Top Home Remedies for Asthma

Hey guys, Dr. Josh Axe here. Welcome to Ancient Medicine Today. I'm so excited to be here with you. So today we'll be talking about the top home remedies to help you overcome asthma and other breathing-related issues.

Now again, this is good number one for asthma, but even people who are struggling with bronchitis, COPD, or other things that can start to constrict those bronchial areas, this is going to help. And I'll tell you, there are a lot of people That are struggling with asthma today.

I know in my clinic that I had here in Nashville, took care of a lot of kids, saw great results with them in overcoming asthma naturally. So today, on today's episode, I'm going to be going over the best diet, the best supplements, the best essential oils, and what to avoid in order for you to overcome or your children to overcome asthma.

Also, as we talk about every day here on the show, we have a big mission, myself and Jordan Rubin. We want to help teach people how to use food as medicine. Take a minute right now for me, press that share button, punch that share button, help us spread the word on the natural remedies to help heal asthma. Let's dive right in here. Number 1, here are some of the foods you should start consuming.

Number 1, more fruits and vegetables. Now, raw fruits and vegetables, and both cooked and raw vegetables are going to be great because they're very high in enzymes. What you want to do when you have asthma is consume a diet that's going to reduce inflammation. And reducing inflammation is going to be done through certain types of fats, but also enzymes are fantastic.

Now, some of our favorite fruits that are great for reducing inflammation can include things like kiwi. Kiwi contains an active component called actinidin, which is incredible. Papaya, pineapple is great because of its bromelain content, figs.

And then actually sort of as a side note, ginger is great as well because it contains zingerbin So doing those specific fruits as well as ginger are incredible at reducing body-wide, system-wide inflammation. Also, vegetables are great in general. Remember this, fruits and vegetables along with omega-3 fats, which we'll talk about here in a minute, are highly anti-inflammatory.

So you want to consume a lot of foods that are enzyme-rich and rich in vitamins and minerals such as fruits and vegetables. Number 2 here, wild-caught fish. Wild-caught fish is high in EPA and DHA. These types of omega-3 fatty acids are more anti-inflammatory than there are other omega-3 fats called ALA, alpha-linolenic acid, that's found in flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts.

So again, getting wild-caught fish in the diet, salmon, mackerel, tuna, halibut, and other fatty fish, sardines and anchovies are great as well. Get more of these omega-3 fats every single day.

And I want to say this, if you are not a fish lover or you can't get wild-caught fish in your diet, day, then make sure you're taking a high-quality fish oil supplement or fish roe, which is known as caviar. You can get that as a great supplement as well. But again, making sure you're getting EPA and DHA on a regular basis, or ETA, which is also found in fish roe oil.

Again, fish oil and cod liver oil, also good options here because their ability to reduce inflammation. And that's a big thing that causes asthma, when your bronchial area gets inflamed. Now, I want to talk about a few other foods to consume here. Garlic and onions are high on the list because of their high levels of quercetin. Onions are very, very high in quercetin.

In fact, there's even clinical studies showing that quercetin can help reduce inflammation in the body, specifically histamine reactions. So if you are suffering with some form of allergies or bronchial issue like asthma, garlic Onions and garlic are great.

Cooked are great, but raw, in fact, you can actually take a raw garlic clove, chew it up, and swallow it, and that's a great thing to do as well for reducing inflammation. I want to mention another thing in Chinese medicine. When you look at Chinese medicine, they actually believe foods that are more white in nature tend to really support the bronchial area.

So you notice garlic and onions are typically a white or sort of a lighter yellow color. They would fall into that category. Cauliflower is fantastic, high levels of vitamin C. In fact, they talk about, or if you've noticed this, that cauliflower actually looks like lungs. It actually looks like lung tissue. It's great for the lungs.

And then chicken broth, similar thing, has been used for the immune system and supporting the lungs and colon in Chinese medicine for a long period of time. Next thing here, getting plenty of water in your diet, making sure you're staying hydrated on a regular basis. Is also a great idea. So again, getting plenty of water.

Now, when you're drinking water, making sure that it's very clean water, spring water, reverse osmosis water, or really clean filtered water. You want to stay away from water that's high in chlorine and fluoride because of what that can do in terms of irritating the gut lining and causing— increasing your risk of any type of reaction or sensitivity that you might have.

So again, the water you drink, you want to make sure it's very clean, very pure there as well. A few other things that are great, flaxseeds are fantastic. Now, flaxseeds are high in alpha-linolenic acid, a different type of omega-3 that's found in fish, still highly beneficial. So flaxseeds are great. Also, they contain lignans, they contain certain types of antioxidants, high in minerals.

So again, flaxseed is another great food and then bone broth as I talked about earlier specifically Chicken or turkey broth. Chicken or turkey broth is very high in type 2 collagen. Remember this: most people today are getting way too much muscle meat and not enough protein and amino acids that come from skin, ligaments, and tendons from animals and from their bones.

