This question’s more asking about people’s personal experiences, rather than medical advice. I tried to search on Google but mostly got a bunch of clickbait B.S.
During the last few weeks, I’ve been suffering from chemo-induced pneumonitis, which apparently feels a lot like asthma, but isn’t actually. Amongst the myriad methods I tried to get myself to breathe freely, one of the best I found was eating food with really hot spices – chipotle, sriracha, even jalapenos in a pinch. It worked wonderfully, at least for a few hours at a time where I could breathe like a normal person.
Unfortunately, any kind of spicy food is really round on my chemo-weakened stomach, and today my body delivered an ultimatum: NO MORE SPICY.
So I’d like to hear if this method actually works for other people with chronic breathing problems; any other tips & tricks of the trade would also be appreciated.
My asthma appears to be both viral and exercise induced. That is, anything from a cold to a laughing fit will have me wheezing. Also, even things like mowing the lawn will do it.
Having said that, I’ve never noticed spicy food to make a difference one way or the other, but then, I’ve never really paid attention or purposely eaten spicy food to help the wheezing.
When I was younger, I found that breathing in the cold air from a freezer help a bit, I used to do that pretty often. Once, in a pinch while sleeping at a friend’s house, I stuck my face right in front of the window AC unit. It got me enough relief to fall back asleep.
I can’t find it now, but years ago I started a thread asking about the things they have people breathing through on [the tv show ER]. It was a blue tube that they’d hold in their mouth and fog came out each time they exhaled through it. I assume(d) it had ice or some other cold substance in it and worked the same way sticking my head in a freezer worked. I always wanted one, it seemed like it would help.
And yes, it does help. I’ve had to do them when my asthma was making me panicky. Normally, Symbicort does the trick.
I love spicy foods. While they clear the head to begin with, they also make your nose run which can make you end up with more mucus than you started with. I don’t think they’d really affect your breathing/lungs at all. Unless you get a jalapeno down the wrong pipe. Which I’ve done. And seriously do not advise.
My asthma is both allergy and exercise induced. As a kid, I played sports all the time, and in high school, my Mom (a nurse) would give me coffee before football and lacrosse games as coffee was a blood dilator to me - I always breathed better…
As I grew up and discovered spicy food, I found capsaicin always loosened my chest, still does, I love hot, spicy food and have a variety of hot sauces on hand…in the thankfully rare event I have an attack, a half a teaspoon of the good stuff will get me coughing and loosen it up, I can breath better…
I am a polymer chemist with absolutely no pharmaceutical training or experience, but I buy into capsaicin for asthma just based on my experience…
It will vary from person to person, and even from spice to spice. My asthma is triggered by among other things certain spices.
Pepper, cinnamom? No problem. They don’t have a positive effect on my asthma as far as I can tell, but then, when I’m busy breathing I’m busy trying to swallow some air and don’t feel like trying to swallow solids. Combining peppers and mustard still leads to, see below.
Curcuma, mustard? Fuckthisshit.
I’ve personally got nothing against curcuma or mustard, in fact I like how they taste, but they clearly dislike me.
My brother Ed is allergic to capsaicins, but in his case it’s hives, not asthma. He can have curcuma or mustard to his tastebuds’ content, though.
I have asthma and experience relief when eating spicy food.
I also experienced relief when breathing in the steam from a heated alcoholic drink. It was moonshine that had been heated almost to boiling and served still steaming. A few careful deep breathes completely ended my minor asthma attack. Since you can’t eat spicy food, maybe this would work? Drinking the alcohol afterwards is probably not a good idea though since you’re on chemo!
Interesting responses. I have had both wasabi and horseradish induced asthma attacks, with the understanding that the wasabi I have eaten is green colored horseradish. I have laughed myself into so many attacks that I have learned to pay attention when I find something beyond amusing, and I am an easy laugh. I find hot, steamy air to be borderline panic-inducing these days, and I used to love to wash banya* when I lived up north. Cold, fresh air helps me breathe easier. Not sub-zero air, but say +20F and up to +50F.
I have used a nebulizer in the hospital but make do with an inhaler here at home.
*banya: Native Alaskan steam bath
I rarely have spicy food. But when I do, it doesn’t seem to exacerbate my asthma at all. I do take a puff of Qvar daily.
Interesting. Before inhaled steroids (and earlier, cromolyn sodium powder) came along, cold winter air would INDUCE an asthma attack. 2 or 3 winters ago, I forgot to take my daily Qvar, and then I went out on a very short errand. I did get a moderate attack, so I came straight home and used my albuterol, and then the Qvar.
No asthma here, but I do wonder: could you maybe breathe in the spicy aroma, or even swish the food around in your mouth, without actually swallowing? I wonder if that might give you some of the relief without hurting your stomach.
I’ve very occasionally done this when I had a craving for a food while feeling so sick I didn’t think I could keep anything down. It’s not satisfying for a craving, unfortunately, but I thought it might help you.
And I’ve definitely started to eat something too spicy and spit it out, and still had the spice feeling for a while afterwards.
