Archive for September, 2008

A chronic lung disease which makes breathing difficult and often frightening, asthma can be fatal condition if left untreated.

Did you know that taking medications which are generally prescribed for asthma actually result in acid reflux? However, the good news is that if you follow a healthy diet and take regular exercise along with preventative treatment, you can certainly reduce the problems associated with powerful asthma medications.

If you are really concerned, try these natural remedies with proper medical advice.

1. Apple juice!

Studies have shown that consuming apple juice twice a day significantly affects the respiratory system and helps to relax the system.

This can greatly help you to reduce the frequent asthma attacks. The phytochemicals present in apple reduce the inflammation of trachea and the flavonoids present in phytochemicals have many health benefits.

2. Cranberries!

Cranberries are natural vasodilators, which imply that they open up congested bronchial tubes to restore normal breathing. Prepare puree of cranberries by boiling them in water. Whenever you have an asthma attack, mix 2 tablespoons of the pulp in a cup of warm water. Slowly sip the liquid while it is still warm.

3. Vitamin B12!

Swimming in outdoor chlorinated pools appears to increase the odds a child will develop asthma, Belgian researchers said.

Asthma, which affects more than 300 million people worldwide, is the most common pediatric chronic illness. Symptoms include wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing and chest tightness.

Other studies have linked chlorine and asthma but the new findings cast doubt on the idea outdoor pools are safer than indoor ones where chlorine vapors remains trapped inside an enclosed space.

“The more you swim, the higher the risk,” said Alfred Bernard, a toxicologist at Catholic University of Louvain in Brussels, who led the study. “What is new in this study is that we looked at outdoor pools for the first time.”

Bernard and colleagues showed that outdoor pools are just as or more risky than indoor ones because harmful vapors remain at the pool surface and do not drift away.

And because children tend to spend more time in pools they are more likely to swallow chlorinated water or ingest vapors containing chemicals that attack the cellular barriers protecting the lung from allergens, Bernard said.

If you have respiratory allergies, you have an environmental problem: There’s something in the air that makes you sniffle, sneeze, stuff up or wheeze.

And growing evidence suggests your problem may be linked with the biggest environmental problem of all: global climate change.

That may be especially true for pollen sufferers. Tree, grasses and weeds (including the ragweed [ragweed allergy] tormenting many people right now) churn out more pollen over more weeks when temperatures and carbon dioxide levels rise, says Richard Weber, a Denver allergist.

Weber and colleagues from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology suggest people with allergies and asthma have a special stake in slowing climate change: Drive less and use energy-efficient appliances and lighting, they write, and you just might help yourself and the planet.

‘Environment Matters’

Sadly, though, screwing in a few compact fluorescent bulbs will do nothing to clear up the stuffy nose you have today. For that, many sufferers turn to drugs.

But there’s another way to reduce symptoms. Once again, it’s all about changing the environment — in your home.

Read more at ABCNews

While autumn is a beautiful, temperate time of the year when trees turn to a reddish brown and start to shed their leaves, it can be an irritating time for the sufferers of seasonal allergies.

For these unfortunates, the season means watery eyes, itchy skin, runny nose, itchy nose, sneezing, coughing and congestion rather than poetic views of nature’s glory.

The culprits? Pollen, mould, dust and other airborne molecules (allergens) that float around in the air cause the immune system to over-react and produce allergies.

Tips to avoid autumn allergies

While autumn is an irritating time for allergy sufferers, the good news is that you do not have to feel miserable all the time. Follow the following tips to keep allergies at bay:

1. Stay protected: The best protection is to limit your exposure to allergens, such as ragweed allergy, mould and dust mites. Make sure you close doors and windows of the car and house and set up an air conditioner instead.

Because the microscopic airborne allergens can stick to clothes, take a shower regularly and change the clothes immediately after your outdoor activities. It is also a good idea to avoid drying clothes outside. If possible, avoid outdoor activities and stay indoors in the early morning between 5am and 10am, when allergen levels in the air are highest.

Infants who have been given the common pain reliever paracetamol may have a higher risk of developing asthma and eczema by the time they are 6 or 7, a large study covering children in 31 countries has found.

The findings were published in the journal Lancet together with two other studies, which found that runny noses and wheezing early on in life may be strong predictors of asthma.

In the first study, researchers pored through data provided by parents of more than 205,000 children and found paracetamol use in the first year of life was associated with a 46 percent higher risk of asthma by the time the children were 6 or 7 compared to those never exposed to the drug.

Known as acetaminophen in the United States, where it is widely sold under the brand Tylenol, it is used to relieve fever, minor aches and pain, and is used in a liquid suspension for children.

