Asthma Update - What Works for Me
When we moved from Oregon to Colorado 2 years ago, one of the first things I noticed was that my asthma started acting up. Just because of eating traditional foods instead of the Standard American Diet, it had been under control for about 3 years without prescription meds, but when we got here, the humidity, pollen, whatever, made it really flare up again.
Especially during the spring and fall, even if I didn’t have “classic” allergy symptoms like runny nose or itchy eyes, I would have shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing, and all the old asthma symptoms returned with a vengeance!
So, as I shared 2 years ago, I’ve been exploring different natural options to control my asthma without prescription medications.
I considered putting myself on the GAPS diet, which is a gut-healing regimen that basically (as I understand it) tries to repair micro-holes in the large intestine by only allowing foods which digest in the small intestine. This means most starchy foods are eliminated, like grains, uncultured/pasteurized dairy, most beans, all refined sugar. And probiotics are gradually introduced, so that good bacteria can replace bad bacteria in the gut, further healing any damage.
There are many things I love about the idea of the GAPS diet:
- It is all real food. Made in your own kitchen.
- It emphasizes healthy fats (saturated from pastured animals).
- It uses traditional cooking methods, like long simmering of bones to make nutrient-rich broth.
- It eliminates many of the “problem foods” that I had noticed were aggravating to my asthma, like pasteurized milk and wheat.
- A foundation of healthy fats. They keep me full and drastically reduce blood-sugar swings. By healthy, I mean fats from real foods, like butter, coconut oil, lard, olive oil, fatty fish. I absolutely avoid ALL cheap, processed oils like canola, soy, vegetable, sunflower, etc. These oils come from factories, not food!
- Plenty of (safe) starches and carbs. For me, this means potatoes, white rice, sweet potatoes, starchy/carby vegetables, and occasional non-gluten grains. If I don’t eat them, I don’t feel full, and I have low energy. But I make sure I eat them with plenty of fat, or else they do spike my blood sugar.
- Avoiding (most) gluten. Some people do fine with a little wheat. I generally don’t, and many other asthmatics are in the same boat. If I eat it, I have asthma symptoms, period. I still occasionally do, like in social settings where it would be rude or awkward to refuse (after all, it doesn’t make me hurt…just wheeze), or on a special occasion, like my kid’s birthday cake (give me a break, those bean cakes on Pinterest are NOT good enough to give to guests). I have noticed that good sourdough white bread bothers me the least of all wheat products, so if we do have wheat, we try to have it in that form.
- Avoiding pasteurized dairy. We still drink raw milk and eat yogurt, cheese, kefir, and sour cream with no problems. Also, I have no trouble at all with pasteurized heavy whipping cream – I drink it in my tea every morning. But milk from the store is out, as are ice cream, hot cocoa mixes, etc. If I do have to eat these things, or just really, really need a little scoop of ice cream to make me feel human, I try to eat it with some raw milk or fermented dairy to help it digest more easily. For me, this is almost as big a trigger as gluten.
- Plenty of Fat Soluble Vitamins. We take Cod Liver Oil somewhat regularly (a molecularly distilled type with synthetic Vitamins A and D added), eat high-vitamin foods like egg yolks, liver and oily fish, and I’ve started taking a D3 supplement. I know some experts are against supplementing, but, honestly, I just can’t feed my kids sardines at every meal when we go to a play date and they are offered PB&J’s. We already eat weird food, I don’t want them to have complexes. So we supplement a little bit to help cover those dietary gaps that come from being socially graceful. For me, I’ve noticed a pretty big improvement in my asthma since adding in the Vitamin D supplement.
- Good Bacteria. I try pretty hard to eat something fermented every day, whether that is yogurt or kombucha or homemade fermented veggies or Bubbie’s pickles, or whatever. Also, we spend a TON of time outside playing in the dirt, working in the garden, petting the filthy dog even after he swims in the muddy pond, mucking the chicken coop, and we are NOT fastidious about washing our hands. My 1-year-old has eaten more dirt than I thought possible this summer. Permaculture has reminded me (sorry, I had to throw in at least one reference to it), that the microbial health of the soil is what supports the health of plants, and in turn, of bugs and larger animals that eat those plants. The closer we are to our healthy soil, eating produce from it and exposing ourselves directly to it, I think the healthier we will be.
- Careful Exercise. When I was younger and had time to jog, I noticed that regular running helped my asthma stay under control. Basically, if my cardiovascular health was good, then “normal” life exercise didn’t make me breath hard, so didn’t bother me. However, going for an hour run everyday made me tired and really made one of my hips hurt. So my exercise now consists of working hard around the yard, doing jobs around the house, hefting kids/feed bags/tools around, and doing body-weight exercise like squats, push-ups, core, and yoga poses. And if I feel like sprinting after my kids, dashing up to the garage to grab a shovel, or flying down a particularly tempting hill, I go for it. When I listen to my body and run when it feels like running, I get some great sprints in, I have no trouble with my asthma, plus I enjoy every minute! I feel invigorated and think, “I love sprinting places!” instead of feeling like a dead dog and thinking “Jogging is necessary torture.” Mark Sisson’s 5 Essential Movements and Primal Blueprint Fitness E-book gave me a good start, although I take it more easy than he suggests, since I’m still nursing and notice a milk shortage when I overdo it.
- Natural Remedies. I will preface this by saying, I still use my albuterol (rescue inhaler) occasionally, sometimes in the thick of allergy season when working in the garden or if I have a bad cold. Also, if I have eaten dairy or wheat, I tend to be wheezy by evening. Breathing is important, not something to mess around with, and you don’t want to end up in the emergency room or morgue, so don’t hesitate to take action if you (or your kid!) are about to asphyxiate! However, when I’m just feeling a little wheezy or tight in my lungs, I often try some natural remedies instead of reaching for the inhaler. A hot shower with plenty of steam helps relax my lungs. Also, if I have annoying wheezing and can’t sleep, but it’s not bad enough to really cause distress, often a cup of hot tea helps ease the wheezing enough for me to drift off. Along with that, eating cold foods sometimes makes wheezing worse, so I try to avoid that if I’m having a rough time of it. I have heard everything from garlic to ginger to turmeric to lemon juice can help ease symptoms, but if you are eating tons of trigger foods and filling your body with inflammation-causing crud, a spoonful of turmeric is not an adequate long-term solution! These remedies work best if you are already doing the hard work of changing your diet and improving your health.
Note: I’m not a doctor or nutritionist or anything licensed. Please don’t interpret my personal experiences to be medical advice, and check with your doctor before discontinuing any medicine, blah blah blah legal jargon.
Do you know anyone who suffers from asthma? Have they had any luck trying to control it with natural methods? What has been helpful for them? Leave a comment and share your experiences and thoughts!
Posted at Small Footprint Friday
Source: http://mindofthemother.blogspot.com/2013/10/asthma-update-what-works-for-me.html
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