Solaray2

What do you have in your home to help you not get asthma symptoms? What all have you tried? Which products help, made worse or did nothing for you?

I have the following:

1. 2 Ionic Breeze Air purifiers
Horrible smell,ozone, & ions
Irritates asthma when used in a small room not in a large room
Ionizer in large room is kept on.
Ionizer in small room is turned on occasionaly when the room smells musty for a few hours when not at home.
Once home its turned off & windows are opened.
Keeps down some dust.
No significant positive impact on asthma symptoms or control.

2. 3M Air Conditioner Filter on intake
helpful

3. Purifying spray for Vent filters by an allergy product co.
Use on aircondtioner filter
Cant hurt to try it
might be wasting my money

4. Hygienicaire (8 oz jar natural cream air fungicide)
help eliminates mold/mildew.
use in closets/bedroom
open jar for 8 hours 3/4 times a week in bedroom
keep jar open in closet all the time.
It helps with the musty smell.


5. "No More Mildew" mildew resistant sealant. sprayed on airconditioner, bath/show, & window sill.
Works good
3/4 weeks so far & no mildew on shower

6. Clean Airconditioner
Significant postive impact on asthma. Easier to breath
Humidity outside makes it harder to breath

*Found a lot of black mildew on last year's airconditioner when removing it from window last fall.
Didn't clean it at the time but stored it in garage.
mold on airconditioner irritated asthma

This spring I took it out from the garage
thoroughly cleaned it with tilex.
Rinsed it
Air dried for a day(remove tilex odor)
Sprayed "No more mildew" (mildew resistant sealant) on it

6. Wash 2 cats(antiallergen shampoo)/blankets every 1 to 1 1/2 weeks.
wear mask when washing/drying cats
thoroughly blow dry cats so they lick themselves less (which means less cat saliva protein allergens)
significant postive impact on dust allergies/moderate help with asthma.

7. Xolair shots - Advertisement for this medication is geared towards
people who have allergies & have pets.
Nothing extremely noticable yet - just 2 shots so far

8. Hepa Airfilter - Filters expensive, noisy, electric expense, 2nd filter needs wkly cleaning.
Probably would be helpful as long as you stick with it compliance wise.

9. Dust mite pillow encasing
Has a positive helpful impact on my dust allergies.
No noticable significant positive impact on asthma control

10. Mattress dust mite encasing

11. 3M Masks for cleaning cat litter & vacuming.
Very/Very helpful

12. Chlorine in pools, steamy hot showers,humidty, extreme cold,
exercise, stress hormones, laughing, coughing, respiratory colds, cigarettes, certain pets, polution, a full stomach, etc etc, all irritate my asthma.
This makes this health condition hard to manage & live with.
And creates symptoms on a daily basis for me.
Cant live your life in a bubble & cant possibly go long without encountering one of the many triggers.


What's YOUR secret to keeping dust down? I've been in some peoples houses that worked alllll the time and some how they never seemed to have dust. No idea how but I'd like to know....

Perhaps they dont have factors that contribute to major dust.
Dust contributors being:
attic apartments
living in industrial or factory areas
etc.

I have a very dusty apartment
There are no short cuts.
I vacume every week
Wash floors every 1 1/2 to 2 weeks
dust/wipe tv, shelves, nighttable, lamps, etc with damp sponge
every 2 weeks or less.
Ionic breeze does only so much & it must be cleaned every 1 to 1 1/2 weeks


How can you tell if there is mold in your house? Where do you look? How do you get rid of it?

look, smell for mustyness, do a mold test/petri dish (can buy from drug store)
Look in Airconditioner, shower, & bathroom floor under rug.
Crawl spaces in closets, & windows.
Tylex, or Bleach kills the mold good. But didn't fully pentrate on my bathroom wood floor so I than covered with concrete & than vinyl tile (rental apartment)

Nas 12 (no smell/not a heavy chemical/from an allergy product co.
Used on 1 aircondioner.
Was not confident that the product would completely get rid of the mold
that I could not see fully on fan located inside of A/C.
It seems like you have to scrub with this one. Will try again.

Always weared a 3M mask designed for fumes
and provided plenty of ventilation(window fan)



Anything else? Standing on your head at 2:30pm, doing back bends, what? Any off the wall secrets that help YOU?
Gee I wish
Serrapeptase Enzyme is being advertised as helpful for asthma, arthritis
I noticed that it dryed me out (dry eyes,throat) but was helpful for my arm tendinitis


I'd also like to know what names of meds you use are for your asthma and to control it?

Discontinued my Advair (Jitterness side effect)
Flovent (so far so good- No side effect)
Singulair - take but doesn't do anything for me
albuteral - when needed. takes 1/2 to kick in for me.
Side effect shakiness/jitteryness)
Xolair - 2 shots so far. Nothing noticeable yet.

Mornings are bad for me lung function wise. Will sometimes improve within 1 hour after waking & moving about.
Test show that I am not able to exhale my air fully and this is on a permanent basis.
I believe that there has been some damage which is why I feel I can not fully exhale on daily basis since 6/05.
Doctor briefly mentioned there was slight improvement from albuteral
on some aspect of the test.
My peak flow ranges from 200 to 300 (home peak flow meter)