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How to holistically treat and heal asthma...

I don’t normally open with a disclaimer, but ya'll, breathing problems are legitimately something you shouldn’t take lightly, so today I will open with this: Below I give my account of my daughter and clients  diagnosis, treatment, and holistic cures for asthma as well as information to help you holistically treat and heal asthma.  I use a combination of homeopathic remedies, energy work, crystals, nutrition, and essential oils. I want to preface this information with a few of things: 1- I am a trained medical professional and I am extremely cautious when weaning my clients off of inhalers. 2- I have always kept back up rescue inhalers readily available in my home and suggest you do the same. 3- There are different types of asthma, some more severe than others. Always work with a healthcare professional or holistic health professional or a combination of the two to find a plan that is right for you or your child. Ultimately you are responsible for your health and wellness. If you would like to work one-on-one, click here.

Now that we got that handled...

Our Asthma Story

One fall, when my youngest daughter, who is 7 now,  was 2 years old, she came down with a really nasty respiratory virus. Late one night we ended up in the Urgent Care because her fever was high, and she was having trouble getting enough air. Pretty serious problem, right? The physician at the Urgent Care suggested that the virus was affecting Katie worse than others because she has asthma.  I was like “what?! excuse me?”

During the summer I could no longer ignore my intuition, and we stopped the daily inhaler. Here's the thing, there are many many reasons NOT to use daily systemic steroids if you can avoid it. Inhaled steroids can cause candida of the mouth, cavities, gum disease, disrupt your gut flora, and can overall wreck your health. The last thing that I wanted to deal with was having oral health issues. Do you know what could happen if you leave cavities and gum disease untreated for a long period of time? Periodontic treatment and even dental implants may have to be an option to consider to help resolve the issue. But this isn't the only thing that could be affected. Prolonged use can lead to high blood pressure, skin issues, and many other long-term health concerns.

That visit scared me so much, that even being the crunchy hippie mama healer I am, we used those inhalers just like we were supposed to all the way up until summer. Looking back, I think now I would make a more in-tune decision, however my network of other practitioners wasn't very large back then, and it is very difficult to be objective with your own child sometimes.

During the summer I could no longer ignore my intuition, and we stopped the daily inhaler. Here’s the thing, there are many many reasons NOT to use daily systemic steroids if you can avoid it.  Inhaled steroids can cause candida of the mouth, cavities, gum disease, disrupt your gut flora, and overall wreck your health. Prolonged use can lead to high blood pressure, skin issues, and many other long-term health concerns.

My holistic training proved helpful, even though she was 2, I was determined to develop a holistic treatment plan. Through some trial and error, I developed a plan that worked for Katie and was manageable with essential oils and homeopathic drops.

Bugs used sublingual (under the tongue) homeopathic drops each morning. Just 3 quick drops right under her tongue.  She also gets these drops anytime she has ANY symptoms of an asthma attack, excessive coughing, wheezing or any other symptom associated with a respiratory condition. She also used essential oil blend on her chest and bottom of her feet daily. Since I have developed some protocols that work on adults and kids a like. Let's look at some of the pieces here. 

Although we will dive into the full 6-step process, the primary step is really important and without it you can't move forward in the steps. The following are holistic ways to reduce symptoms in combination with or in place of inhalers where appropriate medically:

Homeopathic remedies

Homeopathic remedies work via The Law of Similars. “Like cures like.” As a trained homeopathic practitioner, there are a series of evaluations to determine the best approach to what “like” will remedy an issue. Homeopathics work on the energy and physical body, stimulating the body’s regulatory systems to heal themselves.

You CAN purchase homeopathic drops and tablets over-the-counter and there are also “prescription” strengths that have to be “prescribed” by a trained Homeopathic practitioner like myself.

The drops we used for Bugs were a blend of homeopathic remedies from Newton’s (which is a trusted source for remedies), these were actually prescription strength but they do have some OTC remedies as well.

Another principle of homeopathic treatment is that it is highly individualized. When working with a homeopathic practitioner, their goal is to match the characteristics of the chosen remedy as closely as possible to the characteristics of the illness in the patient. Generally, this “similarity” is at the ‘whole person’ level, taking into account the symptoms and signs of the disease, the patient’s physical build, personality, temperament and genetic predispositions.

