photo mine.
You may recall that awhile back, I was diagnosed with an asthma-like condition. You can find more information about Sjogren's syndrome and cough here.
Somewhere in the midst of figuring out my new medications and inhalers, John and I took a wonderful lazy excursion out to the Washington coastline, and while we were there, he noticed the remarkable decrease in my coughing and wheezing. John was right - as I stood in front of the sea breathing in all that wonderful wet salty air, my lungs became happier than they had been in a very long time.
When we returned home, even though our house is only 90 miles from the ocean, I immediately noticed that my breathing worsened and coughing increased. It was an interesting topic of discussion over dinner that night.
So I suppose that there could be a zillion reasons why my lungs are happier by the ocean. Less allergens? More moisture? The natural occurrence of sea salt mixed in the breeze? Eating pounds of fresh oysters, razor clams, and salt-water taffy?
I think that trying to re-create an ocean at my house would be hard. Can't imagine what the neighbors would say as we hauled in truckloads of sand and various sea creatures, not to mention excavating the entire back yard to create an enormous body of water. And how to make waves....hm.........It wouldn't be too much to ask all my family and friends and neighbors to sell their houses and we could all relocate to the coast, would it? Easier. Much easier, definitely.
Honey? You may want to get started on that project. Honey? Honey? Funny how John has a selective hearing loss occasionally.
It might be cheaper to invest in a cool mist humidifier for my bedroom. I wonder if adding sea salt to the humidifier water to create my own ocean breeze would help. I seem to recall the use of normal saline solutions for humidification in respiratory disease way back in my hospital nursing days. Since my humidifier doesn't turn the water into steam and distill the salt out of the solution, it may be worth a try with my cool mist.
The breathing experiment continues.
1 comment:
Hello Julia, this is an old post but since it looks like you are still active on this blog, I wonder if you have any comments on using sea salt with the cool mist humidifier.
I stumbled across your blog while trying to find information on this, also hoping to relief my chronic sinusitis, bronchitis and breathing problems. I also noticed that my symptoms are way better when near the ocean.
I find nothing much on the Internet except warnings that the white dust may make breathing and related conditions worse, but I'd really like to go ahead and see if it helps, without putting myself at a big risk.
I'd appreciate it a lot if you can share your own experience about this, thanks!
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