Asthma

A multi-pronged approach can help tackle the breathing disorder.

 

"I have difficulty in breathing."

"My sleep is disturbed with cough and breathlessness."

"My child snores at night with wheezing sound from chest."

Well these are the few symptoms of asthma, a respiratory illness, the awareness day of which was held on May 1.

Our airways carry the oxygen into the lungs and predominantly carbon-dioxide on exhalation during breathing. The exchange of gases takes place in the bronchioles or the functional unit of the lung tissue, which retains the necessary oxygen to bind with haemoglobin to carry on the combustion necessary to produce the energy. Our airways are endowed with a special function so as to prevent harmful and deleterious substances, agents and organisms into the body in the form fine cilia or hair like structures, which perform this function. Once it is beyond them to prevent or stop the organism entering into the body they evoke a stimulus to the immune system of the body and the system responds by narrowing the airways and produces a serous discharge rich in white blood cells to inanimate the offending organism. Well, this is the normal reaction of the immune system to allay any danger to the health.

But alas such a reaction tends to happen even when there is no offender or our body identifies any harmful substances as dangerous to the state of health and produces the above reaction. The trigger could be as simple as house dust, smoke, cold and pollen that happen to be environmental allergens. But people could also trigger such a reaction with allergy to certain foods, even like milk, peanuts, eggs etc. Ozone, smog, chemicals in the air we breathe is also the usual suspect and people working around factories with effluents are always at a risk.

When the above reaction takes place the serous discharge finds its way into the fine alveoli and the bronchioles of the lung tissue and this thin fluid hampers the exchange of gases compelling the patient to breathe more, often and deeper and appearing as breathlessness. To expel the mucus from the area our body then induces cough and thereby expectoration. Another response is the constriction of the muscular layer of the airways, which leads to distress in breathing and thereby the typical wheezing sound. One in every four children seems to be suffering from this complaint at some intensity and thereby a health issue of importance. When this remains over a period of time it is termed as Bronchial asthma.

 

To reduce the accumulation of the mucus in the alveoli, relaxing the smooth muscle constriction of the airways will help reduce the acute episode of distress in breathing or breathlessness. That is primary in maintenance of the problem since it can be triggered often and at various intensities. Carbo veg, Ipecac, Blatta, Grindelia, Amm. carb, China are a few homoeopathic medicines, which help in alleviating the acute attack of asthma by improving the dilatation of the bronchioles and give transient relief. Apart from this is the fact that asthma per se has to be treated and homoeopathy is second to none to address this problem. Remedies such as Ars alb, Calc carb, Lycopodium, Sulph, Psorinum, Tuberculinum, Natrum sulph help in reducing the intensity and frequency of attacks and increased period between the episodes would help the person to be in a better state of health. Homoeopathic medicine also improves resistance of the body to all the trivial allergens and prevents the respiratory system going into bouts of cough and breathlessness at the drop of a hat on exposure to those.