Treating asthma with anti-inflammatory diet?

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

My husband's asthma has been getting worse and worse.  He has lots of medications for it, but has still ended up in the ER 4 times in the last 3 months.  I am looking into alternative/complimentary therapies and am curious if anyone has had success or not had success trying an anti-inflammatory diet for asthma.  Any insight is appreciated!

[Arcadia]

Ginger and garlic has helped for me. My asthma trigger are cigarette smoke and pollen.

I can eat garlic raw as I am used to that. Roasted garlic is yummy as is homemade garlic bread. I also cook whole garlic with pork bone for soup with chinese spices.

Ginger can be cut into slices and use as garnish. Ginger slices can also be use when steaming or broiling fish or meat.

Tumeric probably help too. I cook curry dishes often.

Steriods didn't work for me and made me sicker. Ventolin inhaler and Salbutamol tablets is what I have as a standby. Swimming help too for building back pulmonary strength.

I have childhood asthma and recovered. Then asthma while in university and recovered. Had numerous x-rays and blood work and been told by the ER doctors my asthma is considered gone (as in no longer needing medications). I am still careful to avoid triggers though.

[LivingHope]

My ds is having success with an herbal tea containing the herb mullein.

[I talk to the trees]

:bigear:

[PrincessMommy]

:bigear:

 

me too

[G5052]

My asthma isn't as bad, but I do better when I'm off milk products.  My doctor says that the verdict is divided on that issue, but to continue whatever works!

[gardenmom5]

it depends upon the cause of the asthma.  I don't have asthma - but my lung capacity will significantly increase when I do yoga with lots of twisting postures.  (there are many male yogis)  one of the things yoga will do is get excess fluids out of the tissues of the body.  I will notice improvement within two weeks if I haven't been doing it for awhile.

 

years ago I did an absolutely no -ose diet. no bread, no fruit, no milk products - as they all have some form of -ose. (I still had a few traces. e.g. I ate my sweet pickles as a flavoring.)   I could breathe better within a few weeks.

 

eta: my mother had horrible asthma - and eventually developed copd.

[LaxMom]

I've had success with herbal clients following an anti-inflammatory diet and taking turmeric and ginger. (I still "recommend" (demand) carrying a rescue inhaler, though.)

 

Feel free to pm me if you have questions.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

A little more information:

 

Our son has celiac and seasonal allergies, much improved since going off gluten though.  DH and I were both tested and negative for celiac, but I wonder for DH is he wouldn't be better off doing gluten free casein free anti-inflammatory for a while.

 

DH has no other real health conditions apart from this asthma issue and allergies.  His asthma is set off by seasonal allergens as well as other allergies (cats are a big one).  His asthma will also start if he gets any sort of upper respiratory virus.  He is allergic to many raw fruits and raw vegetables, but can eat them cooked.  This is why I wonder if a dietary change might help to remove some hidden triggers for the asthma.

 

 

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I've had success with herbal clients following an anti-inflammatory diet and taking turmeric and ginger. (I still "recommend" (demand) carrying a rescue inhaler, though.)

 

Feel free to pm me if you have questions.

 

Did your clients go GF/CF as well?  I am realizing as I research that there are several different varieties of anti-inflammatory diets out there.  I am most interested in the GF/CF type.

[Spryte]

DS's asthma improved after we found his wheat and dairy allergies (IgE but not enough to cause anaphylaxis, thankfully), and he removed those.  

 

When he's in a flare up, we give him Liposomal Glutathione supplements, to reduce inflammation.  While not a diet specifically, you might consider supplements, too.  When things were very bad, years ago, we did the glutathione in IV form, at the doc's office.

 

A diet sounds like a good idea, and I'll be watching this thread, too.

[Isabella]

Making sure the asthmatic person is well hydrated is also really important.  Dehydration sets off the mast cells in the oesophagus, which can cause the asthma flare-up.  This is why many asthma attacks happen during sport when the body has not enough hydration. 

Google 'asthma and dehydration' to read up on the correlation.

 

Some asthma attacks, however, have nothing to do with dehydration, so drinking water isn't going to cure everyone.

[MBM]

Richard Firshein is a D.O. who has asthma and almost died twice from it (IIRC) when he was young. Medications stopped helping him and he had to figure out what to do so he wouldn't die. He's written about the steps he took and how he treats his asthma patients. This book is from 1998, so kind of old, but it's still good info.

