4 Root Causes of Asthma

Marilyn had asthma since she was a young adult. There seemed to be no pattern to her attacks – sometimes it would happen frequently, and other times she would go for years without an attack. Later, she noticed that before an asthma attack she would have an intense itch right in the middle of her back, where she couldn’t reach. If someone scratched it hard, the attack would not come. However, if nobody was around to scratch that itch, she would get severely short of breath. Interestingly, after divorcing her husband she stopped getting asthma attacks altogether.

Asthma is not a disease, but rather a syndrome where the airways in the lungs close down, not allowing air to get to the alveoli, or air sacs to give the body oxygen. As with most “diagnoses” in the medical world, asthma is not a single entity. It is a collection of symptoms of many different causes.

• 

  • Pinterest
  Allergies
  • Pollen
  • Dust
  • Food
• Deficiencies
  • Magnesium
  • Omega-3 oil
  • Glutathione
• Chronic infections
  • Molds/fungi
  • Virus
  • Bacteria
• Inflammation
  • Autoimmune disease
• Neurological
  • Autonomic Nervous System instability
  • Anxiety
• Hypocapnea (low carbon dioxide levels)

Supplements that may help with asthma are varied, depending on the type of asthma. Those with inflammation will need different supplements than those with allergies, for example. The following is a list to work from.

Supplements For Everyone with Asthma

• Choline is a B-vitamin that can help if given in high enough doses. We use about 6 grams (6,000 mg) per day.
• Magnesium can relive asthma as fast as an inhaler, when given intravenously.[1] Oral magnesium has also been shown to decrease asthma exacerbations in children.[2] The dose is about 400 mg per day.
• N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) is the precursor of glutathione, the primary anti-oxidant in the lungs. About 1,000 mg per day is sufficient.
• Omega-3 oils including fish, flax, hemp, and evening primrose oils help to decrease inflammation. It is also important at the same time to lower your intake of corn, soy, and vegetable oils, which produce inflammation.
• Vitamin D is essential for proper calcium and magnesium balance. It is also a powerful immune system modulator – meaning it helps the immune system work where it needs to, and not where it doesn’t. The optimal dose seems to be about 50,000 IU per WEEK.
• Coenzyme Q 10 (CoQ10) is often low in people with asthma.       The dose is about 300 mg per day.
• Lycopene and beta-carotene should be a large part of the diet of any person with asthma. Green, red and yellow fruits and vegetables are the best sources.

• Pinterest

Those with Allergic Asthma Should Try:

Supplements

• Quercetin is a bioflavonoid that can completely relieve allergic asthma. The dose is anywhere from 3000 mg per day to as high as 6000 mg per day.
• It should be taken with bromelain, 500 mg per day.
• And vitamin C, 1000 mg per day.

Herbs

There are many different herbs that have been used for centuries to treat asthma. These should be used individually on a trial basis to assess the benefits.

• Boswellia (Boswellia serrata) is a traditional East Indian herb that is excellent for inflammatory conditions.       The dose is 3 mg three times per day.
• Coleus forskohlii (forskolin) is another herb used in Ayurvedic medicine to treat asthma. The dose is 250 mg per day.
• Tylophora (Tylophora indica) has also been used historically to treat asthma. The dose is 250 mg, one to three times per day.
• Pycnogenol is a standardized extract from French maritime pine bark that is a powerful antioxidant, and has been shown to improve lung function and decrease the need for asthma medications. The dose is 200 mg per day.
• Saiboku-to is a traditional Japanese herbal mixture containing several herbs, including Asian ginseng (Panax ginseng), Chinese skullcap (Baikal scutellaria), licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra), and ginger (Zingiber officinale).

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is excellent for people who have asthma due to blocked chi. Many people who have a hard time sleeping at night find a great benefit, allowing them to breathe better at night.

Homeopathy

Before prescribing a remedy, homeopaths take into account a person’s constitutional type, physical, emotional, and psychological makeup, finding the most appropriate treatment for each individual.

Some people may find their symptoms get worse for a short time when starting on a homeopathic remedy. Because of this, be sure to work with a knowledgeable homeopath.

• 

  • Pinterest
  Arsenicum album — for asthma that generally worsens between midnight and 2 am and is accompanied by restlessness, anxiety, chills, and thirst.
• Ipecacuanha — for those with asthma, particularly children, who have significant tightness in the chest, a chronic cough with lots of phlegm that may lead to vomiting, and worsening of symptoms in hot, humid weather.
• Pulsatilla — for asthma with yellow or greenish phlegm that gets worse in the evening, in warm, stuffy rooms, or after consuming rich, fatty foods; this remedy is most appropriate for adults or children who are tearful and clingy or sweet and affectionate.
• Sambucus — for asthma that awakens a person at night with a sensation of suffocation; symptoms worsen when the person is lying down.

When Asthma is Emotional

Stress is not a cause of asthma, but it can make it worse. Consider the case of Marilyn, above, she had asthma attacks primarily related to her emotions. Many believe there is a large emotional component to asthma.

Multiple studies have been done on the effects of emotions on asthma. There is clearly a connection, but there is no consensus as to how much. Most agree that emotional and psychological trauma or stress can at least trigger an attack.[3] Some believe this is due to hyperventilation, which we will discuss later on.

