Natural Asthma Treatment

Asthma is a disease of the air passages present in the body, which is increasingly become prevalent in mankind. The spread of asthma, if studies are any indication, seem to have increased in the past with increasing urbanization. Though the exact cause of asthma lies in one’s genes, the triggers and reasons for the onset of asthma have been pinned on various facets like bad air quality exposure prenatal and postnatal, allergens in the home for childhood asthma, lifestyle choices in adults, occupational hazards especially continuous exposure to allergens and even “over hygiene” in the home of a growing child that doesn’t adequately stress the airways to allow the immune system to learn when to start an inflammatory response.

The mechanism by which asthma occurs is an oversensitive immune system. In a normally functional respiratory system, an immune response is triggered when a pathogen which could be a bacteria or a virus enters the lung. The pathogen is identified for killing by the attachment of a protein to it that allows the killer T-cells of the body’s immune system to find and destroy the pathogen. This system can sometimes also attach the protein to human tissue that it considers dangers, this is called the autoimmune response and is necessary as well because in the process of cell division, there can be mistake which cause mutations and these need to be destroyed before it becomes a cancer. In asthma patients, this autoimmune response is triggered by a stimulus that a normal immune system would not respond to like dust, smoke, or a certain chemical or protein inhaled. An asthma attack starts with a bronchial spasm and ends in an inflammation, which usually also involves a heavy discharge of mucous. Corticosteroids are the most important medical treatments for asthma because of their ability to suppress inflammation. Asthma prevalent in children in nearly half the cases will disappear over time. In adults, it tends to remain for a long time.

Natural treatments for asthma are very wide but unfortunately, none of these have any proof of effectiveness over standard medical treatments. This doesn’t negate their usefulness but dictate that they cannot be used in isolation or as a substitute. Some of the natural anti-inflammatory herbs in the natural world are ginger, chili, hyssop and turmeric to name a few. These can be used as additions to one’s menu, though items like ginger can be used in tea.