 

Firshein's book on Amazon

You can also read Firshein's tweets on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Other things to consider:

 

Use magnesium lotion/gel covering a lot of skin and soak in it in the tub. The skin is a good way to bring magnesium into your body. Apply morning and night. I personally like magnesium chloride products and use Dr. Shealy's lotion and salts. You can also make your own. If your husband has kidney problems, then he should do this under the guidance of a doctor.

 

Small doses of Vitamin C (500 mg or so) throughout the day might be helpful.

 

Learn breathing exercises. Dr. Weil's website has some good ones. Dr. Weil's website has information about treating problems like asthma.

 

Meditation can help with inflammatory conditions. If you want to learn how it works (what it does in the brain) and its many other benefits, Richard Davidson's book The Emotional Life of Your Brain explains what has been observed in brain imaging studies. He's a neuroscientist who oversees two labs at U of Wisconsin-Madison. Melissa Rosenkranz at the Waisman Lab at UW carried out a study on chronic inflammation and meditation that you might want to check out.  

 

http://www.news.wisc.edu/21428 -- Easy to understand article about Rosenkranz's study.

 

 

 

[prairiewindmomma]

I tried it, and no. Magnesium has increased my peak flow readings but my asthma has not gone away. Removing the allergy triggers, as best I can, means I need albuterol rarely...and I am on a low dose of maintenance meds. When I have tried to go off, my peak flow decreases by half.

 

Imo, I think you need some measurable way of seeing whether something works...tracking albuterol use and peak flow readings is better than a subjective "I breathe better."

[kbutton]

I did an elimination diet for widespread inflammation (candida diet) and found out that gluten is terrible for me. I didn't get tested ahead as it wasn't something I expected. My allergies and asthma are both better. I did do shots for several years too, but that was before all of this. My asthma is the kind that sneaks up and hits me suddenly with lots of coughing, mucous, mini-bronchitis rather that typical wheezing, so the early symptoms are subtle and hard to catch. Going GF has helped tremendously. Limiting my sugar intake helps a lot too. I don't think the steroid inhalers help me much, so I've opted to quit taking them. It's been a while since my last spirometry, but my last one was fantastic, and I hadn't been taking meds then either.

 

I also take fish oil, a good multivitamin, B complex, and sometimes I add in zinc or slow release vitamin C during allergy season. I take Shaklee because that is what I was introduced to and responded well to after taking ho-hum vitamins before that. I am sure there are other good brands out there too, but when I checked prices at the health food store, Shaklee wasn't that much different in price, and I don't have to drive out of town to get them.

 

I think taking a good quality probiotic helps a lot too (mine has ten strains and 50 billion cultures). If I don't eat well, and I don't take my probiotic, I get heartburn, and then all of that feeds into my asthma. I had heartburn for a very long time and didn't know what it was--it started as pressure or heaviness in my chest, not pain. Going GF has helped with that, but if I eat too much sugar or hit the caffeine too hard, it comes back.

 

My family has no history of allergies or asthma, so I think I've probably always had gluten issues and that's how it manifested in me. I developed the whole ball of wax while in college, and after I had my first child, I really started falling apart overnight. We do have lots of inflammatory conditions on one side (rheumatoid and osteoarthritis all over the place), and on the other side, people who have been healthy forever are developing issues in their 50s and 60s that were not present in the family tree much. My dad is in his early 60s, and he just started allergy shots--he was not allergic 15 years ago when he was tested, and it's really uncommon to develop allergies that late. I think there must be some underlying immune thing (one uncle has gluten trouble too) that is causing some of this rise in disease late in life among those family members, but who knows.

[kbutton]

I lost my reply, but I highly recommend supplements (fish oil for sure) and a trial of a GF diet. Changed my life.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Thank you so much for all of these replies!  I did not realize there were so many complimentary medicine approaches to reduce symptoms. 

 

DH measures his peak flow several times a day when he is in crisis mode, and each crisis mode usually lasts for 1-2 weeks. 

[MBM]

I lost my reply, but I highly recommend supplements (fish oil for sure) and a trial of a GF diet. Changed my life.

 

Fish oil for sure.

 

You might also want to read about the omega 6 to omega 3 EFA ratio and its effect on cell membranes. Also arachidonic acid and inflammation.

 

If you want to track your husband's diet, you can do so here and get all kinds of information including whether it tends to be inflammatory. It's a pain to set up but once you figure out how to input the foods you tend to eat daily, it's pretty easy and informative.

 

http://nutritiondata.self.com