Bronchial Asthma Home Remedies

Asthma is an ancient Greek word meaning ‘panting or short drawn breath'. It is the most troublesome of the respiratory diseases. It is basically a chronic lung condition in which inflammation of the airways or bronchi, affects the way air enters and leaves the lungs, disrupting breathing. This disease is very common among males sometimes found in young children but more frequently occurs in early adult life.

People with asthma have extra sensitive or hyper responsive airways. The airways react by narrowing or obstructing when they become irritated. This makes it difficult for the air to move in and out. The asthma attack usually begins at the early hours of the morning. Warning signs may include restlessness, mental exaltation or depression, sneezing or coryza, flatulence, the patient if asleep suddenly wakes up with a sense of suffocation.

There is irritable cough with wheezing in the chest. The chest is full of mucus. The inspiration is short, labored, noisy and prolonged. On auscultation, the breath sound is feeble, and later, copious bubbling rales are heard. Pulse is often quick and feeble and systolic BP may be lowered. Allopathic medicines can do little help to children with asthma. Most of the medicines produce only a temporary effect. Whereas home made remedies can be very helpful.

One of the most common home remedies for asthma is honey. It is said that if a jug of honey is held under the nose of an asthma patient and he inhales the air that comes into contact with it, he starts breathing easier and deeper. One can also mix 1 teaspoon honey in a glass of water and have it 3 times a day. Lemon is another home remedy, found beneficial in the treatment of asthma. The juice of one lemon, diluted in a glass of water and taken with meals, will definitely bring good results.

Another valuable remedy for asthma is bishop's weed herb. Half a teaspoon of bishop's weed should be mixed in a glass of buttermilk and taken twice daily. It is an effective remedy for relieving difficult expectoration caused by dried-up phlegm. A hot poultice of the seeds should be used for dry fomentation to the chest twice daily. The patient should be given garlic cloves boiled in thirty grams of milk daily to cure asthma.

A teaspoon of the root paste, mixed with an equal amount of honey or juice of the holy basil leaves, given once every night for a month, acts as an excellent medicine for this disease. Take fresh dry grapes with seeds and soak them in 150 grams of water at night. Remove the seeds in the morning and chew them slowly, one by one. In a month the lungs will be strengthened and poisonous wastes will be removed from the body.

Ideally, patient's diet should contain a limited quantity of carbohydrates, fats and proteins which are ‘acid-forming' foods, and a liberal quantity of alkali-forming foods consisting of fresh fruits, green vegetables, sprouted seeds, and grains. The patient should avoid foods which tend to produce phlegm, such as rice, sugar, lentils, and yoghurt. He should also avoid fried and other difficult to-digest foods.