Before the breathing exercise, I was breathing steadily and normally. I was calm. After breathing through the big straw for 20 seconds, I felt like I needed to sit down a take a deep breath. After breathing through the small straw for 20 seconds, I felt like I needed to lie down and breathe normally for a while. I was breathing heavily. After jogging in place and breathing through the small straw, I felt as if I wanted t fall onto the floor and suck up air. I was extremely out of breath. I was panting while sitting at my desk. Yes, I certainly do believe that living in the quiet country or populated city with asthma can make a big difference. In the city, there is gas, smoke and other air pollution in the air, where as in the country, there isn't. Air pollution cannot be good for an asthma patient and it would be better for an asthma patient to live in the country. But of course, that’s certainly not possible for everyone.

Most people who have Asthma cope with it by taking a medication that fits the extent of their condition and taking an inhaler once or twice a day. Although some people may take classes and or do breathing exercises, such as breathing slowly. Most of the time, the treatment of a patient depends on the patient’s condition.

At this point, the air quality isn’t that bad due to the light winds and all the rain. Right now, May 20 th, the air quality is 50. Tomorrow, it will be 65. Yet, asthma patients still have to worry about pollen due to the time of year.

The reason that more people have asthma now than they did 20 years ago is mostly because of all the things wandering around in the air. Such as dust mites, pet dandruff etc., pollen and mostly the air pollution… smokes and gases. All of this going into someone’s airways is anything but good. Especially if they have asthma, in fact, these things could be what caused asthma in the person originally.

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Jerome Bettis is an all-pro running back known as “The Bus”. What many people don’t know is that he has Asthma. Bettis was diagnosed at age 15 and for a short time, followed his doctor’s instructions. Sooner or later, like many teens, he believed he was over his asthma and stopped taking medication. The only treatment he was following was taking an inhaler when he felt he needed to. He did this until 1997 when he had an Asthma attack on the field during a televised game. This changed his ways. He then started a program called Asthma All-Stars Program (AASP), a national education initiative co-sponsored by five leading medical and respiratory organizations and GlaxoSmithKline. The goal of AASP is to show that people with asthma can live without limits — but that each patient needs to work with a doctor to create an Asthma action plan. Bettis now follows his doctor’s instructions, the instructions of AASP, and takes an inhaler when needed.