early asthma treatments - blue pills, quack docs, green powder ... and lizards (!?!)

Growing up in Southeast Asia, during a time when the mix of western culture and old traditions & folklore was everywhere, my parents sought every resource and followed almost every suggestion to find a cure for my asthma.

On weekends, we would go out very early to the seashore so that I could inhale fresh air which, someone suggested, would strengthen my lungs and forever rid me of my asthma. Well I enjoyed going to the bay side but my asthma episodes reoccurred.

A lady was once invited to our house and, according to her, unseen beings were causing me to get sick because my spirit was somehow being "held captive" by these entities. She told us that I had to be "called back" to be cured. I vividly recall her chanting over and over: "Halika Meekel". The first word literally means "come here" and the second was supposed to be my name, Michael, which she was mispronouncing again and again. Well, now I know why she failed to get rid of my asthma ... she was trying to cure someone else!

One day, my parents bought this slim, rectangular tin can of medicine. The medicine was actually in the form of green colored powder and it was called "Asthmador". Whenever I had an asthma attack, they would scoop out about half a tea spoon of that stuff, light it and make me inhale the fumes - which smelled a bit strange, like the incense used in churches. Tiny sparks flew out and the powder crackled when it was ignited, just like the trail of gunpowder that would blow up Yosemite Sam on many episodes of Bugs Bunny.

So did it work? I really can't say because I remember one morning, before going to school, I was having a bad asthma attack. I recall being on my haunches, trying my best to inhale the fumes from the burning Asthmador powder. I was crying too because I still couldn't breathe and because I was already late for school. The smell had begun to fill up our small apartment and my parents eventually decided to let me stay home and rest that day.

During summers and holidays, my family would travel to the province to visit relatives. We would usually stay in a remote town for a few days and we all enjoyed it. Everything was all green and there was a lot of space for me and my siblings to run around and play. But at nighttime, when it got a bit chilly, the change in temperature would often trigger an asthma attack.

That was when I would hear all sorts of recommendations from the old folks to my parents - to forever cure his asthma, have him drink the broth of the leaves of some plant; or squeeze out the oil from this palm and rub it on his chest and back; crush this and mash that; boil this; rub this on him; and so on and so forth. It all sounded like magic to me.

And then I heard someone suggest that I be made to eat lizards - the common, household kind. Now that shocked me! According to whoever made the suggestion, the lizards were to be (deep-) fried and I was to eat them whole. I think this cure has oriental origins but thankfully, my parents never went that far.

Actually, a few years later, I heard someone recommend the "fried-lizard cure" again. I still do not know how effective it is for asthma and I have no intentions of finding out.

My parents soon discovered a little pill called Brondil for my asthma attacks. Its color was powder-blue and the thing I remember most about it is that it is the most bitter thing I have ever tasted in my entire life.

My mother would do everything to make my taking that pill easier - she would wrap it up in a piece of bread or give me some sugar to wash down the horrible taste. That pill worked though. I would feel better and could breathe easier within about half an hour after I took it. That is, if I was successful in swallowing the medicine. Because of its strong, bitter taste, I would usually throw up.