Parents of asthma sufferers can't be accused of sloughing off when it comes to clearing their homes of irritants that affect the health of their kids. However, a new study found, not all the steps parents take are the best ones that will help their children the most. In fact, many of them ignore proven suggestions that work and use some that are harmful.
Of the 1,800 steps the surveyed parents took, about half actually work.
Most took steps to control exposure to animals, dust and dust mites. Generally, parents used special filters on ventilation systems and vacuum cleaners. But they also did improper things or maintained bad habits that negated their best intentions:
So what can parents really do to help their kids? Learning your child's real environmental triggers, whatever they are, comes first, one scientist said. Then, parents need to "go to school" to determine how to get asthma under control. The learning can be particularly hard, even if it means a parent must stop smoking to protect his child's health.
That's why experts recommend parents talk to their doctors before spending a lot of money on preventative measures. In other words, do the inexpensive things first.
Although education has had some effect, parents who reached out to their doctors for advice took some kind of action, however it wasn't always the right option to take. Also, scientists noticed a discrepancy between what parents recognized as their child's asthma triggers and what they did in their homes to reduce them. A few, including the use of a humidifier, were possibly harmful.
EurekAlert August 17, 2004
As far as doing the least expensive things to improve your child's resistance to asthma, a much healthier approach than taking drugs that merely mask symptoms and never cure anything, these simple recommendations of mine should do the trick:
Following the nutrition plan described in my book, Total Health Program, is one of the first steps -- avoiding sugar, fruit juices, most grains and pasteurized dairy products is nearly always helpful.
Replacing commercial milk with raw milk from grass-fed cows is also usually well tolerated and highly health promoting.
The balance of omega 6 to omega 3 fats is very important. I had an article published in Thorax two years ago that goes into more details. But you will certainly want to limit the amount of omega-6 commercial vegetable oils like safflower, sunflower, corn, and soy as these will actually make asthma worse. While it is true they are essential fats, we get far too many in our diet and an excess of them is actually highly counter productive in asthma. You can help normalize the inflammatory response by including enough long-chain omega-3 fats (DHA and EPA) from fish oils in your diet. I find Carlson's fish oil and cod liver oil to be two of the most superior kinds available as they conform to the strictest guidelines for purity and freshness. Both are available in most health food stores as well as our online store.
For more severe and resistant cases of asthma, allergy skin testing can be appropriate. Traditional allergy treatments are one of medicine's safer and better approaches, however it has great room for improvement. My experience with conventional allergy testing, whether done through the blood (RAST) or skin, is that only 20 percent to 30 percent of patients do exceptionally well with it. It is also highly inconvenient, as patients need to go to the doctor's office every week for months or years. It clearly does not work for most patients.
(For several years, I have been using a much-improved version of this testing, called Provocation Neutralization (PN). The success rate for this approach ranges from 80-90 percent and patients can receive their treatment at home.)
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