Pharmaceutical companies will view this study as a failure in educating, or marketing to, consumers to increase their use of the drugs. While this may be the case, this lack of drug use may also suggest that some people are wising up and not relying on drugs to solve their problem.

The study is absolutely correct in that anti-inflammatory approaches are required for asthma control. The problem, however, is that the predominant medical model advocates the use of drugs to control this problem. You do not need to rely on drugs.

Earlier this year I had a letter published in the British journal Thorax on this very topic, in which I discussed healthy approaches to controlling asthma inflammation. The primary approach is two-fold. One is having enough omega-3 fats in your diet in the form of fish oil. The other is vastly reducing your omega-6 fat intake.

Virtually eliminating all high omega-6 fats will seem counter-intuitive to many interested in health, as some common omega-6 foods seem healthy. For instance, all seeds and nuts should be avoided (except walnuts and flaxseeds, which have substantial amounts of omega-3 fats, though omega-3 from fish oil is still far better for its high levels of EPA and DHA). Nearly all other seeds and nuts have significant quantities of omega-6 fats and should be eliminated from the diet (even if they are organic), including:

• Almonds
• Pecans
• Cashews
• Peanuts
• Sunflower seeds
• Pumpkin seeds
• Sesame seeds

To conclude, for those with asthma, it is always beneficial to know the omega-6 content of the foods you consume, and to eliminate those that are high in this fatty acid.

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