do salt inhalers work to treat asthma?

Lately my asthma has been so bad that my doc upped my advair to 500 and I have to say it kind of scares me, I don't want to someday build up tolerance to the highest doses. So I've been desperately trying to find natural ways to treat my asthma and I search the web quite a bit for research on the topic. Today I stumbled upon this thing called a salt pipe. It is suppose to mimic the air you'd breathe while living close to the beach. I grew up by the ocean and my asthma was never as bad as it is where I live now(about 4 hours inland) the summers are very hot and dry, the winters very cold and snowy.

I am just wondering if anyone has tryed the salt inhaler and what their experience with it turned out to be?

[Victoireh]

I can't say I've tried salt treatments, but I do know that often there is a reason for worsening asthma. Did you have a work up for GERD, sinusitis, and unknown allergies? These are the three most common culprits for making asthma worse. Once they have been treated your asthma will improve a lot. I had experience with sinusitis and once I had surgery done for a deviated septum, which caused all of my sinus infections, I was able to reduce my asthma medications considerably.

The reason you're on such a high dose is to try to control your asthma. Uncontrolled asthma has the potential to cause lung damage, which is something you want avoid, as that is permanent. You could have allergens in your area that are causing your asthma to be worse, that you don't know about. If they are air born allergens, then you can reduce your sensitivity to them by getting weekly allergy shots. This is where getting allergy tests done is a good idea. Also cold winters can make many asthmatics worse. Cold air is a trigger to the airways. I found that in the summer times I can reduce the dosage of my steroid inhalers, as my asthma does so much better in the warmer temperatures.

Follow up with your doctor to get to the root cause of your worsening asthma, as taking Advair 500 should not be taken lightly.