Help For Asthma, a few suggestions

I have suffered with asthma since I was a young lad and through the years I came across some interesting ideas to help it without sucking on an inhaler.

During an asthma attack there is a great little trick to help you free up those airways. If the person is laying down on their back, or right side, they can use their right hand to feel under the left armpit.

Raise the left arm comfortably out of the way and feel down a couple of inches, around the second or third bone down you will notice a little 'gristle mass' which is a little painful when you push it.

Take slow deep breaths while you massage it, and after a minute or two the airways start to relax. I don't know why, but it really does work very well indeed. Apparently, for a few percent of the population, you may need to do under the right armpit instead.

They say asthma is often aggravated by allergens, and I was found to be allergic to this or that, and spent much time avoiding things. But none of it ever seemed to help very much. I used to love playing pool as a boy, but some days I couldn't even walk to the pool hall.

After moving to Canada, I lost touch with my favorite sport of playing pool and after a while my asthma pretty much vanished. When I started work at CenterSpot, a pool table place, my asthma quickly returned and I ended up in hospital.

I was older and wiser and I finally clued in to what was happening. I had been such a fool really. The damn green cloth is made with nickel and the dust from it was causing my asthma. When I began to avoid all the foods and drinks and other products which contain nickel my asthma was cured once more.

It was a hard lesson, but worth learning.

I have a funny little story to tell to go along with this. Before the holidays I was invited to visit my eldest brother in his current home. I had never been there before, with him being in a somewhat distant city.

That morning I wrote a little update in the magnetic ghost machine thread in which I mentioned where I used to work. In the afternoon I went off to visit my brother and his family. We had a lovely night and I slept on the couch.

Now, when I awoke in the morning I could hear pool balls. I hadn't noticed a pool table and I wondered where it was coming from. I quickly jumped up and looked down the stairs to the basement.

Lo and behold my brother had bought a second hand pool table. I played a couple of games with my brothers youngest son, and then went back up the stairs. My brother was cooking breakfast and I asked him what company the pool table was made by, he told me it was made by CenterSpot, of all places.

Now, a couple of weeks passed and it was the family get together time for the holidays. This year it would be at my eldest brothers place. Thirteen of us gathered around for supper, and I was the first to pull my cracker.

It contained a little joke about a pool table.



The entire sequence of events appealed to my sense of spirit so I put the little piece of paper in my pocket. I had all but forgetten about it. Today I found it in my little drawer, and I thought I'd share the magical little journey.

This post has been edited by templeghost on Jan 5 2008, 12:20 AM

That is quite a story. When you say "pull your cracker" do you mean a fortune cookie?

I mean a Christmas Cracker. They are popular in the United Kingdom and other commonwealth countries I guess. It's just a cardboard tube wrapped in paper, like a big candy, which two people pull between them.

Much like a cap gun it makes a little bang and one person is lucky enough to get the large end of the cracker and receives the gifts inside. There is usually a paper crown, a little plastic gift and sometimes a joke too.

Thankfully, your question was very polite

A-ha! So it was a cultural issue. Thank you for clarifying...although now the phrase "pull a cracker" may enter my lexicon as something totally different.

For many people, marijuana is a bronchio-dilator. Also, in my experience (having a bit of asthma myself) warm, moist air is much easier to breath than cold, dry air.
Many other environmental factors can affect an asthmatic, as well. I know staying in a wood framed house that hasn't been properly treated for mold in a few years sets me off something fierce. So does being around a multitude of cats.
Finally, the best method of aid is not a good emergency measure (like marijuana can sometimes be) but a fitness regime. One can 'train' one's lungs to be less sensitive through extensive cardio-vascular exercise. But PLEASE if you take my advice, keep an inhaler on hand. No part of my advice is good for 100% of asthmatics, and I'd hate to think someone wound up in the hospital from listening to me.

I read through the thread and what I find most interesting is that nickel is found in the cloth or fibers of the pool table, is there a reason there is nickel there?
I'd assume it has to do with smoothness and helping the balls roll along.

Also now I recall another thread with complaining of nickel, is this substance in a lot of foods as well?

Are you sure there is nickel in the cloth? Could it be the wool or felt making you ill? Or even the chalk in the room and used to play this (fun) game?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pool_tables


Cloth
Billiard cloth (sometimes erroneously called felt) is a specific type of cloth that covers the top of the table's "playing area". Both the rails and slate beds are covered with 21-24 ounce billiard cloth (although some less expensive 19oz cloths are available) which is most often green in color (representing the grass of the original lawn games that billiards evolved from), and consists of either a woven wool or wool/nylon blend called baize.

Most bar tables, which get lots of play, use the slower, thicker blended cloth because it can better withstand heavy usage. This type of cloth is called a woolen cloth. By contrast, high quality pool cloth is usually made of a napless weave such as worsted wool, which gives a much faster roll to the balls. This "speed" of the cloth affects the amounts of swerve and deflection of the balls, among other aspects of game finesse. Snooker cloth traditionally has a directional nap, upon which the balls behave differently when rolling against vs. toward the direction of the nap.


