Asthma Treatments Online

While there is a wide range of pharmaceutical asthma treatments available, it is worthwhile knowing about some of the natural asthma treatments out there that can reduce your asthma symptoms or the frequency with which you suffer asthma attacks. However, before trying any natural asthma remedies, please check with your doctor or asthma specialist to ensure that the remedy or dietary supplement does not contain any ingredients that could have an adverse effect on your asthma, allergies or health in general.

Following is a list of natural asthma remedies that have been known to either alleviate asthma symptoms or prevent asthma from occurring.

Caffeine

The caffeine in coffee and tea has been shown to prevent and reduce asthma attacks in adults. Researchers discovered that people who drank up to three cups of coffee or tea a day experienced 30% fewer asthma symptoms than those who drank no coffee at all. This is due to caffeine being a bronchodilator, that is, it relaxes and dilates the bronchial passageways and improves the passage of air into the lungs.

Onions

Onions contain anti-oxidants such as flavonoids, which act as anti-inflammatories and reduce the severity of asthma attacks by lessening the constriction of airways.

Chili

Similar to onions, chilis and hot peppers have anti-inflammatory properties due to the presence of capsaicin which can assist in bronchodilation. Capsaicin is the substance that makes chillis and peppers hot, and is also used in lotions and ointments for arthritis and muscle or joint pain (such as dencorub).

Vitamin C

Research undertaken at Tufts University identified a link between low vitamin C levels and asthma, primarily due to the role Vitamin C plays as the main antioxidant in our lungs. As your vitamin C intake increases, the risk for asthma and other respiratory diseases decreases. You should therefore ensure that you are consuming enough vitamin C each day as per your recommended daily allowance, either by eating a balanced diet or through vitamin supplements.

Fish

Studies have found that children who eat fish at least twice a week reduce the risk of asthma by two-thirds when compared to children who don’t eat fish. Fish oil supplements have also been found to be effective for adults, who can reduce the risk of a severe asthma attack by up to 50 percent.

Magnesium

Research published in the Journal of Asthma revealed that adults with mild-to-moderate asthma can benefit from taking magnesium supplements. Researchers from Bastyr University and the University of California studied 52 men and women with mild-to-moderate asthma and found that those that consumed 340 mg of magnesium citrate daily for 6 months experienced significant improvements in asthma control and quality of life compared with the participants who received a placebo.

Omega-3 supplements

Omega-3 fatty acids are a group of polyunsaturated fatty acids that are important for a number of functions in the body including the relaxation and contraction of muscles, blood clotting, digestion, fertility, cell division, growth, and movement of calcium and other substances in and out of cells. They are found in foods such as fatty fish (sardines, salmon, mackerel, and tuna). and vegetable oils and are also available as dietary supplements.

While Omega-3s have been studied for (and used) for conditions such as asthma, more research is needed before conclusions can be drawn about the effectiveness of Omega-3s in successfully treating asthma.

These are just some of the many natural cures or treatments available for asthma. Remember, if you decide to try out a natural asthma remedy, be sure to check with your doctor first to ensure that you don’t have allergies to these supplements or any other medical reasons that prevent you from taking them.

The International Study on Allergies and Asthma in Childhood has found that children who eat fast food meals three or more times a week have a higher chance of developing asthma.

It also found that a diet high in vegetables, fruit and fish (aka the Mediterranean diet) reduced the risk of developing the respiratory disease.
The study, which looked at the links between diet and asthma, was one of the biggest studies of its kind. It collected data from 50,000 children from 20 countries over a period of 10 years. Its findings were published in the British medical journal Thorax.

Study co-author Dr Gabriele Nagel, says burgers themselves may not be wholly to blame.

“We think that burger consumption might be a proxy for other unhealthy lifestyles like inactivity, physical inactivity or obesity,” Dr Nagel said.

Associate Professor Shyamali Dharmage, an epidemiologist and respiratory disease expert from Melbourne University, says the study is associative rather than causative.

“We have done some research and we have shown that childhood obesity leads to subsequent development of asthma.”

A new study by Heidelberg University in Germany has revealed that a stressful job can increase a person’s risk of developing asthma by up to 40 percent.

The longitudinal study tracked 5,000 women and men aged 40 to 65 over an eight year period. The researchers discovered that among those non-asthma sufferers at the start of the study, there was up to a 40 percent higher incidence of asthma eight years later if they experienced a stressful work environment.

“Our study suggests work stress and the inability to relax after work are associated with an increased risk of asthma,” the report was quoted as saying.

The primary stressors were long working hours, demanding schedules, and an uncomfortable working environment.

Earlier studies had revealed that stress could lead to the release of chemicals by the body that promote allergies and disrupt the way the body halts airway inflammation.

The research team however stressed that the overall risk of a person developing asthma because they are overloaded at work is still very small.

Studies conducted at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston have shown that stress during pregnancy may increase the risk of asthma in children.

The role of stress in asthma development is not completely understood, but studies have indicated that stress in the mother during pregnancy can influence the immune system of her unborn child.

“This is the first study in humans to show that increased stress experienced during pregnancy in these urban, largely minority women, is associated with different patterns of cord blood cytokine production to various environmental stimuli, relative to babies born to lower-stressed mothers,” said Rosalind Wright, M.D., M.P.H., associate physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Asthma is known to be more prevalent among ethnic minorities and among disadvantaged urban communities, but the disparity is not completely explained
by known physical factors. Urban women living in the inner-city also experience significant stress, particularly minority women.

557 pregnant families answered a detailed questionnaire about the various sources of stress in their lives, such as at home, in their neighbourhood, and financially. Once the infants were born, the researchers collected umbilical cord blood,and studied the reaction of immune cells to allergens such as dust, viruses and bacteria.

The researchers then checked for the production of different cytokines, in order to assess how a child’s immune system was primed to respond in different environments. Children who were born to mothers in high stress environments were compared with those born to mothers with lower stress. The women were mainly from ethnic minorities and 20 per cent were from families who lived below the poverty threshold.

Patterns of cytokines related to certain stimulants, which act as indicators of how a child’s immune system is functioning at birth, differed based on the level of stress reported by the mothers. Cytokine patterns seen in the higher stress groups may be a marker of increased asthma and allergy risk as the children grow older.

The research will continue as the infants grow up to determine whether maternal stress levels do indeed have an impact on asthma development.