Hey guys I'm Dr. Jason Barker with the Natural Athletes Clinic and today I'm
going to tell you how you can reduce the incidence and the severity of exercise
induced asthma. So most of you know that asthma is a lung disease whereby the
bronchioles are the little tubes that we breathe through become constricted. And
actually a large part of asthma is inflammation too. So you have constricted
and inflamed bronchioles. Now first things first, whenever we're dealing with
asthma, we always look at diet. I've had lots and lots of athletes come in the
clinic over the last 18 years and we used to do a lot of food sensitivity
tests and I kind of stopped doing them on a lot of these people because time after
time, the top culprits that they are sensitive to are dairy foods and wheat.
So if you take dairy out of your diet and/or wheat, I can guarantee you that
you're gonna have a reduced incidence of asthma already and may not get rid of it
totally, but it'll definitely cut things down for you quite a bit.
Dairy is never a good idea for anybody with asthma in general just because a
side effect of eating dairy is that it creates mucus in your body. And
specifically in your respiratory tract. So if you've got asthma your lungs are
already inflamed, you're already making lots of mucus you add dairy on top of
that, you're adding in more mucus and of course it's going to be harder and
harder for your lungs to exchange that oxygen like they're supposed to do. So
cut out the dairy cut out that wheat. Now the second thing to think about with the
foods is eating lots of antioxidant rich foods. So antioxidant rich foods are of
course the very colorful foods. So think carrots, think bell peppers, think berries.
And of course don't forget your green leafies. We want these foods because
they're rich in the antioxidants - vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin C, zinc and selenium.
And remember that by the mnemonic aces. So look for foods that are rich in aces
type antioxidants okay. So supplements...What supplements should you take if you
suffer from asthma? First one is to get lots of magnesium in your diet. I've
talked about magnesium a lot in these videos. In fact, all athletes should
probably be taking magnesium because of the relaxing effects it has on your
muscles throughout your body. Now you also have muscles around your
bronchioles. Very tiny smooth muscles and smooth muscles are the type of muscle
that's around our organs, rather than in the skeletal system. Magnesium is
actually really good at relaxing the smooth muscles in the lung. So if you
have asthma, dose up on magnesium. Make sure you keep it constant in your system
throughout the day. Second supplement to take that's very important is one called
N-Acetylcysteine. N-Acetylcysteine or NAC as it's called, is an amino acid
complex. And it does two really interesting things for your lungs that
will help you breathe better. First one is it actually can thin the mucus. It
breaks up those proteins that are in that mucus, thins it so that your lungs
can get that stuff out of there. You actually have little tiny hairs inside
of your bronchioles and they're always kind of beating to get that mucus and
all the junk and the dust and all the debris that you breathe in, up and out of
your lungs. So if your mucus is thinner, you can get that stuff out of there more
readily. Okay and then the other thing that NAC does is that it creates a very
very powerful antioxidant known as Glutathione. So Glutathione works
throughout our body. But Glutathione is also very specific
for a healthy lung function. In fact in the clinic, we can have asthmatics inhale
a nebulizer, an aerosol version of Glutathione, and it will get rid of
asthma attacks very very quickly. So bump up your NAC in your diet, and you'll have
more Glutathione and less airway reactivity because of it. Okay third and
final supplement you want to be on is omega-3 fatty acids or fish oils. Again I
think everybody should probably be on these. And again, because they are so
powerful reducing inflammation in your body. And again, lungs are very easily
inflamed part of your body. So if you're suffering from an inflammation anywhere
it may wind up in your lung. And of course asthmatics, we're always dealing
with the inflammation whether you're wheezing or not. That inflammatory
process is going on in there. So get as much omega-3 as you can in your diet. Of
course from cold water fish, some nuts and some seeds and then supplementing
with a fish oil is always a good idea to top those levels off. Good studies
with reducing asthma in endurance athletes using omega-3 fatty acids. And
in fact endurance athletes like swimmers are more susceptible to asthma because
we think of the chlorine byproducts are irritating to the lungs. And then
cross-country skiers of course because of all the cold air that they're
breathing in and out increases that sensitivity and inflammation in their
lungs. And by the way, even if you don't have asthma, but you go out on those cold
days and you wind up with that smokers cough after being out in the cold. Use
some NAC and again, it will thin that mucus and decrease that
inflammation you've got going on. Ok guys I hope this helps. Try all of these tips -
Make sure you do the diet. Make sure you look for the Aces antioxidants, magnesium
NAC and fish oil and I bet we'll get rid of your asthma. Or, will greatly decrease
the incidents and the severity of your asthma. Give us a like if you enjoyed the
video. Please share it with any of your buddies that have asthma. And of course
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