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provides information on the causes and symptoms of pet allergies, dogs, cats, tests, screening, treatment.
Asthma Remedies
Is There A Natural Cure For Asthma?
Many people look at the causes of asthma to see if there is a natural remedy.
Asthma is a chronic lung condition. Chronic means that it is long lasting and recurring. Asthma is caused by inflammation in the air passages of the lungs, causing constriction of these passages which makes breathing difficult. In my daughter this involved recurrent attacks of breathlessness, often accompanied by wheezing, which was aggravated because she became distressed and that in turn causes a loss of breathing control and so the situation spirals into another distressful episode.
I have read that childhood asthma symptoms can be classified into two main types: extrinsic, in which attacks are triggered by an allergy, and intrinsic, in which there is no obvious external cause for attacks. It is fortunate that my daughter's asthma is dominantly extrinsic or 'allergic' asthma, so we have had some success in identifying the more persistent causes and simply masking her from them. Cats, and other animals, being a good example of this.
In my daughter's case one of the triggers that sets off her asthma is cats. Stranger still, some cats affect her more than others. Not just touching a cat but even being in a room that a cat has been in. As my Mum has a cat visiting her house became a problem. We therefore had to restrict the time she spent in the house, which in the summer was easy because my Mum has a very nice patio.
Some people find their asthma attacks are linked to certain foods. Dairy products, eggs, chocolate, wheat, corn, citrus fruits and fish are the most frequent food triggers. Anyone experiencing asthma that they feel may be food related should contact their GP to help pinpoint the problem foods.
It is well known that certain foods may promote inflammation in the body, which can contribute to asthma and other allergic conditions such as eczema. Some of the foods which may do this are what are known as the omega-6 fatty acids, typically found in margarine and vegetable oils. Omega-3 type fats that are typically found in oily fish, appear to have the opposite affect and reduce inflammation in the body. Before we started feeding her with huge quantities of salmon, trout, tuna, mackerel and herring we realised diet wasn't an issue with my daughter's asthma or eczema.
We also discovered there is a link in some cases of asthma with salt consumption. Salt appears to heighten the airways' response to histamine, causing increased constriction. Generally avoid adding salt to your food during cooking or at the table, and minimise your consumption of processed foods that tend to have a lot of salt already added, is a good health regime anyway. My daughter has extra salt, compared to me, on her food, and in fairness, that seems to have no affect either way.
Other common substances which seem to provoke asthma like food colouring and preservatives in processed foods also appear to have no significant affect in her case.
Further research suggested curing asthma with simple remedies and natural cures that do not inflict any adverse side effects on the patient, would be a benefit. Honey is one of these remedies where a jug of honey is held under the nose of the sufferer, the air that is inhaled from it will improve breathing. My daughter doesn't like honey. She is in fact a very fussy eater, which helped narrow down what might or might not affect her.
Lemon is another fruit that was suggested as beneficial in the cure of asthma. “The juice of one lemon, diluted in a glass of water and consumed along with meals, will invite favourable results. A teaspoon of ginger juice mixed with a cup of fenugreek decoction and honey to taste acts, as an effective expectorant in severe cases of asthma”. My daughter didn't like the idea of any of that - so why bother?
Indeed why bother with all that persuasion and cajoling, especially as her regime of medication, reduced to an absolute minimum, worked very well, when she remembered to take it!
So the conclusion is that, although there are natural remedies that can reduce the effects of asthma, there is still no outright cure. So a regime of reducing risk by controlling the exposure to aggravating elements is a sound course of action. Coupled with a regime of inhaler and medication suppress the symptoms to the point where they no longer affect the sufferer and the people who care about them.