Alternative Treatment for Asthma

What is Asthma?

Asthma is a common long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath. These episodes may occur a few times a day or a few times per week. Depending on the person, they may become worse at night or with exercise. Asthma is a chronic disease that involves inflammation and narrowing of the airway. Symptoms that commonly occur in asthma are tightness in the chest, shortness of breath and coughing.

Asthma causes

Asthma was allegedly caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Environmental factors include exposure to air pollution and allergens. Potential triggers include drugs such as aspirin and beta blockers. The diagnosis is usually based on the pattern of symptoms, response to therapy from time to time, and spirometri. Asthma is classified according to the frequency of symptoms, forced ekspirasi volume in one second (FEV1), and peak ekspirasi flow rate. It can also be classified as atopic or non-atopic, where atopy refers to the tendency to develop type 1 hypersensitivity reaction.

Alternative treatment for asthma

In fact, alternative therapies to help tackle the problem of asthma that occurs varies greatly. Yet because it is still a lack of adequate clinical trials, then security and alternative therapy efficacy levels still has yet to be proved. If you are a person who consider alternative therapies for asthma, here are some alternative therapy options that you can do:

1. Breathing exercises

Some used breathing exercises for asthma, including yoga and breathing techniques Buyteko, is aimed at breathing exercises reduce the hyperventilation and breathing. These techniques do not improve major allergic reactions that cause asthma symptoms. However, some studies mention that some of the people doing the breathing exercises reported improved asthma symptoms.

2. Vitamins and supplements

Need more research to determine the effects of vitamins and supplements to help improve asthma symptoms. However, the three things that might help the problem of asthma, such as antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin d. However, the most important things to help you get a balanced nutrition is to eat a good variety of food, and use fresh food ingredients that are not preserved.

3. Herbal remedies

Herbal medicine is a very popular kind of drug used to treat asthma problems in Asia. However, the use of herbal remedies is actually still require further research. So if you opt to use herbal remedies, please use sparingly and always discuss the use of this herbal medicine with your doctor. In addition, you also need to pay attention to some of the following:

- Dosage and quality

Herbal remedies are often not charge standardized, and vary for the quality as well as its strength. Herbal remedies may contain ingredients that are not listed, and can contain contaminants.

- Side effects

Side effects of herbal medicine which can vary, ranging from the effects of a mild to severe effects though, depending on the type and dose is consumed. As published in the site mayoclinic.com, herbal medication for asthma that contain ephedra or the like should you avoid when possible. The reason, a drug that has such content can lead to high blood pressure – with respect to the incidence of heart attack and stroke.

- Interactions with other drugs

Many argue that herbal remedies and organic products at supplements are safe to use. You need to know, some research thus suggests that these products have the same hazards with other active ingredients, and some herbal remedies can also interact with other types of drugs. So, it's good if you consult Your doctor before taking any medication.

4. Acupuncture

Some studies mention that asthma symptoms can improve with acupuncture. However, most of these studies showed no difference between the acupuncture for asthma acupuncture with placebo for improvements to asthma symptoms. If you decide to try acupuncture as alternative therapies to help fix the problem you experienced asthma, select a clinic/akupunturis who have permission, certified, and it would be better if the people who deal with you too is a doctor.

5. Massage and relaxation therapy

In addition to massage, relaxation therapy, biofeedback therapies like meditation, progressive muscle relaxation and hypnosis is believed to be able to help fix the problem you're experiencing asthma. Although these techniques can reduce stress and improve fitness, but the effect directly to asthma remains unclear.

In conclusion, there has been no definitive study safety and efficacy of all the alternative therapies that have been mentioned above. Therefore, it would be better if you can consult a physician before you start an alternative therapy to help overcome the problems you experienced asthma. And the most important thing is do not ever discontinue medical therapy or other medical actions undertaken to help fix the problem you're experiencing asthma.

Sources :

1. https://www.asthma.org.uk/advice/understanding-asthma/causes/]

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asthma]