Asthma affects close to 50 million people worldwide, 20 million Americans, mostly children.
It is a particularly scary condition as it resembles suffocation from within.
Indeed, several thousand persons die from asthma attacks each year.
Yet the primary cause of asthma is nothing more than lack of water, or dehydration.
What causes asthma?
Dr. Batmanghelidj offered a convincing explanation of the role of dehydration in asthma.
Essentially it involves the neurotransmitter, histamine. Histamine is involved in many conditions that come from dehydration.
Briefly, histamine is a vital neurotransmitter that helps manage water in the body and thirst. It’s an extremely important element that assures we do not dehydrate to the point of placing vital organs in mortal danger.
When we start to dehydrate, histamine production increases leading to conservation of water in our bodies. Especially conservation of water that evaporates during breathing.
This is vital as our lungs must remain moist to work properly. Excess histamine makes it difficult to breath, a defense against losing more water. However, this impediment to breathing triggers what we know as an asthma attack
Histamine also stimulate mucous production to help seal in moisture but that too leads to increased breathing difficulties.
These self protective actions of histamine solve one problem (dehydration) but result in another problem (asthma).
Natural cure for asthma
Asthma has the most natural cure imaginable: water.
While immediate water increase may not produce a silver bullet cure, it will set the stage for normalizing asthma attacks & symptoms. As you hydrate, you should see long term benefits for your condition.
Here are some important guidelines
*Cut back on caffeine & alcohol, or stop entirely if possible.
*Start drinking water on an empty stomach, ½ hour before meals, 2 hours after meals.
*As you increase water intake, start adding ¼ tsp sea salt to water. Cut back on salty foods & table salt to compensate for the sea salt. Salt is vital for asthmatics & helps retain water in a healthful way.
Work up to ½ your body weight in ounces of water per day. Weigh 150 pounds? Drink 75 ounces of water.
Do not be discouraged if symptoms don’t subside immediately. It might take days or weeks for your body to properly absorb & use the extra water.