The third principle of homeopathic treatment is minimum dose. This is why homeopathic is one of my favorite methodologies. The doses can range from those that are similar in concentration to some herbal medicines to very high dilutions containing no material trace of the starting substance (a.k.a.‘ultra-molecular’ dilutions).

Essential Oils for Asthma

The second part of our treatment plan during the reduction of symptoms phase was an Asthma Blend roll-on that I created (kid-safe), here are the ingredients:

• Lavender
• Geranium
• Majoram
• Ginger
• diluted in Fractionated Coconut Oil

For Katie, for us, just these two pieces were enough to control her asthma without inhalers. We have been off ALL of the inhaled steroids for years now. We can say, “what asthma?” instead of "WHAT?! asthma?"

Energy Work for Asthma

There are acupressure points all over your body, that can help strengthen, energize, and heal you, and they are within your reach (pun intended LOL).

There are two specific points for the lungs. They are on the inside of both wrists, just below the fatty part of the palm near the thumb (see diagram below). Use 2 fingers to massage this point, if it is tender, that is an indication that you need to strengthen that energy flow.

Crystals for Asthma

Depending on the root cause of your asthma, you may choose a variety of crystals to work with. Amethyst, is sort of the jack of all trades and can be helpful here, so can Topaz, smoky citrine, and malachite. Whichever you choose, be sure and combine it with a nice grounding stone such as hematite or magnetic lodestone. In deciding which of those to use, go with your intuition, it will never lead you astray,  For littles, I always let them select the stone for themselves, it's usually what is best.

To use them, you can use any of our standard methods. You can hold it in your left hand for meditation, carry it on your person, put it in your pillow case, or make a gem elixir with it. Any method that works easiest for you will work best for you.

What should I be doing to heal asthma?

The big picture here from a full treatment perspective involves a new version of the 5R protocol (Remove, Replace, Reinoculate, Repair, and Rebalance). For asthma, we will use a slightly amped up version called the 6Rs.

6Rs to heal asthma

Reduce symptoms. This is where the homeopathics, essential oils, energy work, and even inhalers (if necessary) that we discussed above come in. It is essential to reduce the symptoms before we can even think about moving on to healing.

Remove the inflammatory load. Think in terms of not just outward allergens and toxins, but also the inflammatory load you are putting on your body 3-10 times a day nutritionally.  For most people, this includes environmental toxins, think in terms of fragrances, things you put on your body or use in your home or work. It also includes nutrition, gluten, dairy, sometimes sugars, and often nightshades.

Repair. For asthmas sufferers, this isn’t just the gut permeability, although it is often the biggest part. But there is often permeability in the lungs, skin, energy systems, and oral/eye/nasal mucosas. Repairing these and allowing the body to heal barriers is essential.

Restore the microbiome. This can be as simple as altering what you are eating and as complicated as a full functional stool test and addressing the identified imbalances. Probiotics/fermented foods/prebiotic foods are always important in the repair stage.

Replace. The replace phase is where we correct nutritional insufficiencies to continue reducing inflammation and building tolerance. Primarily, we look at the same supplements we should all be taking:  vitamin D, A, omega 3 fatty acids, for asthma sufferers we would continue, sublingual homeopathy here as well. Asthma suffers may also require enzymes to aid in digestion.

Rebalance. In this stage, we continue the energy medicine and really hone in on the body-mind-energy self-care. Cortisol and adrenaline contribute greatly to asthma attacks and focusing on this area vastly improves chances of avoiding a rebound.

To wrap up this healing asthma goodness...

Please know that you are not alone. I have given you the information you need to allow your body to heal. If you need any assistance, feel free to let me know. I can help.

As always, everything in life is a choice, you have the power in your life and existence to make that choice, you can choose to live better, to mitigate stress, and feed your body the ingredients it needs heal itself, yes even from something like asthma.

Ultimately you and the expression of you in your human suit is up to you and the choices you make, so work towards making good ones. In this instant gratification society, know that every choice you make in the right direction is progress, even if the two before or the one after isn’t the best choice. Be well.

Be well.