Fighting Your Child's Asthma with Four Simple and Natural Steps

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) asthma, a debilitating airway disease, affects one in every 250 children. When most children are diagnosed with asthma the parents are told that it needs to be “managed” through medications. Many parents feel frustrated and scared that their child will need medication for the rest of their life. But there are ways to combat asthma naturally. It takes a thoughtful physician and a dedicated parent. Here are four simple and natural steps to fighting asthma.

1. Avoid highly allergic foods causing IgG Antibody mediated reactions

The antibody IgG is known to cause delayed reactions in the body to specific foods. This is one of the most frequent underlying causes of asthma that we see. The most common foods that your child may be reacting to are milk products, soy products and eggs. Start right now by decreasing the amount of milk products, soy products and eggs your child eats and replace them with alte
atives. There are also many specialty labs that can test your child to determine the exact foods he or she is reacting to.

2. Stabilize mast cells
Many of your child’s asthma symptoms are mediated by mast cells. They react to different foreign substances by releasing histamine. Many asthma medications are aimed directly at inhibiting this process, but you can do this naturally with out the drug side effects. Vitamin C and an extract form onions called quercetin are great mast cell stabilizers. Instead of inhibiting the process they dampen the excitability of mast cells, thus decreasing the symptoms of asthma. Consult your child’s health care practitioner for proper dosing of vitami
C and quercetin.

3. Increase omega-3 fatty acid intake
Leukotrienes are inflammatory signals that cause constriction of the lungs. The precursor to leukotriene is arachadonic acid, a fatty acid which is found in meat and heavily processed foods. It has been shown that our diet provides too much arachidonic acid as compared to what are known as omega-3 fatty acids, which are precursors to anti-inflammatory luekotrienes. It stands to reason that if our body has too much arachidonic acid, inflammatory leukotrienes would be easy to make predisposing to conditions like asthma. Again many medications are aimed at inhibiting the leukotriene process but the side effects can be detrimental.

A simple suggestion would be to increase your child’s omega-3 fatty acid intake and decrease the arachidonic acid intake. This will decreases the amount of inflammatory leukotrienes produced and thus decreasing your child’s asthma symptoms. The best source of omega-3 oils are from fish. Make sure the omega-3 oils are guaranteed pure of any pesticides, heavy metals or any other contaminant. Pure omega-3 oils should be refrigerated and they will not taste like fish. Again please consult your health care practitioner for proper dosing of omega-3 oils.

4. Find the Cause
There are five common biological causes of asthma, each being mediated or driven by a different process. You will notice that none of the causes we typically see are disorders of the lungs. It is our experience that there is some irritation in the body driving the symptoms of asthma. Some of the most common causes include (1) IgG Antibody mediated food reactions (2) deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids (3) intestinal dysbiosis (4) gastro-esophageal reflux and (5) immune skewing to T-Helper 2 cells. Find a good doctor that is willing to take the time in exploring your child’s history to determine the true cause. Each one will require a slightly different approach for a true healing.

Remember, asthma is a dangerous disease and at times medication can save your child’s life. Please consult a qualified health care practitioner before stopping or decreasing any medication dosages.

“Our 6 year old son has been dealing with asthma and allergies his entire life, being on FloVent for the last 4 years and Albuterol nearly every day. We implemented Dr. Humpherys’ steps he recommended; finding the IgG foods he reacted too, starting quercetin, vitami
C, fish oils and probiotics daily. Now our son’s symptoms have almost entirely disappeared.” J.F from Alpine, UTn