Asthma
Treatment Options
Allopathic medicine (also known as standard Western medicine) treats
asthma with drugs, pharmaceutical medication. These treatments are outlined
on many websites, and may include:
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Bronchodilators like albuterol, to cause the airways
to get larger and relieve shortness of breath. Patients of a specific
genotype (the arginine 16 allele of the ß2 adrenergic receptor) have
an abnormally accelerated accommodation reaction to these medications,
requiring more and more to get the same response. These people should
be treated with other forms of medications for the long term, although
they may use the bronchodilators in the short term without danger.
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Steroids – given by inhalation – to decrease
the inflammation in the airways, thereby reducing both the secretion
of mucus and the amount of blood traveling in the capillaries around
the small airways. Steroids are a preventative or prophylactic treatment,
rather than a symptomatic treatment.
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Atropine-like agents (ipratropium bromide) are appropriate
for those with the above-mentioned arginine 16 allele of the ß2 adrenergic
receptor, although the bromide salt in itself is unhealthy for physiologic
function of the body.
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Leukotriene inhibitors like Singulair® inhibit
the manufacture of leukotrienes, agents which respond to allergen
attack in the body. These agents may cause liver damage, and
will inhibit the inflammatory response all over the body,
not just in the lungs.
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Long-acting bronchodilators like salmeterol
(Severent®) act like the albuterol type bronchodilators, only
not as rapidly.
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Theophylline is an older medication which is
seldom used because it has a narrow margin of safety before
toxic symptoms occur – nausea, vomiting, heart rhythm
abnormalities.
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Steroids – given by mouth – have an
effect over the entire system. They may be very effective
for a time, to control the symptoms of asthma, but over time
they may result in ulcers, osteoporosis, increased susceptibility
to infection, and loss of the body’s own adaptive mechanisms
to increased stress.
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Alternative, Complementary, or Functional Medicine
also has treatments for acute asthma, which are seldom mentioned in
the allopathic literature. These include:
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Acupuncture – which inserts tiny needles into specific
places on the body in order to change the flow of energy within the
channel where the needle is placed. Specific locations will stop an
acute asthma attack within a few minutes. Other locations are geared
more at restoring proper lung function for the long term.
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Intravenous magnesium - since magnesium is a vasodilator
and muscle relaxant, it can help to restore blood supply to muscles
surrounding the bronchioles, or tiny air passage, and allow those
muscles to relax and recover their proper function, thus relieving
wheezing.
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Homeopathic remedies – certain remedies are specific
to relieving wheezing. Different remedies are chosen, depending on
whether the wheezing is accompanied by fever, yellow sputum, left-sided
or right-sided chest pain, etc.
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Immunotherapy – testing with antigens to determine
reactivity (just like standard allergy testing, only using preservative-free
antigens in multiple dilutions), and then treating with progressively
increasing strengths of antigen to help the body develop a tolerance
to the substance.
Article by Martha M Grout, MD, MD(H)
Arizona Center for Advanced Medicine |
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Martha M. Grout, MD, MD(H) has two decades in emergency medicine and
a decade in homeopathic medicine. She specializes in chronic diseases
and HEG-based brain training for ADHD, memory loss, and depression.
Her environmentally friendly office at the Arizona
Center for Advanced Medicine makes preservative-free antigens for
testing and treatment of allergies.
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