Asthma

To endure a life that is dogged by respiratory problems that are caused by asthma is one that many people suffer in relative silence.

Many people rely heavily on medications to alleviate their debilitating symptoms and never know any other way.

Yet there are some remedies that can help in a completely natural way. Knowing what these are can literally transform your life. Providing that information is a big part of this section of the website.

Asthma information can be found in many places not least of all on the Internet, so what better way to provide some assistance than to have a useful resource all together in one place? This is the reasoning behind the creation of this site and the thinking that has gone into its development.

What Do We Know About Asthma?

Generally, allergy asthma sufferers have been plagued with the typical shortness of breath and frequent breathing difficulties associated with the onset of what is commonly called an "asthma attack" for most of their lives. They may not know what has caused it aside from what their doctor has told them (and that may not be very much).

What we do know is that the irritation that leads to the inflammation of the delicate lining of the bronchial airways causes the shortness of and the difficulty in drawing breath when attacks occur. We also know that these attacks can be treated with prescribed medications that can rapidly reduce the inflammation and allow normal breathing to resume.

Common Triggers of Asthma Attacks

There is little doubt that the quality of the air indoors and out that is breathed plays an imporant role in the vast majority of spontaneous attacks. Here are some of the more common triggers of an attack in people with sensitive bronchial airways:

Avoiding as many of these common instances that can set off an attack is important.

Causes of Asthma

Asthma affects the health of a growing number of the population and it appears to be growing in direct proportion to the continual and relentless introduction of ever more potent pesticides, herbicides and fungicides on our farmed crops.

This is in conjunction with increased use of antibiotics, growth hormones, steroids and other unmentionables on farmed meat products (which is a nice way of saying "living, breathing farm animals" that we eat). Linked to this is the production of food crops intended to make up the bulk of the farm animals' diet, which is mainly a collection of genetically modified grains or soy that are, in turn liberally treated with a cocktail of toxic agricultural chemicals.

It almost seems that no matter how hard we try to eat for health, we are inadvertently eating a toxic diet made up of chemically treated food ingredients that are, to all intents and purposes, practically unavoidable in food products sold in stores. Sadly, that also includes the food that makes up the menus of many of our supposedly health-conscious diet meal delivery program choices.

Other external causes come from air pollutants derived from our love of the internal combustion engine. And most notably from diesel engines that expel high levels of very fine particle pollutants including over forty toxic air contaminants into the atmosphere which cause irritation in the lungs when breathed in.

These pollutants include many known or suspected carcinogenic substances (e.g. benzene, arsenic and formaldehyde). It also includes other harmful pollutants, most especially nitrogen oxides (references: www.air-quality.org.uk/26.php and oehha.ca.gov/public_info/facts/dieselfacts.html).

Diagnosis

That notwithstanding, historically we know that the majority of asthma sufferers are diagnosed with the condition very early in life. Some children "grow out of it" while others grow up with the condition that grows with them.

Gaining a better understanding of the condition is one way to make living with it more bearable. Discovering natural, alternative treatments can in some cases actually help in reducing the severity of attacks and their frequency, which can only be a good thing.

Of course there are several commonly accepted medical treatments available to sufferers. These generally include special inhalers that use certain medications that are discussed in dedicated articles as listed below.

(Back to TOP)