Asthma

Asthma is a potentially serious and even life-threatening condition. Conventional drugs used for treating asthma, particularly steroids, can impair immune function and lead to more serious health problems. The problem however is treatable with TCM

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This is a condition in which the small bronchial airways temporarily constrict, so that it is difficult to exhale. This leads to breathlessness and wheezing. Such difficulty is caused by muscle spasm in the bronchi of the lungs. Most of asthma suffers have a poor immune system. Many asthma attacks are triggered by allergens, such as dust, mould spores, mites, animal hair or feathers but the onset may equally be caused by cold air, or it may be preceded by an infection such as a cold. Certainly, stress and more specifically acute anxiety are known to be the immediate trigger for many attacks, and this can sometimes give rise to a vicious circle of asthma - anxiety about the asthma - further attacks. In terms of TCM, asthma mainly has cold tape, heat type and deficiency type: 1) Cold Type Asthma Main symptoms: A feeling of fullness and distress in the chest, dyspnoea with a wheezing sound in the throat, coughing with thin sputum, frequent attacks in cold seasons or caused by cold. Treatment Methods: The treatment principle is to ventilate the lungs and expel pathogenic cold, eliminating phlegm to relieve the asthma. 2) Heat Type Asthma Main symptoms: Dyspnoea with wheezing, irritable, oppressed sensation in the chest, even gasping for breath. Yellowish sputum, thirst, frequent occurrence in hot seasons or onset closely associated with heat, reddened tongue with yellow greasy fur, slippery and rapid pulse. Treatment Methods: Remove heat phlegm and facilitating the flow of lung Qi to relieve

asthma. 3) Deficiency Type Asthma Main symptoms: Chronic and recurrent attacks for a long time, constant minor and persistent asthma at ordinary times, the sound of cough being low and weak, palpitations and shortness of breath, spontaneous perspiration and aversion to wind, general debility, pale tongue with a little fur, weak pulse. Treatment Methods: The treatment principle is based on tonifying the lungs and spleen and improving inspiration to relieve the asthma. There is a wide range of Chinese herbal remedies to treat asthma depending on what type of asthma. A combination of acupuncture and Chinese herbs can work even fast and better. The main herbal products are CHUANG BEI PI PA GAO, ZHI KE JU HONG KOU FU YE, QI GUAN YAN KE SOU TAN CHUAN WAN, DO CHONG XIAN CAO (improve immune system). Dietary Assistance: In Britain, most asthmatics suffer because of high pollen, lack of fresh air, eating and drinking too much high energy, high heat, rich food. This causes excessive heat in the lung. So the patients should avoid hot foods such as chocolate, hot spices, alcohol and smoking.