Asthma Archives

Asthma and stress

Follow Ups:

• Re: Asthma and stress (Archive in asthma.) Walt Stoll 12:51:35 8/07/01 (2)
  • Re: Asthma and stress (Archive in asthma.) Worried 19:04:24 8/07/01 (1)
    • Re: Asthma and stress (Archive in asthma.) Walt Stoll 09:38:43 8/09/01 (0)
• Re: Asthma and stress Judy 16:29:17 8/05/01 (0)

In Reply to: Asthma and stress posted by Worried on August 05, 2001 at 14:49:53:

Have you researched magnesium for treating asthma? I stumbled upon it by accident when I took some calcium and Mg pills for foot and leg cramps, and it not only stopped the cramps but eased my breathing. When I told my doctor (a D.O.) about this, he said he was not surprised as IV Mg can break the worst asthma attack that drugs are ineffective against. His mother has asthma, so it's of special interest to him.

Mg works two ways when it comes to relieving asthma. It dilates the air passages plus it enables the muscles surrounding the rib cage to relax. When muscles stay contracted from lack of Mg, from cold, or from stress, it can be harder to breathe.

Is your asthma worst in cold weather than in warm? This points to the possibility that you're sensitive to cold.

I am studying TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) herbalism, and the TCM view of asthma and breathing problems is far more varied than that of Western medicine. For one thing, there are several possible TCM Roots to what is called asthma in the West. What helps asthma due to one Root may do nothing for asthma with a different underlying TCM Root and may even worsen asthma with still another underlying TCM Root. A person may have one or more TCM Roots underlying breathing difficulties. All the Roots will need to be identified and addressed.

The fact that it is winter where you are may be significant. Is it harder for you to inhale than to exhale? Are the breathing problems worse when you lie down than when you sit up or stand?

From a non-TCM viewpoint, chiropractors and D.O.s (Doctors of Osteopathy) can give an adjustment that will open up the lungs and ease breathing. Some people don't live near a chiroprator or D.O., or, they don't want their spines popped. In these cases, check your upper back and neck over and along the spine for sore spots. You can have a family member or friend massage your back, or you can use a handheld massager. Very often people who are having breathing problems will have one or more sore spots in the upper back and/or neck area. Gently massaging the area until the pain lessens will ease the breathing problems. You want to massage gently as sometimes this can aggravate the problems though usually most people obtain relief.

I assume you've had a possible allergy component of the asthma checked out. If there is an allergy component, the likely culprit in winter are molds inside houses or offices. Sometimes air which is too dry can trigger breathing problems.

For some people there may be a PG (prostaglandin component). In these cases omega-3 fish oil can help reduce inflammation in the lungs and enable a person to breathe more easily. The factors which can tilt a person towards having PG problems are increasing age, insulin, infeciton, and consuming hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. Business persons love these fats because they prolong shelf life (and profits), but they can be very hard on the body.

Getting back to the TCM, it's common for asthmatics to tend to have more problems between roughly the hours of 3am and 5 am. It has to do with cycles of Qi (pronounced chee, roughly translated as "energy") flow in the body. If a client comes in complaining of waking up around 3 am a lot of nights, TCM healers automatically suspect Lung imbalance and rule in or rule out.

Judy

In Reply to: Asthma and stress posted by Worried on August 05, 2001 at 14:49:53:

Hi, Worried.

I would be worried, too. The longer you have asthma, the more likely you are to develop something called asthmatic emphysema which is a permanent scarring of the lungs.

SO, it behooves you to immediately stop just trying to suppress your asthmatic symptoms and get at doing something about the causes. That does not mean to stop your current management but to spend all of your efforts going beyond your current doc's knowledge into causes and deciding what to do about them.

Soon enough, you will need less medication and, eventually you can eliminate the asthma completely. The problem will be that you will still have whatever scarring is now causing your emphysema--although not nearly so many symptoms.

IF your doc had treated your causes in the beginning, you would not have this complication now.

Let us know what you learn. Use the search engine and glossary and archives to learn what you want to know.

Walt

Follow Ups:

• Re: Asthma and stress (Archive in asthma.) Worried 19:04:24 8/07/01 (1)
  • Re: Asthma and stress (Archive in asthma.) Walt Stoll 09:38:43 8/09/01 (0)

In Reply to: Re: Asthma and stress (Archive in asthma.) posted by Walt Stoll on August 07, 2001 at 12:51:35:

Thank you Dr. Stoll. My doctor diagnosed all the breathing problems I had as stress! All that just from stress. The cause as asthma was eliminated by a breathing test and a chest x-ray. Now he wants to look at getting to the root of the stress to stop it getting that bad again. Any suggestions?

Follow Ups:

• Re: Asthma and stress (Archive in asthma.) Walt Stoll 09:38:43 8/09/01 (0)

In Reply to: Re: Asthma and stress (Archive in asthma.) posted by Worried on August 07, 2001 at 19:04:24:

Hi, Worried.

Perhaps your doctor is not yet sophisticated enough to know that all allergies are ultimately also related to the stress-effect storage in the hypothalamus.

It is time for YOU to fully understand what stress is.

Start with the article on the home page. Read Selye's book and then, if necessary, Pelletier's.

Let us know what you learn.

Walt