Asthma

This illness manifests itself as wheezing and breathlessness, coughing, or breathing difficulties, symptoms that come and go in bouts. Asthma is linked to allergies, as well as to psychological and environmental factors, and affects millions of people in the west to some degree. Children are twice as likely to suffer from asthma as adults, and its incidence appears to be on the rise all over the world, despite all the medical treatments available to combat it.

Management of asthma

This comprises four important aims:

• Teaching patients to avoid or control those elements that trigger their asthma attacks
• Treating these attacks rapidly and effectively
• Evaluating and monitoring the seriousness of the asthma through regular, objective measurements of lung function
• Putting a long-term treatment plan into place, as the asthma attacks may diminish in frequency, or even disappear at some point.

Asthma is very much influenced by the patient's state of mind, and no one can deny the role played by psychology in the onset of asthma attacks or in their disappearance. However, asthma remains very much a multifaceted disease that is also influenced by heredity, as well as by allergies triggered by dust mites, cat hairs (the most common household allergen), other allergens derived from pets' skin and claws, feathers, and pollen. Other factors that could contribute to asthma, but whose role has not yet been well defined, are smoking (whether passive or active), atmospheric pollution, and infections.

Animals trigger many allergic reactions: birds with their feathers, cats through the dried saliva that remains on their fur after grooming, rabbits, guinea pigs, and hamsters. Dogs, however, seem to cause fewer allergies.

Having asthma does not rule out keeping up physical exercise, especially endurance activities such as walking, jogging, swimming, cross-country skiing, or cycling. Any of these activities will bring benefit if performed two or three times a week, for about 45 minutes per session. Such physical activity will not actually treat the asthma, but can increase the body's stamina and lung capacity, thus reducing the asthmatic's breathlessness, and raising the threshold of the onset of an attack.

Acupuncture

Allergies in general, and asthma in particular, constitute acupuncture's third great forte, after pain and nervous disorders. Acupuncture is not an instantaneous remedy, and is therefore not suitable for treating acute asthmatic symptoms - however, it can, and should, be part of a long-term programme of prevention.

Treatment Schedule: Several bimonthly sessions to be followed over the course of a few months.

Oligotherapy

Manganese and cobalt

Trace elements are usually found in a varied and high-quality diet. In cases of deficiency, which should not occur with these two minerals, they can be given as medicinal supplements.

Dietary sources of manganese

This is primarily to be found in plants, especially whole-grain cereals, chocolate, nuts (such as almonds, walnuts, and hazelnuts), wheatgerm, some herbs and spices (cloves, ginger, and thyme), vegetables (beetroot, chestnuts, beans, peas, and soya beans), and tea.

Dietary sources of cobalt

This mineral comes essentially from animal products: meat, milk, and shellfish (crayfish). Plant and vegetable matter contains very little cobalt in general, with the exception of mushrooms, white cabbage, onions, and radishes.

• Manganese-cobalt treatment: this combination is available in various brands and forms, such as Organic Minerals (Colloidals) which contains 70+ trace minerals:
  - Available in 946ml bottles
  - Take 1-3 caps just before breakfast and/or evening meal
  - Children 1 teaspoon daily for each 20lbs of body weight

Or Maximol (Ionized colloidals):

- Available in 500ml bottles

- Take 1/2 capful once or twice daily on an empty stomach.

• You could also take a manganese only supplement, such as Lamberts@ Manganese (as Amino Acid Chelate), containing 5mg of manganese:
  - Available in containers of 100 capsules
  - 1 to 3 capsules daily

Homeopathy

Antimonium tartaricum and Sambucus nigra

- Four 5c tablets of one or both of these remedies to be sucked slowly between meals, two or three times in succession at the start of an asthma attack

Antimonium tartaricum

- Chemical origin: antimony potassium tartrate
- The homeopathic remedy for lung conditions with thick, copious secretions that are difficult to expel

Sambucus nigra

- Vegetable origin: elderflowers
- The specific homeopathic remedy for attacks of breathlessness (stridulous laryngitis)

• You could also try Tartephedreel@ (Heel), which contains Lobelia inflata D4, Ephedra vulgaris D3,Tartarus stibiatus D4
  - Available in drop bottles of 30 and 100ml
  - In general, 10 drops 3 times daily; in acute disorders initially 10 drops every 15 minutes
• It is also vital that you combine these treatments with a constitutional remedy, to be chosen after consultation with a professional homeopath. Some likely choices are Arsenicum album or Sulfur

Herbal remedies

White horehound and plantain

Ask your herbalist to prepare a 30ml bottle of mother tincture of plantain. Take 25 drops in a little water three times a day.

• You could also try Herba Naturelle White Horehound:
  - Available in bottles of 50ml and 100ml
  - 20 drops in a little water 3 times daily

White horehound

This plant, which grows in the hot, dry landscape of Provence, has various beneficial properties for the airways: it helps coughs, loosens bronchial secretions, and dilates the bronchial tubes, all of which are helpful for asthma. It is one of herbalism's five traditional bitter herbs, as can be confirmed by its taste.

Plantain

Plantain's leaves soothe irritations and bladder infections, promote healing, and help stop bleeding. The lanceolate variety is the most effective against allergies and inflammation of the airways.

• You can take T. Asthniatica plus@ (Thorne), which contains extracts of Tylophora asthmatica, Boswellia serrata, Picorhiza kurroa, Piper longa and quercetin:
  - Available in containers of 1/2 capsules
  - 1 to 2 capsules two to three times daily .