Before considering natural ways to prevent asthma – what exactly is the condition?
Asthma may be simply defined as a chronic respiratory condition associated inflammation of the lining of the body’s airways and hyper-responsiveness to a variety of stimuli. The disease is referred to as being heterogeneous – this term being descriptive of the fact that there may be a number of underlying causes and variations in the severity and clinical course of the disease.
Asthma is the end result of chronic inflammation of the lungs’ bronchi and bronchioles, this resulting in increased contractability of the surrounding smooth muscles. This results in narrowing of the airway with the subsequent asthmatic classic symptom of wheezing. The narrowing is generally reversible with or without treatment.
This inflammation and narrowing of the smaller airways of the lungs gives rise to a number of distressing symptoms including:
● Coughing, especially at night, during exercise or when laughing
● Difficulty breathing
● Tightness in the chest
● Shortness of breath
● Wheezing
As a prerequisite to considering natural ways to prevent asthma we need to look at the various forms of asthma and what specific stimuli triggers these. These various forms include:
Allergic asthma
Allergic asthma, also termed “atopic” asthma, is triggered by specific and known allergens such as pollen, pet hair and dust mites. Approximately 80% of asthmatics are this type.
Allergic asthma can additionally be aggravated by non-allergenic factors that may trigger non-allergic asthma, including viral respiratory infections, exercise, irritants in the air, stress, food additives and climatic conditions.
“Seasonal” asthma
This only flares up during particular parts of the year such as hay fever season and when it is particularly cold.
Occupational asthma
Occupational asthma is asthma caused directly by exposure to triggers related to the work you carry out. You may well have occupational asthma if:
• Your asthma symptoms first presented during adulthood
• These symptoms significantly improve on days when you aren’t working.
Non-allergic asthma
Non-allergic asthma, also termed “non-atopic” asthma, is a form of asthma that does not seem to be related to any specific allergy trigger such as pollen or dust. This type of asthma is less less common than allergic asthma and often develops later in life.
Factors that may trigger non-allergic asthma include:
● Viral respiratory infections
● Exercise
● Airborne irritants
● Stress
● Medications
● Certain food additives
● Weather/atmospheric conditions
“Exercise-induced” asthma
About 90% of asthma sufferers experience tightening of the airways following aerobic exercise.
In addition to such allergens as pollen, pet hair and house dust, general triggers of asthma may include environmental (and indoor) pollutants and irritants and occupational exposure to fumes, chemicals and dust.
In 2019 it was estimated that 262 million people globally suffered from asthma with the rate increasing year-on-year. Underlying factors for this ever-increasing problem are believed to be:
• Changing living environment – with increasing levels of pollution
• Epigenetic heritable factors – the condition may be inherited by mechanisms other than the human DNA sequence
Natural ways to prevent asthma – damaging Big Pharma’s cash cow?
Ever ready to lend a helping hand, the pharmaceutical industry is particularly keen to develop a vast array of medications for the asthma market, while being derisively dismissive of natural ways to prevent asthma.
Altruistic motivation is somewhat belied by the fact that the estimated value of the asthma medications market was some $21.7 billion in 2021 and is expected to increase to $34.3 billion by 2030, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 5.21% between 2022 and 2030.
Given the potential problems caused by Big Pharma’s answers to the problem and misery of asthma it would be useful to consider natural ways to prevent asthma from happening at all.
Preventing asthma – what are the natural solutions?
Here we will consider possible natural ways of to prevent asthma and in some situations even reversing it. These may be considered individually or in any combination – if you suffer from asthma try them and determine which work for you. These include:
● Avoidance of triggers
Initially find ways of determining which are your individual triggers and try to eliminate or avoid exposure to them. These may include:
• Pollen
• Pet hair
• Airborne irritants such as cigarette smoke
• Certain food additives
● Probiotics
Research has suggested that asthma may be linked to our gut microbiome. This means asthma symptoms may worsen if there’s an imbalance of beneficial bacteria within your gut.
Consuming probiotics may help reduce inflammation. In a 2021 study, researchers found that combining probiotics with regular asthma treatment improved symptoms.
