Throughout the years, hundreds of adults and children have presented themselves to our Asthma clinic with a problem of coughing. The cough might be intermittent or it may continue both day and night.
For some it may be a "dry bark" while others may have a "wet cough" with clearing of mucus. Regardless, of having being diagnosed as an asthmatic or not, coughing is very stressful to the body and is very disruptful to breathing.
What causes coughing?
Overbreathing is a direct contributer to coughing. Breathing too much results in the airways having to condition a larger volume of air. This makes them very sensitive thus causing either a tickle to the back of the throat or an increased secretion of mucus which precedes the cough.
How to stop coughing
In order to stop coughing, the patient needs to be shown the link between overbreathing and their cough. With this increased awareness, the patient learns to nasal breathe only and to correct their breathing volume to normal levels. In addition, they incorporate various breathing exercises into their way of life. This is the only way to stop coughing.
Measure your breathing:
Take a small breath in
Breathe out gently
Pinch your nose with your fingers in order to hold your breath
Count how many seconds you can hold your breath for comfortably. (the breath at the end should be no bigger that that at the start. It should be a very calm breath.)
Explanation of your results:
Your cough will be present until your comfortable breath hold is at least 20 seconds. A trigger can produce a cough any time the CP is less than 40 seconds. The lower your breath hold, the greater your symptoms.
It is easy to increase your control pause by a few seconds each week. The Asthma Care program is uniquely tailored to allow any individual correct their breathing volume, resulting in a higher control pause. As the control pause increases, coughing stops.
The only way to stop coughing is by addressing an incorrect breathing volume. The results that are expected from people attending our workshop is for coughing to stop by 50% within two weeks. This will continue to improve over time and is regardless of the lenght of time that someone has been coughing for.
How do we teach it?
The classes are taught to small groups of
no more than 10 people. This enables sharing
of information,experiences, support and
First day: Each person is taught the basics of the asthmacare.ie program
Second day (second week): More in-depth teaching and review of progress
Third day (third week): Completion of training.