Vaporiser for asthmatics

I don't think a vaporiser would really be much help for asthma specifically. It will help with a cold or for croup in infants. If an asthmatic has a cold then the usual prescribed inhalers are the only safe option and increase use of the preventer inhalers as required. Seek medical attention if you think the latter are being overused.

Thank you for replying Izabella. We always used prescribed medication for my son but the vaporiser, used as a back up, always helped clear his wheezing to give him a good night’s sleep. Someone else in the family now has asthma (an adult) and that is why I’m trying to find a vaporiser at the moment. She is using all the meds supplied by her GP. Do you know if there is currently a modern version of the vaporiser and if so, where I can buy one?

My son uses a humidifier for my asthmatic toddler granddaughter .
If you do a Google search for "Best humidifier for asthmatics", lots of info comes up.
She was at the asthma clinic yesterday and the doctor approved of using the humidifier.

Marydoll the op was asking about a vapouriser not a humidifier

Izabella, I was suggesting an alternative, as the OP was asking for a more modern alternative. Wrights coal tar vaporisers were withdrawn in 2000.

To quote the OP,
Is there a modern version of that or anything similar currently available?.

I feel as if I have had my knuckles rapped, despite trying to be helpful! What is happening on GN today? ?

Marydoll there is no way your knuckles were rapped by me and my apologies if you have interpreted my response in that way.

It is probably me who is now confused but the OP stated that she wanted help with a modern version of what I read to be a vapouriser. I replied as I did as a humidifier works differently.

Of course I accept your apology, it's just that your response came across as abrupt, although it wasn't meant to be.

The OP stated she was open to suggestions, I suggested a humidifier as an alternative to a vapouriser, because it worked for my family.
Central heating can dry the atmosphere and menthol in a humidifier does help breathing. My granddaughter has a chronic cough and the humidifier certainly helps her at night.

However, the best thing that I as a chronic asthmatic and someone who has bronchiectasis, have found, is good old menthol crystals and steam.
I have just got over a severe chest infection and asthma flare up and frequent menthol inhalations did help.

When I was in high dependency for six weeks , I was given this inhalation four times a day and it certainly helped open my airways. The best thing of all, it's an extremely cheap method.
Research has shown that neither vapourisers nor humidifiers reach deep enough into the lungs to clear mucus.
So basically it's a matter of personal choice.

Marydoll I hope your condition improves and your treatment works. I'll never forget the morning when oldest son started with asthma symptoms, he was about 12. He knows how to cope now.
I have a history of asthma (recent) and angina. Evidently the symptoms can be similar. TG not often these days, but I'm going to ask the Dr. about an inhaler next time I go.

Fennel, I hope you get it sorted ASAP. Don't waste time, please see your GP. ( ?
I was 21 when it was eventually diagnosed (Initially
diagnosed as "' nerves') and ended up in intensive care, very ill, with my new husband being told told to expect the worst. The good thing is I don't remember much about it.
I always was bolshie and here I am today, having proved the doctors wrong.

Marydoll, we have a humidifier when Bertie is staying and it seems to help his breathing.

Another thought, perhaps ask your GP about a nebuliser.
Usually only given for severe attacks but worth asking.
Good luck, asthma can be frightening.

HannahLoisLuke good suggestion.

We have one and it has kept my son and I out of hospital many a time. However, last year my GP was very reluctant to give me the medication for it, as advice has changed on using them at home,
The new advice is put ten puffs of reliever in a spacer and if that doesn't help, then get yourself to A&E.
I have a very small stash, I'm keeping for the direst emergencies, but the solution goes out of date quite quickly.

As a desperation measure, use a bowl with a towel over your head, obviously s9meth8ng hot in the bowl. Worked for me, I am asthmatic, didn’t have much choice in middle of Africa. You can add any kind of inhalant to the water. And yes, the steam helps relieve the br9nchospasm. Hope this helps, oh, a thought! What about try8ng with a facial steamer but putting over mouth and nose. Always put a towel over head to keep steam in as long as possible. H9t swee5 tea, black, with honey, sipped helped.

My three DC all had croup 45 years ago. My GP suggested a coal tar burner and it was fantastic at soothing the tubes especially a night time. My neighbour was a nurse and she borrowed it when her DD had a really bad cold. So good she bought one too. 40 years later suggested the use of one to a neighbour who did find one to buy. It is different, no candle to heat the coal tar stone but did work.May well still be a available.

Following on from Marydoll and Jen................

A firend got me a steamer cup, plastic, just add very hot water, and a small jar each of menthol and eucalyptus crystals.......make strength to suit, but only tiny amounts of crystal needed.
Also bowl and towel over the head, can use anything in hot water, salt, lemon, vinegar, honey, even just the steam helps.
I also am prescribed Ellipta Relvar, Fostair and salbutamol and also bought a small nebuliser and just use saline solution in that.
Also have large oxgen bottles in living room and bedroom, and portable bottles for moving about or travelling.
End stage COPD.

Stree, I'm sorry to hear about your health. It is an awful condition.

I'm afraid that will also probably be my situation in the future.
However, the highest dose of Relvar in addition to all my other meds, has made a big difference for me.
I too found saline on it's own is beneficial.

Marydoll
Just make the best of what you while you have it!
Don`t forget good old placebos! They work well even when people know they are not a real medication, the brain is a powerful healer.
Anxiety and fear can magnify symptoms too, it is important to feel one is in control, and that is not always easy.
It is also important to distract oneself from such worries, socialising can be restricted, but phone is handy, friends or talking to pets! Even do a Prince Charles and have a natter with the shrubbery...You never know what that Privet might tell you about the neighbours!
and of course online forums and chats like this.
I distract myself with new hobbies, watercolour paints, poetry, photography, building mini Hifi and computers...........all can be done mostly sitting down, with little exertion.......but all can be absorbing and thus distracting............
Physical exercise too is good for body soul and mind, wish I was able to do more of that!
But anyone can choose how they approach things, some complain and moan and people with much the same issue smile and try to be positive.
I will post what I read a while ago that helped my thinking on this...........

In the fourteenth century a Tibetan Buddhist named Longchenpa wrote;

*’Since everything is but an apparition
Perfect in being what it is,
having nothing to do with good or bad,
acceptance or rejection,
One may well burst out in laughter.’*


It is simply what it is, what is, is perfectly what it is. It couldn’t be anything else. It is perfect and I am perfect. I am exactly and perfectly who I am and you are exactly and perfectly who You are.

If you are a happy person, then that is what you perfectly are—A happy person.
If you are an unhappy person, then that is perfectly what you are—An unhappy person.
If you are a person that is changing, then that is what you perfectly are.
I you have a God, then you are a Godly person, if you do not, then you are not.

That which is, is that which is…That which is not is also that which is.
There is nothing that is not that which is.
We are part of that which is.
We ARE that which is
Perfectly.

and we can choose..

Friars Balsam via a steam kettle ? I used this years ago when my D developed croup