I never cease to be amazed when doing research for a new article. I wanted to write about asthma, which I do know a lot about, as my husband suffers from it, but since he uses natural remedies for asthma, I had no idea what some people go through, just to breathe.

Asthma is the inflammation of the lining of the lungs, accompanied by the tightening of muscles causing the narrowing of the airways. The airways become sensitive to irritants, and in addition, the body produces too much mucus, which further clogs breathing. Attacks can be triggered by a number of things, the two primary being pollutants (both natural and chemical) and emotions.

The classic Western approach to asthma is the use of inhalers, both for rescue and for maintenance. The rescue inhalers provide immediate action to relax muscles to open airways, but do not treat the underlying inflammation. The maintenance inhaler are merely corticosteroids (anti-inflammatories) inhaled. The two inhalers combined, can produce the following side effects; loss of bone mass, deduction of growth in pediatric patients, cataracts, glaucoma, fever, allergic rhinitis (whatever that is), headache, sore throat, upper respiratory infection (and they take this for asthma?), abdominal pain, vomiting, urinary tract infection, and bruising. Now that’s just not right!!!!

There are at least a dozen homeopathic remedies for asthma that can be used to quell an asthma attack, depending on the cause, the relieving or aggravating factors, and the accompanying symptoms. The list includes arsenicum, dulcamara, ignatia, kali carb, and many many more. My husband’s favorite remedy is a generic formula made by A.Vogel. It used to be sold as an "asthma relief" remedy, but apparently the FDA pulled it. (perhaps the inhaler business was down). Now it is sold as Pollinosan, and we buy it from Canada. It is homeopathy in its true form- instant relief and full breathing in literally seconds.

The big business of medicine continues to thwart the acceptance and use of homeopathy. A prescription inhaler may cost up to $20, as a co pay for those who have medical insurance, and up to $70 for those who pay for medicine out-of-pocket. The inhalers might need to be purchased every month. Breathing treatments at the doctor’s office or hospital could cost hundreds as a self pay. The cost of a bottle of a homeopathic single remedy is about $8, and up to about $15 for a formula. No prescription is needed, and there are no ridiculous side effects to homeopathy, not to mention that after taking the right remedy, you will get better and better, until presumably you will need no remedy or only infrequent use. It is rather easy to select a single remedy, but when in doubt as to what to use, or if you select something that you aren’t responding to, then try the formulas. Obviously, there may be times, homeopathy or not, that an asthmatic may reach for an inhaler, but with homeopathic remedies at hand, these times will be few and far between. As always, it is a good idea to at sometime, and in very acute cases, have a complete intake done by a trained homoeopathist in order touch upon all symptoms of a case, including emotional profile.