Regularly using your medication is the best way to prevent an asthma attack, but more and more people are looking at ways to help calm their symptoms naturally and in the comfort of their own home.
There are many treatments publicised that claim to help the condition, including breathing techniques and tai chi.
But there are some foods that you can use in a bid to soothe irritated airways and calm inflammation.
Honey seems to be an ingredient that appears in many natural remedies in one form or another.
According to some, a tablespoon of honey and half a table spoon of cinnamon powder taken before sleeping can ease symptoms, while honey mixed with turmeric and taken on an empty stomach is said to decrease the intensity of an attack.
If you can stomach lots of garlic, there are many recipes sufferers claim can help them with their symptoms.
Steaming ginger tea with minced garlic cloves must be given twice a day to have any effect, while boiling ten cloves of garlic in half a cup of milk and consuming it at night is said to help those in the early stages of asthma.
Figs are a natural remedy to help drain phlegm from your system. Try soaking four dry figs in a cup of water and eat on an empty stomach. The water can also be drunk.
There is a similar recipe for grapes. Soaking dry grapes in water at night, keeping them in cold milk for half an hour and chewing them is said to help your condition.
Fenugreek may be an ingredient you haven’t heard of, or used in your cooking before, but this aromatic Mediterranean plant can be used in the treatment of asthma symptoms.
Soaking a teaspoon of fenugreek seeds in a cup of water, then drinking the water at night is said to help. Alternatively, soak the fenugreek seeds in water overnight, add a teaspoon of ginger juice and honey and take twice in the morning and twice in the evening.
The strange looking plants, gourds, are said to hold medicinal secrets in their roots. Making a paste of the root and mixing with honey can be used as a treatment for asthma if taken every night for a month.
Finally, a soup prepared with leaves from a drumstick tree has been found to help asthma sufferers when taken daily. Boil the leaves with water, leave to cool and add salt, pepper and lime juice for taste.
There are some asthma sufferers who swear by home remedies and others that will tell you none of them work.
The secret is trying them and seeing if they bring any relief to your symptoms, it won’t do you any harm to try.