Posts by Raymond Castillo5

There’s this one unproven trick I’ve been playing around with that might actually help take the edge off an attack, and that’s hitting the Vitamin C hard—I mean, like, "athlete levels" of Vitamin C, somewhere between 1 and 2 grams... I've tried it on myself, anyway. The key thing you have to realize about this kind of therapy is that you shouldn't just slam it all at once; you really need to space it out and take smaller doses throughout the day, mostly because your body just flushes out whatever it doesn't use through your urine, so you'll probably find yourself running to the bathroom a lot more often than usual, but you're still aiming for that 1 to 2 gram total. Now, don't get me wrong, Vitamin C isn't going to magically make an attack disappear entirely, but it does seem to help widen those airways, which makes breathing feel just a little bit easier when things get rough...

Gary Garcia10 said:@Raymond Castillo5 great post!

Here’s the deal: my primary pulmonologist told me I have Asthma, but the tests they ran were absolute garbage—completely unreliable. For instance, during a spirometry test, nobody bothers to tell you to straighten your body out, even though they're watching you; instead, they just leave you in the exact same breathing position as the previous patient. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how poorly they handle these tests.

So, based on that flawed spirometry, they concluded I had Asthma. Later, I did some digging online and found out that GERD (acid reflux) can actually mimic asthma symptoms, effectively masking the real issue. You might not have Asthma at all; you might just have GERD.

Even though the doctor won't even look me in the eye during an appointment (so much for bedside manner and the doctor-patient relationship), I've told him multiple times that certain foods trigger acid reflux for me—things like chocolate, soda, and so on.

If you know how to use the internet, you can find a PDF book by a doctor from San Francisco who linked GERD and Asthma. There are also endless English articles online about it.
A lot of people don't actually have Asthma.

On another note, when I get an "attack," I deal with it using a sedative tablet because it relaxes my muscles and nerves, and it works every single time. Ventolin has never helped me, not even once.

Do your own research and educate yourself. Most doctors here are stuck in the past and are pretty resistant to new information.
Yoga (and even Reiki) can be really helpful for your breathing. Even though I don't practice either, I've seen plenty of Yoga classes specifically designed around breathing techniques for Asthma.

Look at Novak Djokovic—he managed his Asthma through a nutritionist and cutting out gluten.

Learn things on your own. Don't just wait around for doctors who will struggle to help you unless you're paying for a private specialist.

Solid advice right there! You really have to track your own symptoms and pay attention to what's actually happening with your body. Doctors often don't have the drive or the actual time to do any real digging—honestly, they don't even try most of the time because they just follow whatever the pharmaceutical industry hands them in the form of "guidelines" and "data." Both kids and adults just get processed through the system without anyone looking at the root cause, so getting real results feels almost impossible...

As for childhood asthma, please don't delete this post (instead of moving it to whatever category you think it belongs in) — this is something doctors suggest too, and I can tell you from experience, take your kids to the coast... maybe somewhere like Southern California or some island paradise. If it's for your kid, and if you can swing it, move near the ocean... it would save a little person years and years of suffering, all those side effects from medications, and the endless running around from one clinic to another...

I should mention, when I was first prescribed Ventolin, my dad practically had to beg the doctor for it. Back then, the doctor didn't even want to prescribe it because of the heart-related side effects, and I was only about 8 years old at the time, and the medicine I'd been using before wasn't doing anything anymore (can't remember the name...). Nowadays, the industry recommends that exact same Ventolin for everyone, even babies (I know because a friend of mine has a little one with asthma). So, what exactly changed?...