Weekly
Healthy Advice From VÄXA
Is Asthma Running
Your Life?
Over 20 million Americans
have asthma - maybe not you, but a loved one or friend. Asthma
might be triggered by allergies or constrictive respiratory
reactions, but both can pose a life-changing problem. If you
think emergency inhalers are the only answer to this serious
breathing problem, it will continue to be that way.
Most asthma sufferers find that over time, their favorite
inhaler isn't working any more. Or they've developed new ailments
like skin rashes, food allergies or even more shortness of
breath. They want to try something new, but in listening to
all the side effects in TV advertisements, they're afraid.
Sound familiar? If you're a sufferer, ask yourself this question:
Do you want your lifestyle to adjust to your asthma,
or do you want your asthma to adjust to your lifestyle?
There are other solutions in addition to steroidal inhalers,
non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and other chemically
compounded relief for the symptoms of asthma. There
are two reasons I accentuate the word "symptoms":
- Every health symptom has a deeper cause
- they don't happen by themselves. For instance, dairy
foods, soy and heavy starches can thicken mucus. Some
people are more susceptible to thicker mucus than others,
like sinus and asthma sufferers. Thick mucus can get trapped
in our bronchial tubes. This is very bad for asthma. A
deficiency in antioxidant vitamins and minerals, or a
shortage of essential "fatty acids" in our bodies,
can also be responsible for respiratory ailments. Your
asthma medicine will never replenish these.
- We must make sure that asthma is the
correct diagnosis. Take Barry*, for example. As a child,
Barry's family loved potatoes and ate them almost every
day. By bedtime, he would be wheezing and gasping for
air. He was diagnosed with asthma, given an inhaler, and
told to withdraw from his strenuous athletic activities.
When Barry went away to college, he finally realized that
he never had breathing problems unless he ate potatoes!
Although allergies can indeed trigger real asthma attacks,
in Barry's case it turned out to be strictly an allergy
to potatoes. Barry gave up potatoes and was able to resume
playing the sports he loved with never another episode.
So how can real asthma sufferers
find more relief, and have fun?
Before putting a screeching halt on the lifestyle you love
just to avoid the frightening anticipation of another breathing
attack, try some of these things:
- Write down what you ate before an attack.
You may need to exchange dairy products or some other
food for alternatives easily found in health food stores.
It might be a sacrifice in restaurants, but in a few months
you may notice a real difference.
- Start feeding your body some
safe, natural nutrients it obviously isn't retaining on
its own.
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