• Home
• Allergy Relief
  • Natural Allergy Relief
  • Treat Allergies Yourself
  • Allergy Medication
• All About Allergies
  • Food Allergies
  • Environmental Allergies
  • Animal Allergies
• About Us
• Naturopath Consultations

Hopefully you have read Part One of Asthma – Causes and Triggers and are a little more aware of underlying causative factors that may be maintaining your chronic asthma.

Addressing these causative factors is really important because the last thing you want is for your asthma to get even worse over the next few years. So getting to the cause of it now will allow you to control it a lot better later down the track.

Prevention is the best medicine!

Here you can learn about one of the most prevalent mineral deficiencies that have been extensively researched to benefiting asthmatics. I’ve also included a few extra tips to help relieve your asthma at the end of the article.

Magnesium Deficiency

Magnesium is one of the most abundant minerals in your body which means it’s extremely vital for your well being.

Unfortunately many of you will be deficient in Magnesium – and yes that included me a few years ago, restless legs, muscle twitches and lower back pain I sure don’t miss that.

A deficiency may occur purely because you’re not eating enough sources of Magnesium.

Or it could be based on the scary fact that our food is growing in mineral depleted soil and is lacking this vital mineral that our bodies need in abundance – which sure makes it difficult for asthmatics like you to receive your daily amount of Magnesium.

Low dietary intakes of Magnesium can cause impaired lung function, bronchial hyper reactivity and increased bronchial smooth muscle contractility that leads to wheezing.

Magnesium is very important for the adequate relaxation of bronchial smooth muscle. If there is a deficiency present, the contraction of smooth muscle will be greater prolonging shortness of breath.

The recommended daily allowance of Magnesium is 300-400 mg over 15 years of age. Approximately 49% of the population is deficient in Magnesium and can be due to several other factors not previously mentioned such as the depletion of Magnesium from the body due to excess sweating, stress, gastrointestinal disorders such as celiac disease that reduces the absorption, alcoholism and poor digestion.

Food sources of Magnesium include almonds, molasses, parsnips, soy beans, wholegrain cereals, eggs, sunflower/pumpkin seeds, brewer’s yeast, cashews and cacao.

Magnesium Supplementation

Supplementing with a Magnesium supplement may be something you may want to consider as it will ensure that you are reaching your Magnesium quota for the day. A therapeutic dose will be reached daily so that you have a higher chance of Magnesium benefiting your asthma.

When supplementing with Magnesium, I recommend avoiding the forms of Magnesium called Magnesium oxide which is cheap and nasty and causes stomach upsets. Instead opt for forms of Magnesium called amino acid chelate, aspartate and orotate.

Before supplementing with a Magnesium please talk to a qualified health professional so that you can be advised what would be most suitable for you, especially if you have any previous history of kidney disease.

Symptoms of Magnesium deficiency:

• Restless leg syndrome
• Muscle cramps
• Anxiety
• Poor sleep
• Irregular heart beat
• Startled easily
• Cold hands and feet
• Chronic Fatigue
• Muscle Twitches
• Fibromylagia

Some More Handy Tips

Here are a few tips that you can easily incorporate into your lifestyle which may help reduce the severity of your asthma.

• Drink Gingko Biloba tea or take as a supplement – It reduces PAF (platelet activating factor) which initiates excess mucous production, and bronchospasms causing symptoms of asthma
• Drink fenugreek tea – Fenugreek is a great herb for breaking down mucous which is associated with asthma.
• Increase your fruit and vegetable intake – Ensure you are receiving plenty of antioxidants from fresh fruits and vegetables daily which naturally assist in reducing inflammation of the airways and protect against air pollutants.
• Improve your immunity – Asthmatics are very prone to chest infections because of the excess mucous production that encourages a nice breeding ground for bacteria, in turn worsening your asthma. Reduce sugar and food sensitivity/allergy exposure that suppresses the immune system; take a herbal immune support formula such as Olive leaf, Echinacea root or Astragalus as a preventative.
• Take Vitamin C to prevent exercise induced asthma Taking 2000 mg of Vitamin C about 1 hour prior to exercise has shown to reduce the airway hyper reactivity in some asthmatics
• Make sure your digestive system is working at its absolute optimum – Ensure you have an abundance of good bacteria (probiotics) in your digestive system, ensure you have good digestion to break down your food and ensure you are having regular bowel movements. Having a strong digestive system will greatly reduce your allergies and the production of mucous that initiates asthma attacks.
• Reduce your salt intake – Reducing your salt intake has been shown to reduce exercise induced asthma.

Note – If you are on any other medication please talk to your doctor before taking any of the herbs recommended or high doses of vitamin C. None of these recommendations should replace your asthma medication.

That’s It Folks

So we have come to the end of my part two series on Asthma – I hope I have given you a better understanding of your asthma so that you are now a little more empowered to get back in control of your health and asthma!

Please feel free to post any comments about your asthma or anything that you have done to help your asthmatic symptoms.
I look forward to hearing from you!

Chloe

References

1. A Emelyanov, G Fedoseev, and PJ Barnes. Reduced intracellular magnesium concentrations in asthmatic patients. Eur Respir J 1999; 13:38-40

2. Omer S. B Alamoudi. Electrolyte Disturbances in Patients with Chronic, Stable Asthma Effect of Therapy. Chest August 2001 vol. 120 no. 2 431-436

3. Ligia J. Dominguez et al. Bronchial reactivity and intracellular magnesium: a possible mechanism for the bronchodilating effects of magnesium in asthma. Clinical Science (1998) 95, (137–142) (Printed in Great Britain)

4. Ziment, Irwin. Alternative therapies for asthma. Current opinion in pulmonary medicine (1997) Volume 3, Issue 1

5. Herman A. Cohen., Itai Neuman, MD and Hermona Nahum. Blocking Effect of Vitamin C in Exercise-Induced Asthma. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 1997;151(4):367-370.

6. Gotshall, R W., Mickelborough, T and, Cordain, LOR. Dietary salt restriction improves pulmonary function in exercise-induced asthma. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, November 2000 – Volume 32 – Issue 11 – pp 1815-1819

Share This Article With Your Friends

About Chloe Orford

Chloe Orford is the co-founder of Live Allergy Free - A website that gives you helpful tips, guides and awareness on how best to relieve your allergies. Having treated myself and many others of food and environmental allergies...read more.

Follow Me:

Get Allergy Relief

Most Popular Allergy Articles