• Hypnosis may be especially useful for children, who can easily learn the technique.
• Yoga may improve lung function and provide stress relief.
• Journaling — A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine documented the positive effect of daily journaling on people with asthma.[4]

Several studies over recent decades have shown that children who grow up in more “primitive” environments, with more dirt and infections seem to have less allergies and asthma.[5] There have been many theories put forth as to why this happens; however, the difference appears to be the bacteria in the intestines. Our immune system is trained in the gut, where it learns to distinguish between self, and non-self. When we have good bacteria, they actually suppress inflammation, allergies, and autoimmune disease, whereas the bad bacteria promote these things.

Recommendations for Emotional Asthma

Diet

Believe it or not, if you want to permanently relieve your  asthma, you have to stop thinking about your lungs. Click to Tweet.

You have to turn your attention to an unlikely place. The road to controlling asthma begins in your stomach, not in your lungs.

Fresh produce is high in many nutrients that help the lungs, including B-vitamins, magnesiums, vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, and beta-carotene. Fruits and vegetables also contain plenty of bioflavonoids, which can help to reduce free radicals in the body. Quercetin, which is found in high quantities in yellow onions, apples, and tea, has been shown to be especially good at combating free radicals to reduce asthma attacks.

How about a hot, juicy, pink salmon to go with those vegetables? Studies have shown a strong link between eating fish and lower rates of asthma. In Australia, children who ate just two servings of fish, including tuna, sardines, and salmon, per week had less than one third the risk of developing asthma than children who did not. Fish are an especially important source of omega-3 fatty acids, which help reduce inflammation in the lungs.

Probiotics

In experiments conducted in mice, treatment with the Bifidobacterium longum reduced the quantity of mucous in the lungs and the presence of inflammatory markers typically affecting airways. Additionally, probiotics decrease smooth muscle contraction in the airways typically associated with asthma.

This dietary guidelines will have you saying goodbye to your inhaler for good.

Death from Asthma

Five years ago it was reported in the local newspaper that a woman died of an asthma attack while driving to the hospital. She had used her inhaler multiple times, but it stopped working, and before she realized she was in danger – she didn’t make it. The number of people in the United States with asthma is about 25 million, which is increasing every year. Of those, there were about 4,000 deaths in 2012 in the U.S.[vi]

People die from asthma mostly for one reason: breathing too much. Click to Tweet.

Now, you may think this is strange, that one with asthma could be so short of breath and be breathing too much, how can that happen?

The lungs are not passive bags of air that exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide, they are intelligent and able to control the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood. Interestingly, our need for air does not come from the amount of oxygen, but rather from the amount of carbon dioxide. For example, as every fan of Agatha Christie knows, if you were in a room filled with nothing but nitrogen you wouldn’t even notice that you were dying of hypoxia, you would just get more tired, fall asleep, and then die.

On the other hand, the CO2 is continuously controlled in two ways.

1. The way you breathe: rapid, shallow breathing and panting, causes depletion of carbon dioxide, without increasing oxygen. But if you breathe deeply and slowly, then you will hold on to CO2.
2. When the carbon dioxide level drops, the lungs close off some of the airways so CO2 doesn’t get too low. But as it goes up, the airways are opened allowing more flow.

When people die of asthma, they feel like they need more air so they start panting. (The word “asthma” is from the Greek word that means “to pant.”) Panting causes their carbon dioxide levels to drop, so the lungs begin to close off the airways to prevent further loss. Inhaled medications that open the airways cause a rapid drop in CO2 and only add to the problem. Then lungs close down even more, and become resistant to the inhaled medications, which make the person feel even more short of breath. This cycle continues to worsen as the oxygen drops, until the patient completely loses oxygen and dies.

The CO2 connection

One way to break this cycle is to breath slowly and deeply. There are various ways of doing this. The old-fashioned way is to use a paper bag to capture the carbon dioxide and breathe it back into the lungs, increasing CO2 levels. Since this is unpredictable, and may decrease oxygen, today we use tubes. Breathing through a 12-inch tube will allow you to hold on to more CO2.

Breathing exercises also increase CO2. Breathing though your nose is very important as is slowing down the breathing and taking deep breaths into your abdomen and not in the chest. The abdomen should go out when you breathe in and in when you breathe out.

Those who have chronic asthma can improve their lung function dramatically just by learning to breathe properly. Those with asthma tend to breathe 2-3 times as much air at rest than normal. This causes the carbon dioxide to drop and constricts the lungs as they try to hold on to it. Slow and deep breathing allows for more normal carbon dioxide levels, preventing airway constriction.

As you can see, asthma is not simple, but rather a complex combination of factors and symptoms. It can be managed, and even reversed if you know the reason for it and remove the cause, whether it be physical (such as allergies) or emotional. No matter what the cause, learning how to breathe properly is a good start to preventing asthma attacks and decreasing the risk of death.

If you have asthma, then we  recommended that you have a plan developed between you and your healthcare provider that gives specific instructions for reversing asthma symptoms. What is your plan to reverse asthma?

If you liked this article, then you’ll love these:

• Top 7 Probiotics
• The Forgotten Ingredients of the Mediterranean Diet
• 4 Reasons Why Allergies Are Attacking Our Health

Sources:
[1] http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=364691
[2] Gontijo-AmaralCRibeiroMAGontijoLSCondino-NetoARibeiroJDOral magnesium supplementation in asthmatic children: a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trialEur J Clin Nutr 20076115460Epub 2006 Jun 21
[3] http://www.cdc.gov/asthma/triggers.html
[4] http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/condition/asthma#ixzz3FlADbLpz
[5] http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-311X2005000400019
[6] http://www.cdc.gov/VitalSigns/Asthma/index.html