[nudephil (OP)]

Here's a question from listener Troy:

Is there a cure for asthma? What are other ways of treating asthma outside of using an inhaler?

Any suggestions?

[alancalverd]

None I can think of for genuine asthma, but some neurological conditions can mimic it. There has been a lot of ignorant controversy about chiropractors claiming to treat asthma by relieving pressure on the spinal nerves that control exhalation. It works (I've been a patient - the relief was spectacular) but it ain't proper asthma.   

[evan_au]

One clue may lie in the explosive growth of asthma in the past 50 years.
- Suggesting that this growth may be more environmental than genetic
- The "Hygiene Hypothesis" may be relevant here
- But cleaning up the environment may reduce future cases

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asthma

[alancalverd]

The rapid increase in asthma diagnoses followed the development of robust steroid inhalers. In my schooldays I recall only one asthmatic - a chemistry teacher who had had an "interesting war" and carried a fragile and complicated squeeze-bulb inhaler.  I don't recall a significant change in middle class environmental hygiene in the next 20 years, but about half of my children's classmates had attractive aerosol inhalers before mobile phones became fashionable.

Interesting correlation here: use of steroids in childhood / loss of school playing fields, compulsory games, kids playing in the street / increase in mean environmental temperature due to widespread central heating and aircon / increase in obesity and diabetes. Is there an underlying  causation?       

[Bill S]

Is there an underlying  causation? 

Several, I suspect, as you indicate.  One has to be advertising.  Ads are constantly telling us what we should eat, what might be wrong with us and which pills and potions we "must have" to put all these things right.