There are a few natural cures for asthma that you can look at, if you or someone known to you suffers from this chronic lung condition which leads to difficulty in breathing.
Asthma causes inflammation of the bronchial tubes, while the muscles around them tighten and with the presence of mucus, the airways gets further narrowed. If not attended to at the right time, asthma can prove to be quite fatal.

How would you know whether you are suffering from asthma or not? There are a number of symptoms, ranging from mild ones like chronic coughing and wheezing, to the more severe symptoms which lead to asthma attacks. The signs of asthma are wheezing, shortness of breath and coughing, troubled sleep because of these reasons, tightness or pain in the chest area, having problem exercising due to shortness of breath, and the need for bronchodilators or medicines that help relaxing the muscles and open up the airways.

Though you must never self medicate if suffering from asthma, you could use the Buteyko breathing technique to keep your condition under control, of course as a supplement to regular medication prescribed by your doctor. Konstantin Pavlovich Buteyko, a researcher born in Russia had invented this breathing technique. The Buteyko Breathing Technique was developed on the principle that shallow breathing leads to elevated blood levels of carbon dioxide, and thus is helpful for those suffering from asthma, since it is believed that carbon dioxide can expand the muscles of the airways.

This technique involves a series of shallow-breathing exercises, and when a study was conducted with 60 people suffering from asthma, the effects of the Buteyko Breathing Technique was found to be more beneficial than those who were given a placebo. Those who did the breathing exercises as per the Buteyko breathing technique showed reduced symptoms of asthma symptoms, while those who did not do them, registered no change at all. There was also a significant drop in the number of times inhalers were needed by those who tried out the Buteyko breathing technique, and again the others did not register any change in the number of times they had to use inhalers.

Even after more successful clinical trails, the Buteyko breathing technique did face a lot of criticism. There have been groups of people who have mentioned that the technique is too expensive and cannot really qualify as a natural cure for asthma, since all it does is make the asthma patient feel more relaxed.