Today, asthma attacks will kill three people in the UK alone.
World Asthma Day today brings with it a range of starling facts about the condition that affects 300 million people around the world and claims 489,000 lives annually.
A chronic disease characterised by recurrent attacks of breathlessness and wheezing, asthma is thought to be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors such as air quality and pollution from transport.
While the first stage to finding a cure for asthma – an ambitious roadmap for asthma research – has been completed, and scientists believe they have found the root cause for the condition, suggestion a permanent cure may be within reach before the end of the decade, for the more adventurous asthma sufferer a quicker route to good health may be just a 4-hour plane ride away.
Located in the Alanya district of Antalya Province, in southern Turkey, Damlataş Cave (Damlataş Mağarası) is believed to provide a cure for asthma sufferers who visit from all over the world.
Discovered accidentally during mining operations at a quarry used for the construction of Alanya Harbor in 1948, its entrance facing the beach, the cave boasts a temperature of 22–23 °C (72–73 °F) regardless of the season and contains relatively high percentage of carbondioxide, around 10 to 12 times more than in normal air, and has 95% humidity.
Damlataş Cave is popularly known as an “asthma-cure cave”. In 2015, the municipality of Alanya reported that the cave was visited annually by 282,000 tourists of which 4,000 suffered from asthma.
Visitors, who come for asthma cure, stay 21 days long four hours a day in the cave. Between 6:00 and 10:00 hours local time in the early morning, the cave is open only for asthma-sick visitors. While the entrance fee for tourists cost 4.50, the visitors for cure pay only 0.30.
Even if you may feel sceptical about natural remedies where medicine falls short, Alanya still has plenty to offer to visitors so a trip to the district right at the heart of the Turkish Riviera, with a 21-day treatment booked at Damlataş, may be well worth it.