With all the kissing, embracing, sensuous motions and the climaxing involved, sex does involve a lot of heavy breathing. This, as enjoyable as it may be, does dry out the airway passages and if one partner in a love-making session is asthmatic, sadly this could aggravate an attack…and, well end the fun stuff. So what’s a couple to do? Certainly, you don’t have to be celibate or have boring, heavily restricted sex, in due course we shall go over some helpful suggestions. Now, for asthma patients, attacks induced by physical activities that involve heavy breathing are quite common. Needless to say, the general advice is to avoid these activities; however, a relationship where sex is avoided is bound to put a burden on both parties and inevitably may very well end it. As a result to prevent a relationship going sour from no love making due to asthma, here are some tips to look into. First, change your diet. I can’t stress that enough and if you want to keep the sex going in your relationship and more importantly improve your health, you will do well to heed that advice. You have got to give up all processed foods and animal products such as meat, milk, eggs and the like from your diet-plain and simple. These are mucus forming foods and we all know what one physical characteristic of asthma symptoms are: Mucus. This is a fact that has been in effect in several programs aimed at correcting respiratory health such as the "Breath Retaining Program for Asthmatics" developed by the Russian, Dr. Buteyko. Within weeks of adhering to his advice, many a chronic asthmatic has been able to give up the use of ventolin inhalers. Replace these items with mucus binding or non-mucus forming foods. These are quite simply fruits and vegetables. Make sure they are organic if possible or at least not in the list of the “dirty dozen” i.e. the ones most contaminated with pesticides such as Apples, Mexican Melons, Grapes etc… Trust me on this; I’m speaking from experience, you will do very well to avoid the fruits in that list when it comes to asthma. Nonetheless you’d still be much better off steering clear of those food substances labeled as mucus-forming earlier on. In addition, from my own experience, DO NOT CONSUME LIQUIDS WITH YOUR MEALS AT ANY TIME. This inhibits digestion by diluting the necessary juices in your stomach designated for that purpose. As a result, it hinders the much needed expansion of the diaphragm and consequently a constriction of the lungs- the bellows of life giving air- which results in the wheezing sounds any asthma patient is familiar with. This dietetic change will help lay the foundation for the next factor which is to get back in shape. Perhaps the best choice for doing this may be Yoga. There are specific yoga poses that target asthma owing to the effect of their positioning in regards to the airway passages. They include the Shoulder Stand Poses, The Fish Pose, the Head to Knee Pose and the Bow Pose. They are all very, very simple and it just dawned on me that each of these co-incidentally is useful for toning the organs used for sex! Yoga’s Sun Salutations are also very useful for correcting breathing, mildly exercising the entire body and restoring flexibility and fitness. (Need I mention these are two factors needed for love-making?) For simple calisthenics, you can look into doing some reps of Hindu Squats and Hindu Push-ups. Both are extremely effective for attaining improved breath control and are total body workouts into themselves. Just don’t worry about doing too many of them, if they are demanding, you can do fine with the yoga mentioned and of course you don’t have to count out walking, dancing and hiking. (This is in the hopes that your dietetic habits are changed as suggested.) Other simple steps to curb the effect of Asthma in your love life are to: 1. Avoid excessive temperature changes 2. Ensure dust mites are reduced as much as possible in your home 3. Use a humidifier in the cold seasons. 4. Of course, not have sex right after meals…(not even about asthma here folks) 5. Keep fresh air circulating in the rooms at home as much as possible. Things may not change overnight, nothing that drastic does; however, with these simple steps, in a short time, being hindered by asthma in regards to expressing love through sex will be a thing in the distant past. Here’s to free breathing…and hopefully a happier relationship.