And these types of amino acids like proline and glycine and hydroxyproline are very therapeutic for the lungs. And think about this, you are what you eat, and specifically when you're eating nutrients that are found in bone broth, those are very supportive for your immune system. So your small intestine, your large intestine, your lungs, bone broth actually helps repair damaged areas.

And so think about this, if you have a damaged area in your body and And you're rebuilding it. Think about if you had a house and half of it was knocked down, you need to start rebuilding it again, you need the right materials. That's what bone broth brings you, the right materials for rebuilding and healing your body. So again, bone broth every single day, especially chicken broth.

Now, here are the big triggers you want to avoid if you have asthma or someone you love has asthma. Number 1, conventional dairy products. Now, conventional dairy, here's the thing, we took this— what could be considered a superfood if you take a raw, organic, fermented goat's milk or sheep's milk or A2 milk, so a good quality dairy product.

And what happens today is we'll take dairy oftentimes from a cow that actually has some genetic makeup issues to where their type of casein is now more inflammatory. And then what we'll do is we'll take that dairy product, oftentimes that cow has been injected with steroids, different types of growth hormones, loads and loads of antibiotics.

They've also been feeding on genetically modified grains. So when you consume dairy products from conventional dairy that have also been pasteurized to where the enzymes have been killed off, there's no probiotics anymore, very difficult to digest, it is one of the worst foods for your body.

In fact, of all the things I'm going to mention, conventional dairy may be the single worst product for somebody to consume. That has asthma. In Chinese medicine as well, conventional milk is known to be very dampening to the body and mucus-forming, which can make it hard to breathe. So again, get completely out of your diet any type of conventional dairy product.

Now, the next thing here would be sugar. Sugar, we know, highly inflammatory. Similar thing, it's going to cause a histamine reaction. It's also going to cause bad microbes to build up within your system. Get conventional sugar completely out of the diet. Replace it with raw local honey or Manuka honey.

In fact, raw local honey may in fact help you naturally build your immune system over time and could overall help fight allergy or asthma potentially in the future as it does allergies. We know that local raw honey contains local microbes that actually can help support you having less reactions to things. Over time.

So again, make raw local honey the natural sweetener that you use instead of sugar. Next thing here, get rid of the processed foods. We know processed foods are high in chemicals, things like pesticides.

You know, when you are— if you're buying a food that is non-organic, if we're talking about produce, pretty much all of it has been sprayed with some sort of herbicide, fungicide, or some sort of chemical. Even for preservation. So again, processed foods are going to be high in chemicals. Also, many of them, when we think about fast foods, they're fried in hydrogenated oils.

Those are going to be inflammatory in nature. Remember this, the name of the game is keeping your body in a state where there's not too much inflammation occurring constantly within the body or over-inflammation. So processed foods, fast foods, get those out of the diet as well.

And what can fall into that similar category sometimes are staying away with foods with additives and preservatives, especially packaged foods. You know, we've got a picture here of a bowl of these brightly covered cereal. And, you know, I've read plenty of studies over the years showing that food colorings, additives, and preservatives can cause sensitivities, especially in children.

We talk about children on the autism spectrum. Absolutely. Autistic spectrum or with ADHD having behavioral issues and reactions when they're exposed to these things, the very same thing can happen with asthma. When you're consuming these things that are not natural, the body reacts to them as they are a chemical, which they are.

And so again, these are things that can absolutely cause asthmatic reactions. So again, getting rid of— the truth here is just eat real food, okay? If it comes in a box, And has more than 5 ingredients, typically it's not natural. So look for foods with short ingredient lists that you understand what the ingredient is. Things like apples and almonds and sea salt, very short ingredients list.

Stay away from the foods with additives and preservatives. Now, here are some supplements you can take specifically that can help asthmatic symptoms. Number 1 is quercetin. Now, I mentioned earlier garlic and that specifically Onions are very high in quercetin. Also citrus fruits like lemons, very high in quercetin. But getting quercetin as a supplement can help you fight asthma.

You can take that as a supplement daily. This is also good not just for asthma, it's also really powerful for allergies and helping fight histamine reactions and inflammation. Next one here is N-acetylcysteine. Now cysteine along with some other amino acids really help support the body's glutathione production, okay? It's a precursor glutathione, can really help support your body in free radicals.

So if your body has a lot of free radicals that are building up, those can be inflammatory, can also trigger an asthmatic response over time. So doing N-acetylcysteine can be powerful, a powerful natural supplement. Another one, we mentioned this earlier.

Wild-caught salmon, wild-caught fish, but also taking an omega-3 supplement like a fish roe supplement, a fish oil supplement, or a cod liver oil supplement, but getting those good omega-3 fats because they reduce inflammation. And then vitamin B6. You know, vitamin B6 has actually been shown to help the arteries, to help circulation, and be actually a dilator of your bronchioles.

