Recently, my allergies seem to have been making my asthma a lot worse. I moved into a new place and realized after a while that the dust I'm not quite allergic to is still increasing the swelling in my bronchial tubes, causing a worsening of my asthma.

I don't have an inhaler, and I don't intent to get one where I'm living now.

Instead, I decided to try stretching. I lay on my side and arch the arm on that side backwards until it's stretching parallel to the matress under me (ie lay on right side, stretch right arm). I can switch and do the other side as well. At first it seemed to hurt a little bit, but eventually I found that if I was warm enough at night I could fall asleep like this.

Since I started stretching this way I've had fewer and fewer sensations of asthma, and my allergies seem to be getting better too. It's been an easy answer without medications to help open up my air ways, and it's even starting to help decrease my headaches.

So, the next time you feel like your allergies are bothering you, try stretching. I found that it seemed to help me quite a bit.