I Tried Healing my Asthma Naturally in 30 Days — Here’s what Happened
Is asthma actually a chronic disease? Or was it all a lie?
Backstory
In May of this year, I reached my lowest point.
For 3 weeks I was unable to do basically any level of physical activity besides walking.
A typical day looked like this:
I wake up, mouthbreathing. Then I walk down the stairs, be out of breath, eat my breakfast while being out of breath and using up a pack of tissues as I ate.
After finishing my food (while mouthbreathing of course), I slowly go up the stairs again. But before getting to my writing, I first have to recover my breath for the next 5 minutes.
After resting, my breathing is still horrible, but I barely notice because it was so normal. Then, as I’m using up another pack of tissues, I sit down to focus on my writing. But it is impossible. My horrible breathing puts my whole body into a constant state of stress.
After trying to work, I try going to the gym. Doesn’t work either.
My constant stomach pain, poor breathing, coughing just does not allow me to do anything.
And if I tried going outside for a walk, my allergies would humble me real quick.
So at the end of the day, I go to bed, with 5 packs of tissues laying around my pillow, and a bunch more in the trash can.
I try to sleep, being relieved because I was finally able to escape this hell.
“Once I fall asleep, I won’t have to endure this anymore.”
My asthma, that had been bothering me for almost two decades already, had reached it’s lowest point.
My parents told me to just “take my medication” but I did not want to live like that. This could not be my destiny.
I wanted to be free. So I started working on my breathing.
Disclaimer: The purpose of this article is to share my own experience — not to provide medical advice. If you are reliant on medication, do not change your dosage unless consulted with a professional.
Start of the experiment
I went to a breathing workshop which my brother told me about.
It took place somewhere 30 minutes away from us.
After a weird car ride, through places I have never been before, we arrived.
It took place in the basement of the host’s house. The little room was beautifully decorated, with mini Buddha statues, chairs in the middle, on a carpet that was perfectly fitting to the yoga-vibe that I got from this place.
It was a peaceful atmosphere and the people were very welcoming to their new guests (us).
The workshop was really helpful and relaxing for my breath, but it was the conversation afterwards, that would spark the idea to try this experiment.
After the workshop, I talked to the host and asked questions about my asthma, to which, she recommended me a book I should read: “Close your mouth” by the author Patrick McKeown.
She said asthma was entirely curable in natural ways and I “did not need my asthma spray anymore”.
Despite hearing a lot about asthma being a “chronic disease”, I had a feeling she was right.
Plus, what else is there to believe? Should I believe I need to rely on medication for the rest of my life?
Hell no.
I decided to order the book and started reading immediately.
Everything I struggled with, was perfectly described in the introduction of this book. And I now understood why I had these issues.
The author explained, why I was coughing so much.
He explained why my nose was always blocked.
He explained why my digestion and my ability to focus suffered from it too.
So I was hooked. I read the entire book in just two days, and re-read it many times since. Probably like 5 times tbh…
He also outlined lots of techniques to cure your asthma, and ways to measure your progress as you go on your journey.
Here is the most important stuff:
- You measure your asthma progress by how long you can comfortably hold your breath in the morning, first thing after waking up. THIS is your Control Pause (CP)
- Below 10 seconds is severe asthma.
- Up to 20 seconds means you have slight asthma, that can be triggered by exercise/allergies and still cause strong reactions.
- Up to 30 seconds you have very slight asthma, but you are still somewhat reactive to triggers.
- Up to 40 seconds, you will almost have zero symptoms and triggers won´t bother you much
- Above 40 seconds and you are practically healed. If you reach 40 seconds for 6 months straight, you should be completely symptom free and have no issues, even when presented with things that formerly triggered your asthma. THAT is the Goal. A CP of 40+ seconds, for 6 months.
- Your CP should improve by 3–4 seconds per week, if you do everything right. (Do not expect yourself to do everything right.)
- And of course, you measure your progress by how you feel.
- Breathe through your nose, constantly.
- The most important step: Train yourself to breathe less (with breathing exercises that take too long to explain for this post).
- This is all part of the Buteyko Method, a method created by Russian Doctor Konstantin Buteyko.
After reading all of this, I decided to create a protocol for myself, in which I would have to:
- Breathe through my nose all the time
- Do a breathing exercise in the morning and before sleeping.
