Delhi's Air and Your Breathing

Quick answer

A cough that arrives in October and will not go, a scratchy throat every morning, eyes that water on the walk to the car — these are the commonest complaints we see once Delhi's air turns, and most of them settle with simple treatment. What should not be waited out is breathlessness, chest tightness, or a child whose breathing you can hear across a room.

Consultation ₹1,200. Nebulisation, where it is needed, ₹300 a session. Call 8800844793.

Why this happens every year

From roughly mid-October to February, cooler air and still winds trap what is already over the city close to the ground. Crop burning in the states around Delhi adds to it, and Diwali adds a short, sharp spike on top. The particles that matter most are the very small ones — fine enough to get past the nose and throat and reach deep into the lungs.

This is not a Vasant Kunj problem or a Masoodpur problem. It is the whole basin, and indoor air follows outdoor air within a few hours unless something is actively filtering it.

Who feels it first

Not everyone notices at the same time, and the order is fairly predictable.

Children. Smaller airways, faster breathing, and more hours outdoors. A child who has never wheezed can start wheezing in a bad week.

Anyone with asthma or COPD. The air does not create the condition, but it reliably sets it off. Most of the attacks we see in November are in people who were stable in September.

Older people, and anyone with heart disease. The effects are not only respiratory. Doctors see more cardiac complaints in these months too.

People who work outdoors. Drivers, guards, delivery riders, site workers. The exposure is simply longer.

And people with no history at all — which is the group most likely to dismiss it, because they have nothing to compare it to.

The symptoms worth acting on

A dry cough that will not clear after two weeks. A morning throat that feels raw. Chest tightness that comes on during the day and eases at home. Waking at night coughing. Getting winded on stairs you normally climb without thinking.

None of these is an emergency. All of them are worth a consultation, because the treatable causes — asthma that has never been diagnosed, a sinus infection, reflux irritating the throat — look very similar from the outside and are managed quite differently.

Come in the same day if

Breathing is difficult at rest. You cannot finish a sentence without stopping for breath. There is chest pain. Lips or fingertips look blue or grey. A child is breathing fast, pulling in at the ribs or neck, or is too breathless to feed or speak normally.

Someone with asthma whose inhaler is not lasting the usual four to six hours should be seen that day, not the next.

What actually helps, and what does not

Masks help, if they are the right ones and they fit. A well-fitted N95 or FFP2 filters fine particles. A surgical mask or a cloth mask does very little against them. A mask that gaps at the cheeks does very little either.

Indoor filtration works, in one room. A HEPA filter in the room where you sleep does more than one in a hall nobody sits in. We do not sell or recommend particular machines.

Timing your outdoor exercise matters more than skipping it. The worst readings are usually early morning and late evening, when the air is stillest. Moving a walk to midday is a reasonable adjustment. Stopping exercise entirely is usually the wrong trade.

Keep your inhaler with you and keep taking the preventer. The commonest avoidable reason people end up needing emergency treatment in November is a preventer inhaler that was quietly stopped in August because things felt fine.

Steam helps a sore throat and a blocked nose. It does not remove particles from your lungs.

🔴 What we will not tell you. No clinic can protect you from the city's air, and nothing taken by mouth clears your lungs of it. If a treatment is described to you as detoxing or cleansing the lungs, that is not a thing. What medicine can do is treat the asthma, the infection or the inflammation the air has set off, and that is worth doing properly.

What happens at the clinic

A consultation, an examination, and a listen to your chest. If it sounds like asthma we will say so and treat it as asthma rather than as a cough. If a chest infection needs ruling out, we will arrange a chest X-ray at a partner imaging centre and the report comes back to the doctor here.

Nebulisation is available at the clinic, same day, for anyone who needs it. Children included.

If it turns out to be sinus or ear-related rather than chest, Dr. Aparaajita Mundra consults here as well, so you are not sent elsewhere to start again.

What it costs

General physician consultation₹1,200Nebulisation₹300 per sessionChest X-rayarranged at a partner centre, quoted before booking

Medicines and inhalers are charged separately. We tell you the amount before anything is given.

Frequently asked questions

My cough started three weeks ago and I feel otherwise fine. Is that worth a visit? Yes. Three weeks is past the point where a simple viral cough should have settled, and a cough that long has a short list of likely causes worth sorting out rather than guessing at.

Can air pollution cause asthma, or only trigger it? It is a well-established trigger, and there is good evidence that long-term exposure contributes to developing asthma in children. For an adult who has started wheezing this month, the practical question is what to do about it now.

Are air purifiers worth it? A HEPA unit in a bedroom measurably lowers the particle count in that room. We have no commercial interest in any brand and do not sell them.

Should I keep my child home from school on bad days? That depends on the child. A child with asthma on a severe day is a different question from a healthy child on a moderate one. It is a reasonable thing to ask us about rather than decide alone.

Do I need a test to know if it is asthma? Often the history and examination are enough to start. Where it is unclear, there are tests that help, and we will tell you if you need one.

Contact

Call 8800844793. Home nursing 6 am to midnight

Phone

8800844793

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Shop no. 1, Central Market, Sector B Rd, opposite Vasant Square Mall, Masoodpur, Sector B, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, Delhi 110070

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