Asthma

Increases In Prevalence and Death

How Does Flax Seed Oil Help Asthma Sufferers

 Doctor's Recommendation

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Asthma

Asthma is a chronic illness involving the respiratory system in which the airway occasionally constricts, becomes inflamed, and is lined with excessive amounts of mucus, often in response to one or more triggers. These episodes may be triggered by such things as exposure to an environmental stimulant (or allergen) such as cold air, warm air, moist air, exercise or exertion, or emotional stress. In children, the most common triggers are viral illnesses such as those that cause the common cold.  This airway narrowing causes symptoms such as wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing. The airway constriction responds to bronchodilators.  Between episodes, most patients feel well but can have mild symptoms and they may remain short of breath after exercise for longer periods of time than the unaffected individual. The symptoms of asthma, which can range from mild to life threatening, can usually be controlled with a combination of drugs and environmental changes.  Public attention in the developed world has recently focused on asthma because of its rapidly increasing prevalence, affecting up to one in four urban children.  More information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asthma.

Increases In Prevalence and Death

Asthma is the leading chronic illness of childhood.  It is responsible for substantial infant morbidity and has a significant impact on use of health resources, say researchers from the Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, and the Center for Health Studies, Group Health Cooperative, Seattle.  Other researchers note that asthma prevalence in children has increased 58% since 1980 and that mortality has increased by 78%.  Interestingly, the burden of the disease is most acute in urban areas and among racial and ethnic minority populations; hospitalization and morbidity rates for non-whites are more than twice those for whites.  Although studies illustrating causal effects between outdoor air pollution and asthma prevalence are scant, air pollution appears to significantly worsen symptoms among children already with the disease.  Decreased lung function, bronchial inflammation and other asthma symptoms such as recurrent wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness and couphing have been associated with exposure to particulates, ozone, smoke, sulfur dioxide, and nitric oxide.

How Does Flax Seed Oil Help Asthma Sufferers

Research in the past decade has revealed the importance of inflammation of the airways in asthma and successful clinical therapies aimed at reducing chronic inflammation.  Asthma is associated with the local tissue production of those pro-inflammatory fatty acid metabolites, leukotrienes, which are secreted by the immune system's white blood cells (leukocytes) as a reaction to common environmental allergens and pollutants including house dust mites, animal dander, cockroaches, fungal spores, pollens, and industrial airborne contaminants.

Ordinarily, white blood cells defend the body against infecting organisms and foreign agents, both in the tissues and in the bloodstream itself.  But in persons with asthma, the white blood cells tend to produce excess amounts of inflammatory leukotrienes.

One way to counter the body's excess production of undesirable forms of leukotrienes is to enhance intake of omega 3 fatty acids such as those found in flax seed oil.  Flax seed oil, which comes from the flax plant, contains the hightest natural source of omega 3 fatty acids.  The omega 3 fatty acids cause cells to produce more non-inflammatory leukotrienes and fewer of those that are prone to increase inflammatory processes.  This shift from pro-inflammatory to non-inflammatory leukotrienes is directly related to relief from asthma symptoms, notes a researcher reporting in the American Journal of Cllinical Nutrition.

Some types of wild fish - such as mackeral and wild Pacific salmon - are a rich source of omega 3 fatty acids.  It has been shown that children who eat fish more than once a week have only one-third the risk of asthma compared with children who do not eat fish regularly.  However, it is often difficult to convince children to consume those wild fish dishes highest in omega 3 fatty acids or take fish oil capsules, including even those that are flavored.

Flax seed oil can be blended into tasty smoothies, yogourt and spread on bread.  What's more, flax seed oil also has some pretty good evidence that supports its use in cases of asthma.  Recent studies have shown that alpha-linolenic acid, the omega 3 fatty acid found in flax seed, has a profound ability to inhibit the generation of pro-inflammatory leukotrienes by white blood cells in persons with asthma.  Japanese researchers reporting in the International Archives of Allergy and Immunology compared the clinical features of patients with asthma who had received a supplemental oil rich in alpha-linolenic acid compared to a group not receiving the nutrient.  The scientists found that after only two weeks of supplementation, generation of pro-inflammatory leukotrienes by white blood cells (known as leukocytes) decreased significantly in the intervention group.  In contrast, the production of pro-inflammatory leukotrienes "increased significantly" among persons not receiving the alpha-lenolenic acid supplement.  Even more intriguing, after only four weeks of dietary supplementation, lung function among the intervention group was significantly enhanced by the addition of an alpha-lenolenic acid diet.  Furthermore, blood levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and triglcerides were significantly decreased by dietary supplementation with the alpha-linolenic acid-rich oil.  The researchers concluded that dietary supplementation of alpha-linolenic acid with asthma suppresses the generation of leukotrienes and can have many beneficial therapeutic effects among asthma patients.

In another study conducted by the same scientific team, the effects of alpha-linolenic acid on bronchial asthma were compared with the effects of corn oil for lung function and generation of leukotrienes.  (Corn oil, of course, is commonly consumed vegetable oil that just happens to stimulate the production of pro-inflammatory fatty acids.)  In this study, 14 persons with asthma were divided randomly into two equal groups:  one consumed alpha-lenolenic acid and the other corn oil for four weeks.  The generation of pro-inflammatory leukotrienes tended to increase in persons receiving the corn oil and decrease among persons receiving the alpha-lenolenic acid.  These regults suggest that alpha-lenolenic acid supplementation " is useful for the treatment of asthma in terms of suppression of (pro-inflammatory leukotriene) generation by leucocytes, and improvement of pulmonary function."

Doctor's Recommendation

Have your child drink lots of pure water to optimally hydrate respiratory membranes.  This is particularly important in exercise-induced asthma. 

Supplementing the asthmatic child's diet with one to two tablespoons of flax seed oil daily can help to provide the foundation for success.  It's easy to put flax seed oil into your child's diet.  Simply mix with yogurt or in a daily smoothie.