Apparently there's a breathing technique that can reduce the need to use your inhaler. The premise is that when you take deep breaths during an asthma attack you're actually exacerbating the problem by lowering the amount of carbon dioxide in your blood, causing your airways to close further, prolonging and worsening the attack. There's an article about the idea here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/health/03brod.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/health/03brod.html
Dr. Buteyko concluded that hyperventilation — breathing too fast and too deeply — could be the underlying cause of asthma, making it worse by lowering the level of carbon dioxide in the blood so much that the airways constrict to conserve it.
This technique may seem counterintuitive: when short of breath or overly stressed, instead of taking a deep breath, the Buteyko method instructs people to breathe shallowly and slowly through the nose, breaking the vicious cycle of rapid, gasping breaths, airway constriction and increased wheezing.