As an alternative to supplements, natural sources of probiotics include fermented foods. (For further details see my article on probiotics)
● Garlic
Garlic has many health benefits which include anti-inflammatory properties. Because the basis of asthma is essentially inflammatory, garlic may act to relieve your symptoms
● Ginger
Ginger is another anti-inflammatory herb which may help with severe asthma. Specifically, it contains a compound called 6-gingerol, which studies have shown to decrease allergic lung inflammation.
● Honey
According to a 2019 study, honey was found to help improve breathing and lung function in people with asthma, but only when combined with other remedies such as cumin.
● Omega-3 oils
Omega-3 oils, which can be found in flax seeds, have been shown to have a multitude of health benefits. They also act to inhibit airway inflammation, which may help improve lung function in people with severe asthma.
● Caffeine
Caffeine is a bronchodilator, which means it opens up the pathways within the lungs. This can have a positive impact by competing with the mechanisms of asthma whereby these pathways become constricted. Additionally, it acts to reduce respiratory muscle fatigue.
If coffee is your favoured source of caffeine be sure to take it dairy free!
● Breathing exercises
• Buteyko Breathing Technique
The Buteyko Breathing Technique (BBT) is a particular system of breathing exercises that may help in the prevention of asthma. The focus in BBT is on breathing out of your nose in preference to your mouth. Mouth breathing has a drying effect on your airways resulting in increased sensitivities.
• The Papworth method
The Papworth method is a breathing and relaxation technique which has been used since the 1960s to assist people with asthma. This method involves the use of your nose and diaphragm to develop particular breathing patterns. Subsequently these breathing patterns may be applied to activities that are associated with your asthma episodes.
● Mental Strategies
• Mindfulness and meditation
Mindfulness is an aspect of meditation focusing on how the mind and the body are feeling just in the present moment. This entails a total focus on thoughts, sensations and feelings within your body in that particular moment.
This is of particular benefit in the relief of stress-related asthmatic symptoms
• Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy can be used effectively as a treatment for the symptoms of asthma (and allergies in general) but can it be used to prevent asthma in the first place?
In many cases the answer to this question is yes. As the mind and body work together in a synergistic manner. The science of psychoneuroimmunology has long recognised that the power of the mind has the powerful ability to control and influence the immune system and that hypnotherapy can facilitate this function.
Practically, the hypnotherapist guides the individual to connect with their immune system. Using mental images, it is possible to distinguish between harmful and harmless substances (allergens or triggers). Allergens which are typically associated with anxiety are given a positive charge during hypnosis which results in the immune system being gradually reprogrammed.
● Avoiding dairy products
It has long been recognised that the body may react to dairy by an increase in mucus production – this acts to aggravate the symptoms of asthma. But could it be that the effect by dairy products on the immune system may actually precipitate the problem in the first place?
Society of today mainly consumes milk in its processed form – pasteurization and homogenisation. This effectively makes milk safe in terms of pathogens, however this has the adverse effect of creating undesirable changes in milk’s basic composition. Proteins are denatured and lose any possible beneficial functionality and create a raised level of exposure of the immune system to allergens.
This may manifest as a direct allergy – in this case cow’s milk allergy (CMA) – described in a 2016 paper as:
“The most common form of allergy in childhood and can lead to serious complications. Beyond clinical CMA, cow’s milk may impact the immune system in subtle, unexpected ways.”
A 2019 study showed that current scientific literature has demonstrated the adverse effect of this heat processing in relation to allergic-based conditions such as asthma. This is generally attributed to the denaturation and subsequent loss of normal function of immunomodulatory proteins.
Additionally, milk processing affects its allergenicity – defined scientifically as:
“The potential of a material to cause sensitization and allergic reactions, frequently associated with IgE antibody.”
It is recognised that this allergenicity is defined by two factors:
• The immune system sensitizing capacity of the heat-treated milk.
Could it be that, in addition to the allergenic nature of processed milk being a precipitating or aggravating factor in asthma, this immune system sensitization primed the individual for the condition in the first place?
• The capacity of milk’s denatured proteins to bind the immune system’s IgE antibodies resulting in a full-blown allergic reaction
Please feel free to leave a comment on this article and please share this with anyone you know who may be interested.
“TO BE TRULY FREE – BE PHARMA FREE”