Opening up the airways and loosening asthma's grip with Black Seed Oil
Asthma leaves some 15 million
people gasping for breath. For some, it is an annoyance that acts up once in
awhile. But for others it is a life-altering and potentially fatal condition
that affects daily routine. Asthma's incidence has been steadily rising in the
past four decades, more than doubling since 1980. Although the tendency to
develop asthma can be genetic, both environmental and dietary factors are major
causes for the increase. For example, the incidence of asthma, especially in
children, is much greater in urban areas where polluted air is more prevalent.
Even more striking is that asthma is a new disease. Like coronary artery
disease, asthma was virtually unknown 100 years ago, and is still rare in many
developing countries. 1 Despite popular belief, asthma is best described as a chronic
inflammatory condition rather than a respiratory disease. In fact, asthma's
origins have more in common with arthritis than they do with emphysema or
tuberculosis. Asthma is simply a chronic inflammation of the airway rather than
the joints. People with asthma have inflamed, hyperreactive airways that
produce excessive bronchial mucus. After repeated asthma attacks, the airway
lining becomes scarred, and immune cells, which cause or exacerbate inflammation,
proliferate there. 2
Asthma eventually damages the airway permanently, making it more prone to
inflammation and less functional overall.
Chronic inflammatory conditions
are characterized by an excess of free radicals, which irritate and inflame
tissues and cause excessive immune reactions. 3 Immune responses unavoidably produce free radicals because, in
limited amounts, they are a valuable part of the defense mechanism.
Antioxidants help reduce most inflammatory reactions including asthma,
allergies, sports injuries and post-operative inflammation by quenching free radicals.
Think of antioxidants as chemical sacrificial lambs--they preferentially react with
free radicals so the free radicals don't react with the body's tissues instead.
triggers--smoke, dust, allergens--set the inflammatory process in motion.
People with low thresholds for these triggers can have frequent severe asthma attacks.
Therefore, identifying inflammatory triggers and using natural products that
raise thresholds reduce the frequency and severity of asthma attacks.
The Link Between Asthma and Allergies
Almost everyone with asthma has allergies, although they may not
be fully diagnosed. Allergic reactions are the most common triggers for asthma
attacks. Asthma and allergy attacks can be triggered by histamine, produced
when special connective tissue cells called mast cells are activated by
circulating immune system cells. These mobilize when infection, toxins or
irritants are present.
Examples of asthma-causing allergens or irritants are air
pollution, tobacco smoke, pet dander, dust mites, pollen, perfumes, cleaning
products, kerosene heaters, mold and mildew. Consequently, bakers, manicurists,
hairdressers and painters as well as those who work in the construction, auto
body, food-processing and petroleum-refinery industries often develop
occupational asthma from breathing chemical and food vapors,flour and dust.
Food allergies can play a major role as well. Asthmatics are often
allergic to common foods such as citrus fruits, dairy products, eggs, soy,
wheat and yeasts. Many asthmatics are sensitive to food additives and
preservatives such as benzoates, sulfites, benzaldehyde and artificial colors
(especially tartrazine found in FD&C Yellow No. 5), and so should choose
natural, unprocessed foods and products.
There are two types of food allergies, making diagnosis difficult.
The traditional type, called immediate onset, is characterized by reactions
that develop minutes after ingesting only a tiny amount of the allergenic food.
Reactions are predictable and typically involve the airway, gastrointestinal
tract and skin. Examples are bronchiospasms, vomiting and/or hives from eating
shellfish or nuts. Immediate-onset allergies are usually caused by one to three
foods and occur in less than 5 percent of the population, although 10 percent
of asthmatics have them. 6
Far more common, but harder to diagnose, are delayed-onset food allergies.
These develop after 2 to 48 hours and are dependent on the amount and
preparation of food eaten. Delayed-onset food allergies cause various responses
from asthma to ulcers, and aren't always predictable or easily linked to the
offending food. As few as three or as many as 20 foods may be involved.
Delayed-onset food allergies can have cross reactions, especially among grains
For example, if someone is allergic to kidney beans, then eating black-eyed
peas and pinto beans instead is no solution and may eventually cause a similar
Identifying and avoiding the dietary and environmental factors
that trigger asthma are essential parts of a natural treatment plan. Unfortunately,
people can't always avoid everything that might bother them, so it is equally
important to implement an aggressive nutritional supplement plan designed to
raise trigger thresholds.