If it is the chalk..then could it be that magnesium carbonate was causing your allergy/asthma.

Chalk uses
The traditional uses of chalk have in many cases been replaced by other substances, although the word "chalk" is often still applied to the replacements.

Blackboard chalk is a substance used for drawing on rough surfaces, as it readily crumbles leaving particles that stick loosely to these surfaces. Although traditionally composed of natural chalk, modern blackboard chalk is generally made from the mineral gypsum (calcium sulfate), often supplied in sticks of compressed powder about 10 cm long.
In lawn tennis, powdered chalk was used to mark the boundary lines of the court. This gives the advantage that, if the ball hits the line, a cloud of chalk or pigment dust can be seen. Nowadays the substance used is mostly titanium dioxide.
In gymnastics, rock-climbing, billiards, bouldering, weight-lifting and tug of war, chalk—now usually magnesium carbonate—is applied to the hands to prevent slipping. Tailor's chalk is traditionally a hard chalk used to make temporary markings on cloth, mainly by tailors. Nowadays it is usually made from talc (magnesium silicate).
Sidewalk chalk is made of sticks of colored chalk (now mostly gypsum) used to draw on sidewalks, streets, and driveways. It is often done by children, but in many cities, talented adult artists create masterpieces on the walkways.

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalk

Magnesium carbonate is found in many things including foods for color retention.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium_carbonate

I hope any of this is helpful?

(Still can't find a nickel connection)


This post has been edited by tikay on Jan 10 2008, 03:25 AM

There is indeed, the green dye for the cloth is made with nickel and is given off as dust when we play thereon. Green bottles, glass, and many green products contain nickel in order to bring about the green color. There is a relatively small amount of nickel in some foods, green beans, broccoli, oats, and chocolate for example.

This brings up an excellent point. When I eat foods such as those mentioned above I invariably suffer heartburn shortly thereafter. I never knew what was causing my heartburn, but when I began to avoid the nickel based foods, the heartburn vanished along with my asthma.

In retrospect, all manner of suffering in my life became very transparent when I began avoiding the nickel based foods and products. For instance, a stew which has been cooked a long while in a stainless steel pan, which contains nickel, will always give me heartburn.

Furthermore, various studies have clearly demonstrated a link between heart disease, lung disease, and exposure to diesel fumes. Consider the hydrogenated fats, and diesel fumes, here again we find they both contain nickel. All too often, whether we speak of asthma, heartburn, heart disease, or cancer, the nickel is often hiding therein.

Very interesting! I wondered if it was a green dye when i saw they were dying bottles green with nickel. You have done your research !

I often use stainless to do stews, maybe I should use ceramic (crock pot) more. There is so much to consider when cooking, for optimum health.

The wicked man wishes to poison the man of steel with his green glass kryptonite. Of the reeve, he is the son of the powerful overseer, is it for Christopher or George, or is it for when Superman returns with much wrath?



He will find himself in a strange world, where the green glass kryptonite is all around, stealing his strength, taking away from his magical power. Surely, the man of steel will save the people from the wicked man.



Can he overcome the poison which is put upon him? Can all the people learn to overcome, and escape the poison which is stealing their strength? Surely the spirit is living in the good people, and teaching them. Surely, they can hear the voice of truth when it is calling unto them.

If we cannot hear the call of the spirit, how can we find our way to paradise? His xray vision is surely a great gift that will reveal many things, and wipe away the mud from our eyes, and deliver us from evil.

The asthmatics are like unto people falling low on the cross, they cannot breathe. The persecuted have been born into a world where they are crucified, like unto a saint suffering on the cross. The sinners have taken over the world, and they being evil love the diesel trucks, and green glass, and plastic, and money, and vanity, and nickel, and all the beastly things.



The saints are persecuted, yet again. They suffer for the sake of truth. The good among them can see the signs which are all around them, even at their doors. They do good to those who persecute them, and humble themselves. They may be bruised and afflicted, but they have faith, and they will be delivered.

A charmed life is given to those who wait, surely the saints will find their way.

My son Tui had some very bad "bouts" with asthma while growing into adulthood.
It seems it has pretty much gone away now. Thank goodness. We had to spend time in emergency rooms a little. Asthma is very hard on a person and he was the one who sat out of many games while his (two) brothers enjoyed sports. I think it is good to exercise with asthma...but I guess if one is afraid to get an attack, then they might self-protect more.

I guess sitting out of pool games is something I never even considered. What do you think about diet, are you a purist? Do you indulge like most in junk foods sometimes? Has your asthma gotten any better as you age? As in less episodes or less harsh episodes?

just curious...

What do you think of the bronchospasm reliever?

as the preventer does much the same amount of protection,

which do you suggest?

I don't have any idea what is right for you. Tui preferred the broncodialator..when he got attacks and nothing preventative. I have never had asthma and would never suggest what anyone should do who has it...except my son I guess, and we basically did as told because we wanted him to be able to breathe well again.

I take medication for depression, if I didn't I might die, simple stuff, I guess. My depression got pretty extreme...many gestures to get myself out of here. we all have things that are painful...pretty much everyone has something they battle with.