1. Natural Remedies
-- We heard about a man who was able to ease off massive doses of cortisone by using garlic therapy. He started with one clove a day, minced, in a couple ounces of orange juice. He gulped it down without chewing any of the little pieces of garlic. That way, he didn't have garlic on his breath.

As he increased the number of garlic cloves he ate each day, his doctor decreased the amount of cortisone he was taking. After several months, he was eating six to 10 cloves of garlic a day, was completely off cortisone, and was not bothered by Asthma.

-- Turmeric is valuable in asthma. The patient should be given a teaspoon of turmeric powder with a glass of milk, two or three times daily. It acts best when taken on an empty stomach.

-- Figs ( anjeer ) are known to give relief by draining the phlegm ( balgam ). Take 3-4 dry figs, wash them well with warm water. Soak overnight in a cup of water. Eat them first thing in the morning and also drink the water. Do this for at least 2 months.

-- Drink 1/4 cup onion juice, a tablespoon honey, and 1/8 tablespoon black pepper.

-- At the first sign of asthma-type wheezing, saturate two strips of white cloth in white vinegar and wrap them around your wrists, not too tightly. For some people, it stops a full-blown attack from developing.

-- Generally, dairy products are not good for asthmatics. They're too mucus-forming. We have heard, though, that cheddar cheese might be an exception. It contains "tyramine," an ingredient that seems to help open up the breathing passages.

2. Sweet Solution
Cut a 1-ounce stick of licorice root (the herb, not the candy) into slices and steep the slices in a quart of just-boiled water for 24 hours. Strain and bottle. At the first sign of heaviness on the chest, drink a cup of the licorice water.

CAUTION: Licorice root may cause renal failure in people with kidney conditions or high blood pressure.