PREVENTION OF ASTHMA

Prevention

Consideration should be given to factors which may trigger attacks of asthma. Cigarette smoke should be avoided. Exposure to animals that cause symptoms (often household pets) should be minimised or avoided, and your child may be better with non-allergenic bedding if they are affected by goosedown or feathers. In some selected cases, carpets may need to be removed to minimise dust and decrease exposure to the common house dust mite. In addition you could try avoid pollen! :)

These measures should be balanced with the need to minimise drastic changes to your child’s and your family’s living conditions. Change in environment of any significant degree may not be indicated in children with mild or minimal symptoms.

Some of these precipitating factors can and should be avoided. However, the mainstay of management of asthma is pharmacological – the appropriate use of medications to prevent and treat symptoms.

Apples prevent asthma

A new study tracked the diets of nearly 2,000 pregnant women and checked the lung health of 1,253 of their children at age five. Among a wide variety of foods eaten and recorded by the pregnant women, only apple consumption showed a consistent protective effect against childhood wheeze and asthma.

Children of mothers who ate more than four apples per week were 37 per cent less likely to have a history of wheezing and 53 per cent less likely to have doctor-confirmed asthma, compared to mothers who ate one or no apples per week while pregnant. The specific association found with apples, and not with the total amount of fruits eaten or with citrus, fruit juice or vegetable consumption, hints at an apple-specific effect, possibly because of its unique flavonoids, which have been shown to have beneficial effects on adult lung function. To maximize apple’s benefits why not think about adding apples to your daily juice regime.

A few Things that have been tried and failed;

1)Intermittent Inhaled Corticosteroids in Infants with Episodic Wheezing

2)Although no clinical trial has tested the use of antibiotics in the first weeks of life as a strategy for the prevention of asthma, there is sufficient evidence from a number of population-based cohort studies to suggest that various antibiotic therapies administered early in life do not reduce the risk of asthma.

references;

http://www.detoxstop.com/children/apples-prevent-asthma/

http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/asthma_treatment.html

http://content.nejm.org.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/cgi/content/short/354/19/1998

http://content.nejm.org.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/cgi/content/full/357/15/1545