Asthma is exacerbated by certain nutrient deficiencies. These
deficiencies stem from a poor,
unsupplemented diet coupled with nutrient depletion from the stress associated
with asthma and allergy attacks. Furthermore, undiagnosed food allergies, some
asthma medications and candidiasis can irritate the gastrointestinal system,
which reduces nutrient absorption.
Asthma is amenable to natural treatments. Asthmatics using
medication should not discontinue them abruptly; instead they should work closely
with a health care provider to design a plan best suited to the severity of
their illness, and decrease medication doses under supervised care.
asthma can be life-threatening, asthmatics should follow these
Use hypoallergenic supplements.
Avoid magnesium or vitamin C in
excess of 3 g per day if kidney disease or dysfunction is present.
Avoid fish, fish oil or
shark-liver oil if fish allergies are suspected.
Be cautious when supplementing
medicinal herbs if fruits, vegetables, condiments, culinary herbs and
spices or flower pollens trigger allergic reactions.
one product at a time, and take one capsule daily, to slowly build up the
Black Seed and Asthma Relief
A Breath of Fresh Herbs
Herbal products have the potential to provide relief from many
chronic inflammatory condition. Herbs can relieve inflammation because they
contain antioxidant phytochemicals. Some antioxidant phytochemicals, such as
the curcuminoids from standardized turmeric extract, prevent the formation of
free radicals as well as quenchthem after they are formed.
Today's oral asthma medications inhibit lipoxygenase, meaning they
interfere with the action of leukotrienes (LTs),
which are biochemicals that sustain inflammatory
conditions once they are triggered, and thus play a role in asthmatic bronchial
inflammation. Some LTs are also strong stimulators of bronchial constriction,
and mucus production--they are 1,000 times more potent than histamine. This
means just a small amount of LTs can narrow the breathing passages and
precipitate an asthma attack. Many medicinal plants contain phytochemicals that
inhibit lipoxygenase without the dangerous side effects of pharmaceutical
prescriptions. The commonly used inhalers are beta-adrenergic stimulators that
relax bronchial smooth muscle, thereby mechanically opening the airway. Designed
for emergency use only, they do nothing to reduce underlying inflammation. Overuse
of inhalers--more than two canisters weekly--increases the risk of death from asthma
by increasing side effects, which include desensitization to the medication, increased
heart rate and blood pressure, headaches and blurred vision. Steroids used for asthma
can cause or exacerbate diabetes, glaucoma, obesity, liver damage, abnormal cholesterol
levels and heart disease.
The following herbal treatments for asthma have been shown to
significantly inhibit lipoxygenase activity. People all over the world have
used Black Seed (Nigella sativa) as a primary treatment for asthma and
allergies. A traditional extract blend taken with honey includes black seed (Nigella sativa), chamomile (Matricaria recutita),
cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia), cloves (Syzygium aromaticum),
officinalis), sage (Salvia
officinalis), spearmint (Mentha spicata), thyme (Thymus vulgaris) and other herbs. Black seed,rosemary and thyme are known to
inhibit the contraction of tracheal smooth muscle that is stimulated by
histamine an acetylcholine. Chamomile, cinnamon, cloves, rosemary, spearmint
and thyme contain many antioxidants. Black cumin seed oil, and the black cumin
phytochemicals nigellone and thymoquinone, strongly inhibit lipoxygenase and
prevent the release of histamine from mast cells. The herbs in this blend also
contain the lipoxygenase inhibitors caffeic acid, catechin, chlorogenic acid,
hydroxycinnamic acids, kaemp-ferol, procyanidin-D2, quercetin and cinnamic
acid, all of potential benefitto asthmatics.
Asthma is yet another chronic disease related to Western diets and
lifestyles. While people may have a genetic tendency to develop asthma, this
tendency was not expressed until after the Industrial Revolution. In other
words, it seems we've brought asthma upon ourselves, and we can't rely on drugs
to undo the damage. A clean environment, an unprocessed whole-foods diet,
nutritional supplementation and herbal medicine arelogical ways to reverse the
increasing incidence of asthma.