Medium use of paracetamol in the past 12 months increased asthma risk by 61 percent, while high dosages of once a month or more in the past year raised the risk by over three times.

Among children who have a parent with allergies or asthma, delivery cesarean section appears to increase the odds that they will develop allergic rhinitis and atopy — but not asthma — US researchers report.

The investigators note that to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to look at the “relationship between birth by cesarean section and atopy and allergic diseases at school age among children at high risk for atopy,” Dr. Juan C. Celedon, from Harvard Medical School in Boston.

The study involved 432 children who were followed from birth to 9 years of age. One or both parents had a history of allergies or asthma.

Physician-diagnosed asthma and allergic rhinitis in the children was assessed using caregiver interviews conducted at least twice a year. Allergy skin testing was performed in 271 children at an average age of 7.4 years.

Children born by cesarean section were 2.1-times more likely to develop atopy than their peers born by vaginal delivery, the report indicates.

Similarly, the authors found that cesarean section increased the risk of allergic rhinitis 1.8-fold. As noted, however, cesarean section did not increase the risk of asthma or wheeze.

Researchers at National Jewish Health have shown that glucocorticoids, the primary controller medication for asthma, are 40 percent less effective in overweight and obese asthma patients than in those of normal weight.

The findings identify a potential mechanism involved in the resistance, which suggests therapeutic targets for future medications.

“This study identifies what could be a significant issue for the 20 million Americans with asthma; specifically, the main controller medication might be less effective if you are overweight or obese,” said Dr. Sutherland.

“These findings should spur doctors to carefully evaluate response to treatment in overweight and obese asthmatics and consider optimizing therapeutic regimens as indicated. We also hope they will spur additional research into the treatment of obese patients with asthma.”

Nearly half of the people who suffer from asthma are classified as either overweight or obese, with a body mass index (BMI) of greater than 25.

An increasing body of literature suggests a connection between obesity and asthma. Obese people often have higher levels of inflammatory molecules in their bodies; asthma is characterized in part by inflamed airways.

Studies suggest that being overweight or obese increases asthma incidence and makes asthma more difficult to control.

Do you feel that you have caffeine allergy? Do you know how to identify caffeine allergy? Warning signs of caffeine allergy can range from a simple rash to life threatening seizures.

The severity of allergic reactions mainly depends on your extent of sensitivity.

If you really feel that you are allergic to caffeine sources and its products, then these warning signs of caffeine allergy can hopefully help you to know whether you really have caffeine allergy or not.

Some of the most common warning signs of caffeine allergy mainly includes:

Tingling sensation in your mouth!

This is the foremost symptom that you can experience if you have caffeine allergy. Whenever you have such kind of tingling sensation, immediately after tasting any source of caffeine, you may feel that you are getting a canker or cold sore.

But, actually it can be due to caffeine allergy. That‘s why you might be experiencing such kind of tingling sensation in your mouth.

If you fail to identify it in the beginning stage, gradually these tingling spots turn into open lesions in your mouth. If you are extremely sensitive to caffeine, these open sores gradually spread and becomes large lesions in your mouth.

Ragweed season is at its peak, bringing bad news for the more than 50 million Americans who suffer from allergies to the plant.

Three out of four Americans who have allergies are allergic to ragweed.

A single plant produces hundreds of millions of pollen grains that cause hay fever. Due to the grains’ light weight, they can travel up to 400 miles with the breeze.

Dr. Clifford Bassett, of Allergy and Asthma Care of New York, says ragweed allergies affect more and more people; he says that over the past three years, he has seen about 50 percent more new allergy patients.

“We’re really looking at an epidemic of new patients, children and adults alike, with allergies, as well as asthma coming in for the very first time,” Bassett told.

The planet is getting warmer, which is making weeds grow faster, causing them to produce more pollen. The increased pollen production has made allergies and asthma worse across the country.

Researchers from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology say that they have decisively linked climate change to “longer pollen seasons, greater exposure and increased disease burden for late summer weeds, such as ragweed.”

Are you worried with your asthma problem? Living with asthma can become most inconvenient for you.

This is because of the reason that asthma can happen at any time.

It can potentially hinder your breathing process and creates worst situation for you.

So, it is very essential for you to control your asthma triggers as possible as you can to live a healthy lifestyle.

When your asthma medication doesn’t work effectively, it is better for you to go natural.

You can also consider these natural remedies along with your regular medications to get much better relief. Some of the most effective natural remedies for asthma can mainly include:

1. Honey: This is one of the most effective natural remedies for asthma. It is believed that if a jug of honey is held under your nose and the air that comes in contact with the honey is inhaled, you can feel your breathing much better than before. Usually, this effect lasts only for an hour. If you want much better relief you can have honey with milk or water.