- Sleep with a mouthtape.
- Be mindful of my breathing as much as I can.
- Measure my progress every morning
Here is what happened:
On day 1, I woke up, feeling excited to start my journey. I measured my CP starting point and…
7 seconds.
Of course I couldn’t fucking breathe…
The next day I got to 9 seconds and felt a bit better.
But it was weird. I felt better, but I also had less endurance than I did before while I was mouthbreathing.
Breathing through my nose, I get less oxygen in and out of my body. If I do the same amount of physical activity with less oxygen, of course I’ll have less endurance.
But that doesn’t mean I was doing something wrong. I just didn’t have the crutch of mouthbreathing anymore. And now I had to learn to walk without the crutch.
A few days later I was out to eat with my family, and after going home, my girlfriend told me: “Hey you didn’t even use a tissue the whole day, wow”
And that was when I noticed I was truly getting better.
By this point I was at a CP of 12 seconds.
I remained at that mark for a few more days, when suddenly…
I got back to 9.
I felt terrible that day. My throat dried up the more I coughed and my nose was full of snot as well. Whenever I would move, my asthma got worse and worse. Again, I felt tied to my bed, because everything else was just too painful to endure.
“Does all of this even work?”
“Why haven’t I healed already?”
I wondered what I was doing wrong.
But I reminded myself:
Bro, you´ve been breathing shitty for 20 years and now expect to be perfect after two weeks? Come on maaaaan…
The next day I was back at 13 and my worries were gone…
It went up and up and up. I was at 16 after 2.5 weeks.
And then it went down again.
I was not going to worry this time though, so I kept going and after a few days it settled back up. By this point I was able to breathe through my nose almost all of the time. I was also using only 2 packs of tissues a day (compared to 5 in the beginning).
After this, there were times, where it got worse.
I went swimming and that was too exhausting. My CP went down.
I went to play basketball, even though I felt bad. My CP went down.
But I learned: All I had to do was find the right amount of challenge, in order to progress. It works exactly like the principle of progressive overload in the gym.
Do too much → no progress
Do too little → no progress
So find the perfect balance between the two and you should be good.
After realizing this, I reached an entirely new level of health.
It was now around week 3 and I was reaching a CP of 17–18 very consistently. And it showed. My endurance was way better. For the first time, I was able to walk up the stairs in my house, without any sort of impact on my breathing.
I had one day of going down to 16, but did not let that stop me and now, after a bit more than 4 weeks, I have reached a CP of 21 seconds.
I feel healthier than I ever have in the last 3 years. I’m up 8kg again, my nose is free, and I finally feel…
Like a normal human.
I recently played basketball (very intensely) and I was able to play 3 games of around 20 minutes.
My asthma? Nowhere to be found.
2 months ago, I played with the same guys and I looked like this:
I did not score a single point in two games. I probably missed around 15 shots. I was exhausted the entire game. I had to get substituted after 5 minutes.
Now look at me:
In the end of the last game we played, I scored 2 three-pointers to tie the game, and then the last points to finally win the game. Everyone in the gym was celebrating.
Even the team that lost. Cause damn I put on a show…
That was amazing. Too bad I don’t have it on video.
Big difference right?
In a matter of 30 days, I went from a CP of 7 seconds, not being able to even slowly walk up the stairs without my breath going out of control, having daily asthma attacks…
To a CP of 21 seconds, playing very intense and exhausting basketball, dominating that, not having had an asthma attack in the last week, and only getting better each and every day.
So did curing my asthma in 30 days work?
Kind of.
My life has changed completely, since I started this journey. I feel healthier than I ever have before.
However, I still have days where my nose feels slightly blocked for a few hours. I still do not have the best endurance in the world.
I’m not 100% cured. But that was never the plan. You cannot expect to cure a 20 year long disease in 30 days.
Patrick McKeown, author of the book I read, even said that it will at least take 6 months to heal completely.
So healing in 30 days was never my expectation. But it sure made for a good title…
I’m confident that my progress will keep going at the same rate. And if it does, I’ll be completely symptom free in a month or two.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my journey. I hope it inspired you, to realize that whatever condition you have, it does not have to control you, like it did to me for 20 years.
Change is possible. So embrace it.
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