January 14, 2014
When you have asthma, your lungs get all the attention. Your airways get tight so you cough and can’t get enough air in. Most people reach for their rescue inhaler. It can feel like a lifeline. And many times it is.
An inhaler temporarily stops you from having a wheezing fit. But it won’t fix chronic asthma or reactive airway disease. It treats the symptoms of an asthma attack, not the cause. And using one over time puts you at risk for bone loss, impaired memory, adrenal disorders, and gastrointestinal issues.1
Believe it or not, if you want to permanently relieve your asthma, you have to stop thinking about your lungs. You have to turn your attention to an unlikely place.
The latest research shows that the road to controlling asthma begins in your stomach, not in your lungs.
This dietary substance will have you saying goodbye to your inhaler for good.
Fiber is critical to your health and lung function. It helps you absorb the nutrition you need from food and gets rid of the waste you don’t. And the more of it you eat, the lower your risk of stroke.
It’s also the missing link in fighting asthma. A Swiss study showed fiber creates an environment in your gut that reduces asthma-producing inflammation in your lungs.
A diet high in soluble fiber changes the composition of gut and lung microbiota in mice. Good bacteria need fiber to thrive. And when they have enough, they produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). The more fiber you ingest, the more SCFAs these bugs produce for you.2
These SCFAs protect your lungs against allergic inflammation and irritation. This is why the low fiber group’s asthma symptoms got worse. Without enough fiber, they became more vulnerable to asthma.
Allergic asthma is on the rise. Fiber consumption is falling.3 The math is pretty easy. So what’s the best way to get more soluble fiber?
Fruits and vegetables are your best bet. Forget about grains. They cause the inflammation the SCFAs work so hard to fight. And they’re not even the best source of fiber to begin with. Raspberries, blackberries, artichokes, and peas all have more fiber than grains.
Stop relying on your inhaler to fix your asthma. Sure, you’ll get some relief in the short-term if you have an attack. But your asthma will just keep coming back.
Add soluble fiber to your diet to prevent the inflammation and irritation that cause asthma attacks in the first place.
Do you have a favorite source of fiber that we didn’t mention? Let us know in the comments!
References:
1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11588541
2 http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nm.3444.html
3 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25592214
1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11588541
2 http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nm.3444.html
3 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25592214
