People's symptoms sometimes diminish as they get older. But if difficult breathing symptoms start reoccurring I recommend you see your doctor soon. (Naturally if you are actually having breathing difficulty you should seek medical help quickly)

It is unwise if you are in fact asthmatic to ignore it.

Asthma is not a disease. It is an effect and is caused by any number of things. Think sneezing, It is caused by any number of triggers. I am of the opinion that it is an immune system glitch. I had asthma when I was in my early teens and it waxed and waned over the years. I have had severe symptoms or none at all. So yes, But it can come back.

I have found that doctors in general are not good at this sort of thing. They like clear and clean and asthma is definitely not. I assume you have been tested for allergies. I do not have any recognized allergy.

patriciae

If you had allergic asthma - lung inflammation triggered by allergies - then you could "outgrow" it because people can become allergic and not allergic to things throughout their life. You could have had asthma triggered by an allergy to something that you are no longer allergic to.

Essentially, asthma is an inflammatory disease where a person's lungs overreact to an inflammatory/irritating trigger - that trigger could be an allergy, but it could also be an irritant like cold air or smoke.

Thanks. I’ll have to learn more about it. Meanwhile, if I have been ”cured,” I might want to write down the cure or share it.

About 25 or 30 years ago, I was tested for allergies. None detected. That’s good. I have no idea how they (“they”) determine such things.

I have no known allergies as people think of allergies. Thankfully, I’ve never broken out with hives or anaphylaxis. Spring tree pollen can make me sneeze, but, what?, that is ”sensitivity?” Adhesive tape makes me itch after a few hours. I’ve grown sensitive to cats — get chokey and eyes itch. Until I was 45 or so, I was never bothered by cats and used to sleep with them, kiss ’em all over.

So maybe I should hang onto my steroid and rescue inhalers. Check w my doctor?

There is something called irritable membrane disorder. It is a " Junk" category for unexplained reactions and I had an exceptional doctor who thought that was my problem. You will react to particulates that irritate your membranes but you do not respond as having allergies. I have been tested three times. He told me either I was allergic to something rare or not allergic at all. I could see his point. I could have a response to water in a shower or cold weather etc. Having any number of weird urticarias like cold, heat, constriction or what ever that causes swelling, hives and itching I was convinced he was right. It makes you sound nuts and basically you just have to avoid triggers and they wax and wane. Hence immune systems stuff. Two of my sisters unbeknownst to me for years have similar issues. I do not think your average GP or even Asthma specialist is any good for this sort of problem. Dr Moon said you know yourself. Pay attention. He was a highly respected pediatric specialist.

patriciae

To my knowledge, I never had asthma symptoms, but, as I imagine anyone might, I’ve gotten chokey from things like lipstick w some slight fragrance, coal dust when I was a child visiting a poor family with a coal bin.

I eat shellfish, cheeses, no problem.

About 35 or so years ago, I don’t know why, but my PCP had me go to a good pulmonologist. I have no idea what prompted that. I guess they did a PFT (pulmonary function test) and a test for asthma/reactive airways. The doctor prescribed a rescue inhaler and a steroid inhaler like Flovent. She told me to take it daily. I think it was something like two puffs, maybe once or twice daily, even if I felt good.

I stuck w that regimen for a good while, but sometimes, despite rinsing, I would get a low grade oral candida (yeast) infection in my throat. Painful.

After a while, despite the pulmonologist’s advice, I stopped taking the steroid inhaler. It felt like a pain in the butt and I had other things going on. I kept the rescue inhalers, rarely using them, but kept them in my purse, car, kitchen and bedside. I think some might be 15 years old.

I’ve woken up a few times, not being able to breath, but I think that might be from esophageal reflux or apnea. I will be getting evaluated for those soon.

So the chokey from, say, deeply inhaling fragrant roses is an irritant, but likely not asthma? I had an extensive PFT and it included that challenge to rule out asthma. It was negative (even though I have been sleeping in a somewhat dusty room. I the spring pollen time) I like fresh air and sleep w the windows open. No asthma attacks, but I do get runny nose & cough.

Asthma is most certainly a disease. Next time you say that, tell somebody who has diabetes to will themselves to have more insulin.

Oh, I just remembered, a couple of times when I was very upset and crying, I got super breathless. Another time when swimming, reaching the edge of my board boat (Sunfish), I got very breathless. Like an attack of sudden gasping breathlessness.

Asthma involves wheezing, IMPE, and it is a condition, not a disease, and it can be triggered by things other than allergies, as stated above.

My son had asthma starting when he was around 7, until he was 10/11. His was triggered by allergies, which he was tested for. He had allergy shots during that time, and they really seemed to help, since he did ultimately outgrow it. That was over 30 years ago and he hasn't had any relapses since.

He also was prescribed an inhaled medicine that was a preventive, not a rescue inhaler. I think it was cromolyn sodium.

cromolyn sodium

I used that once. I think it was for allergy — inhaled pollen for something like that.

It ’s OTC.

Nasal spray:

🔹 https://www.walmart.com/ip/NasalCrom-Symptom-Controller-Prevents-Relieves-Allergies-0-88-oz-4-Pack/597324289

This is the link for the inhaler:

🔹 https://www.rxlist.com/intal-drug.htm

I 'got' asthma a month after my mom died -- the end of her horrible decline due to leukemia. (There was no treatment for that forty years ago.) I'm still inhaling a twice-daily dose of Advair against that and have the 'rescue' inhaler that ages out, mostly unused. I get short of breath if I have not taken the Advair, so I guess I still need that.

I also 'got' migraines and had them for about a year. (I can't believe that people in ads are able to do more than lie in the dark with that pain and wonder if they actually have more than tension headaches.) I Then...I 'got over' them! Stopped feeling one coming on; stopped having to spend hours in silence in the dark until one passed.

Around the same time I became allergic to aspirin -- and have 'gotten over' that in the past few years. (My throat and nose would swell and I couldn't breathe.) Now I can take NSAIDs again.)

I'm amazed that our bodies ever work the way they should! All these 'parts' constantly forming and reforming, much less in concert with one another.

I remember being present for the harvesting of organs from a young female who died of asthma. According to her family, she didn’t take her condition seriously, and was always forgetting her albuterol inhaler. Asthma can be a killer!

There are so many different kinds of asthma and different asthma triggers that it is too hard to generalize it as a singular disease.