAC now (just went to my pulmonologist and infectious disease doctor today actually) but I can't really say what worked and what didn't. I did the big three for one year from 2016-2017 and then after that I did the herbal antibiotics for a few months but that was it and for the past year and a half I have been doing the 7% saline solution. I'm a big believer in that saline solution. I'm also willing to try just about anything alternative. So that's been my experience. Hope that helps. Nan

Hi Nan, can you tell me more about herbal/alternative treatment?

@sweethighland I tried some herbal tinctures a few years ago that Stephen Buhner recommended (he's a very well known master herbalist and has written many books, you should look him up) and don't know if they helped or not. It's hard to know sometimes if herbal remedies work or not. There's not enough scientific evidence for them...some people swear by them, others don't. I've always been one to try something at least once when it comes to alternative medicine. But I'd say stick with nebulizing saline solution for sure.I nebulize with glutathione also and have been for a couple years but once again there's been no real scientific evidence of that either. I've had no progression in four years but I exercise six days a week, nebulize once a day with saline and then add glutathione every other day. Is it all three things? Is it two things that are working? I don't know. I will say exercise is super important, though. My best friend, who is a doctor, told me six years ago when I got diagnosed that I had to exercise every day to push this lung disease back and now I get it. You have to keep your lungs in shape. Make them breathe hard every now and then with exercise and strengthen those muscles. And then the saline makes for a very inhospitable home for all those bugs that we can get. Nan

@sweethighland I tried some herbal tinctures a few years ago that Stephen Buhner recommended (he's a very well known master herbalist and has written many books, you should look him up) and don't know if they helped or not. It's hard to know sometimes if herbal remedies work or not. There's not enough scientific evidence for them...some people swear by them, others don't. I've always been one to try something at least once when it comes to alternative medicine. But I'd say stick with nebulizing saline solution for sure.I nebulize with glutathione also and have been for a couple years but once again there's been no real scientific evidence of that either. I've had no progression in four years but I exercise six days a week, nebulize once a day with saline and then add glutathione every other day. Is it all three things? Is it two things that are working? I don't know. I will say exercise is super important, though. My best friend, who is a doctor, told me six years ago when I got diagnosed that I had to exercise every day to push this lung disease back and now I get it. You have to keep your lungs in shape. Make them breathe hard every now and then with exercise and strengthen those muscles. And then the saline makes for a very inhospitable home for all those bugs that we can get. Nan

Thank you so much Nan. What percentage saline do you use and what time? In my case, I have white jelly like mucus when I wake up. After having breakfast and around 12pm, I always have yellow-green mucus. So, I don't know what time should I use the saline.

@sweethighland I use the 7% saline and I have never had a specific time to do it. Sometimes I do it in the morning and sometimes I do it at night....whatever my schedule allows me to do really. Others might chime in but I think just as long as you do the saline that's what counts. I'm not sure the time of day of matters. Nan