HOMEOPATHY FOR ASTHMA

What is asthma?

Asthma is an inflammatory condition in which your airways narrow and swell and produce extra mucus. This can make breathing difficult and trigger coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath.

What are the symptoms?

• Shortness of breath
• Chest tightness or pain
• Trouble sleeping caused by shortness of breath, coughing or wheezing
• A whistling or wheezing sound when exhaling (wheezing is a common sign of asthma in children)
• Coughing or wheezing attacks that are worsened by a respiratory virus, such as a cold or the flu
• Expectoration can be present or absent

What treatment does traditional medicine offer?

According to traditional western medicine, there is no cure for asthma and the only treatment aims to manage and control the condition. Inhalers, steroids or various drugs in tablets or injections.

Homeopathy has a different approach

As always, homeopathy’s approach aims to treat the whole person and not the condition. The individual’s symptoms are the “language” of the dis-ease and therefore they need to be carefully listened to, rather than suppressed with medication.

Different types of asthma

First of all, it is important to ascertain what type of asthma the patient is presenting:

–Intrinsic asthma: congenital

–Extrinsic asthma: caused by external factors that trigger the symptoms, like allergies to food, pollen or certain medication

–Occupational asthma: jobs like mining, firemen, working with certain materials that trigger the symptoms

–Bronchial asthma: when the difficulty is in breathing out rather than in.

The Holistic approach:

The physical symptoms are carefully noted down: what triggers the asthma attack; what makes it better/worse; expetoration yes/no and so on.

Then the emotional and mental symptoms are also carefully considered: there is typically anxiety around the symptoms, the person feels like they can’t breathe and are scared of dying. Sometimes strong emotions can actually trigger an attack.

In adult patients it is often useful to ask about the origin of the symptoms: there is always a reason why our body reacts in a certain way, unless it’s a congenital condition. One of my cases was a young woman suffering from asthma attacks. She was quite anxious in general and the attacks started after witnessing a serious road accident years before. Her doctors could not find any therapy that worked and all tests were inconclusive, yet she still suffered. When she mentioned the accident, I realised that she has been deeply shocked by the event and her body’s reaction had become chronic. Had she been treated for the shock at the time (with Aconite, for example) her system would have been strong enough to process the trauma. Instead, she internalised the shock, which turned into asthmatic episodes. The remedy Ignatia resolved that for good in a few doses.

Many homeopathic remedies have an affinity with respiration:

Silica, Kali Carbonicum, Tubercolinum, Aconite. The list is very long. The correct remedy needs to match the totality of the symptoms.

Lifestyle changes

It is important to learn what is good for us and what we need to cut out: quitting smoking is a no brainer of course and avoiding the triggers like pets hair or other allergens.

Because asthma is a condition caused by the inflammatin of the air passeges, taking anti-inflammatory supplements like Omega 3 or turmeric or magnesium can help.

The main thing is to treat the individual and personalise the treatment.

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