And so vitamin B6, what I would recommend here, you can take it straight. B6 supplement or go and find a certified organic vitamin B complex supplement that is whole food-based. Again, when you're out buying vitamins and supplements like a B vitamin or B complex, flip over the bottle and look and make sure there's foods in there, make sure there's probiotics, make sure it's certified organic.

But again, vitamin B6, another great supplement for fighting asthma as well. And I'll mention this here, the other thing I want to mention actually after— I'll mention magnesium here. Magnesium is known as your body's relaxation mineral, okay? So if you have especially smooth muscle in your body, if that becomes constricted, magnesium helps the body relax.

So for adults, typically you want to do anywhere from 500 to 600 milligrams a day for most adults in treating asthma there as well. But magnesium can help the body. Now, there are other some great herbal extracts that are also Very, very good for the lungs and reduce inflammation. I mentioned ginger earlier. Ginger can be fantastic.

Stinging nettles has actually been shown to be very good for asthma and allergies and opening up respiratory pathways. So again, doing herbs, turmeric is another one that's high in curcumin, but doing herbs is also beneficial in this way as well.

And if you have an issue to where you've got a lot of mucus buildup in the body, specifically in the lungs, Doing bitter herbs such as dandelion is also very, very beneficial in that manner as well. So here are some essential oils that work great. Now, we mentioned that bitterness there. You'll see one up here is bergamot.

Bergamot contains d-limonene and it actually comes from the peel of a citrus fruit, of bergamot, and it's very bitter in nature. D-limonene actually has been shown to act as an expectorant and actually clear excess mucus from the lungs. Now, cypress oil is one of the most powerful oils. In fact, of all of the oils from what I've seen, it's the most powerful at improving circulation.

So if somebody is having circulatory issues, and so oftentimes in the past I've worked with patients and had them, if they've sprained an ankle or broken a bone or had an injury to a tissue in an area, we've actually used cypress oil or other oils in the pine or tree family such as fir oil. Work very good with this as well. Cedarwood is pretty good, but cypress, very good for circulation.

So what you're going to do here, and you'll probably mix this with another oil, but you'll take some cypress oil, some coconut oil, mix it together, rub it all over the lungs. And another great thing you can then do is either a hot compress or take a hot shower, steam room, infrared sauna, but doing something to open up those areas with steam can be good as well once you get that oil. Yeah.

They're rubbed all over the chest and upper neck area, can be very beneficial. And one of the things I love to do, you can do a mixture of bergamot, cypress, eucalyptus is also fantastic. Eucalyptus, of all the essential oils, probably has the most profound effect on opening up the airways, okay? You can notice an immediate difference there with eucalyptus, a great oil to use.

And another thing you can do for breathing, you can do a few drops in hot water. Cover your head with a towel, take deep breaths in and out. Eucalyptus is also great to use in a diffuser, taking deep breaths in there as well. And then frankincense oil. Frankincense oil contains many different types of compounds that are anti-inflammatory, which is great there as well.

A few more essential oils here. Lavender is good for calming the body. Lemon oil, similar to bergamot, is very bitter in nature, acts as an expectorant. Peppermint oil can help cool and soothe the system.

And then rosemary essential oil, very similar, it actually contains rosmarinic acid as well as other types of compounds that are similar to eucalyptus in that they really help open up the airways. Rosemary also has been shown to be highly anti-inflammatory, so greatly beneficial as well. So to review here, if you have asthma or someone you love has asthma, You want to follow these steps.

By the way, if you've been enjoying this live training, take a minute right now, do me a favor, punch that share button. There are millions of adults and millions of children especially that are struggling with asthma every single day. They don't know the triggers. They don't know the things that can help heal their body.

So hey, help me spread the message by liking this video as well as sharing this right now as well. So again, More raw fruits and veggies in the diet, they're anti-inflammatory, especially figs, kiwi, pineapple, papaya, wild-caught fish like salmon, garlic and onions because they're high levels of quercetin, more clean water, flaxseeds, and bone broth.

Remember, when we're looking at this here, conventional dairy, get that completely out of the diet. Sugar, remember, replace that with raw local honey ideally or Manuka honey, another good option. Get rid of the processed packaged foods, get rid of the additives and preservatives. We'll touch on these here. Quercetin as a supplement, N-acetylcysteine, omega-3 fats, vitamin B6, and magnesium.

And then finally here, some of the best essential oils, bergamot, cypress, eucalyptus, frankincense. And I would say if you're just looking for a couple to use, my favorites would be probably eucalyptus up here and cypress, 2 of my favorites there for asthma. To do, or eucalyptus and bergamot or lemon would be great as well.

So hey guys, this has been me, Dr. Josh Axe, talking about the top home remedies to overcome asthma symptoms. And hey, if you're not subscribed here to our channel, make sure you subscribe. Myself and Jordan Rubin have a lot more great content coming out on essential oils, home remedies, health news, and a whole lot more. Hey guys, I hope you've enjoyed this video.

We'll be back here with another ancient remedy. Medicine today, tomorrow.