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Veronica Vasquez’s childhood was held hostage by her asthma, a potentially life-threatening and chronic condition that causes airways to become swollen, inflamed and narrowed, leading to coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath.
“A large part of my childhood was surrounded by struggles with asthma, being in and out of the hospital,” she said. “I would not be able to breathe and not be able to explain it to others. I would have attacks regularly. I didn’t know that it was not normal to feel that way.”
Now, as a certified Asthma Education Specialist, Vasquez is raising awareness and providing support to people of all ages who share her condition through Central Coast Alliance for Health. She also teaches “movement for life” through Hollister’s JMM Dance Co, which she co-founded in 2017 with Raymond Garcia.
“We believe that the mind and the body are connected,” Vasquez said. “We believe trauma lives in the body, and that healing happens through connecting your thoughts and beliefs to the body. So it made sense to work side by side with community health and offer preventative services.”
In her youth, as now, Vasquez was surrounded by the medications needed to keep her alive, including EpiPens, albuterol and prednisone.
“It was very normal for me to take my medications and still be wheezing and short of breath,” she said. “Many kids like myself are missing so much time from school because of both asthma and the medications. And the impact those asthma medications have on kids is tremendous. ”
Vasquez said that albuterol, taken from a nebulizer, is the first-line treatment for asthma episodes, though the relief is temporary.
“You take it and it opens up your lungs,” she said. “But by that time your lungs are so inflamed, the albuterol is only going to open them up for a few hours, and you’re going to need to go right back to the medication again.”
Prednisone, she said, has a longer-term effect and can reduce swelling, mucus, and irritation deep inside the lungs for hours or days. But the constant reliance on these medications had serious mental and physical consequences for her.
“As a child, the compound effects made me feel drugged out for most of my childhood,” she said. “My eyes would be shining, and my mood would be up and down. I didn’t know what was going on because I was up in the clouds.”
The combinations also affected her hormones, resulting in stunted growth, which was first recognized when she was eight.
“I’m actually the same size as when I was nine,” Vasquez said. “My mom wanted me on a treatment for bone growth, but my bones had stopped. And this was definitely the asthma medications.”
Through an act of defiance, Vasquez discovered a pathway to managing her symptoms more effectively, allowing her to reduce her dependence on medications.
“When I was a kid,” she said, “I was told I should not be moving very much. So I’d think, ‘Well, now I’m going to move everywhere that I can move.’ And from there, I just started to really want to understand my body. And it’s still a work in progress, but I’ve definitely gone a long way.”
As a guiding principle, Vasquez, through JMM, encourages her students with asthma, and those she helps as an asthma specialist, to engage in focused physical movement and breathing exercises.
“JMM Dance is definitely the right place to learn,” she said. “In order to strengthen your weak lungs, you should be working with your body. You might exert it, but every time you do, you’ll gain strength. Movement classes and breathing exercises are tremendously helpful.”
Vasquez said there is nothing similar to her program currently offered in San Benito County and hopes that local schools will be open to partnering with her, particularly those in more rural areas.
“There are many schools that don’t have nurses right now or just part-time,” she said. “I’ve connected with different administrators who tell me, ‘Asthma is not a problem here.’ I’ll ask for their nurse, and they will say, ‘We don’t have one right now.’ Well then, how would they know?”
JMM Dance has already been accepting people into the asthma program and will launch it fully at the end of September. One current client, Joselyn Segoviano, said she had been concerned about finding adequate asthma support for her 15-month-old daughter, Sophia, until she discovered JMM Dance’s program.
“Since she is so little, there were not many resources provided by our insurance or the hospital,” Segoviano said. “Veronica suggested several exercises for Sophia, such as deep breathing, which really helped her. The answers we didn’t get from her doctors, we got from Veronica at JMM.”
Following Vasquez’s advice, Sophia now has a regular exercise regimen and is developing the coping skills needed to minimize or prevent asthma attacks.
“At first,” Segoviano said, “I was scared because of her condition, but Veronica’s guidance and programs have made a huge difference. It makes thinking about her growing up so much easier.”
Though the program can be used by the very young, Vasquez said the therapy that she advocates is preventative, not a substitute for monitoring the disease or correctly dosing medications during asthma attacks.
“Asthma can be prevented if you are more aware of the symptoms,” she said. “It doesn’t need to get to the point where you’re needing the prednisone or the albuterol on a regular basis if you do the preventative.”
Recognizing the need for asthma treatment for youths, as of Aug. 25, the California’s School Albuterol Access Initiative will stock public and charter TK–12 schools with albuterol metered-dose inhalers and single-use child-sized adapters at no cost.
The program, administered through CalRx, will continue for the next three years and provide free ongoing asthma and albuterol training guidelines to the school districts.
The press release from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office quotes him as saying, “This initiative lets us all breathe easier by equipping schools with the right tools. With free albuterol, every kid can focus in class and have fun on the playground without fear.”
Vasquez said she is excited to present JMM as more than “people who dance around with kids” and is looking forward to expanding the program within the community.
“JMM definitely has a heart,” she said, “and we want to help people recognize they have the ability to heal. There are lots of options available once you are sick. But there are so many things that we can do now, from a mind-body perspective, even before we get sick.”
The JMM Dance Co. office is on the second floor of the San Benito Community Foundation building at 440 San Benito Street in Hollister. Contact Vasquez by phone at (831) 207-4746, or book an appointment through the website.
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