Treatment of asthma in children. How to manage without medicines?

The article contains three main parts:

1. First, let us analyze when, how much of, and to what category of pediatric patients the treatment of bronchial asthma and obstructive bronchitis by conventional medicine with medications is recommended.
2. Then, in a layman’s terms, we’ll answer your questions related to medicated treatment of asthma and bronchitis in children. Here we are using a minimum of medical terminology for the parents without a medical background so they could catch the main idea behind the treatment.
   For more information on treatment of asthma, see the article “Treatment of Asthma and Obstructive Bronchitis”.
3. Summarizing the results we will once again emphasize what the treatment of asthma should be.

So, let us discuss the “official” course of treatment of bronchial asthma and obstructive bronchitis by the, so-called, conventional medicine first. It includes the anti-inflammatory medications, bronchodilators, mucolytics (expectorants), steroids, and in some cases immunomodulators.

The use of these medications does not eliminate the cause of the disease, but rather, temporarily restores (to some degree) the function of the lungs, improves the gas exchange and reduces shortness of breath. But at what cost?

When a child gets acutely sick showing the symptoms such as severe shortness of breath the use of the medications is justified. There might be no time to look for a physician.

However, when the parents begin to console themselves with the thought that the child would get eventually over it as he/she grows older, that everybody with a similar problem uses the medications safely, it is a dramatic mistake.

Medications are good only to buy the time needed to search for a true cure.

All drugs (medications) are toxic, poisonous, as each time we consume them we damage our bodies. In the “Directions for Use” the harm is delicately termed as “side effects”. No matter how knowledgeable a doctor might be a harm from medications is always there. Our organisms will suffer to various extends each time we consume medications.

With a prolonged use of medications our children would stop growing, disruption of the formation of their internal organs will start occurring.

Some parents allow their children to use the medications for years waiting for a cure. With time, however, the disease would progress so far that a cure would become basically impossible.

Let us examine a few letters from the parents who have tried to treat their children with medications for chronic pulmonary diseases (some materials used are from htt://www.consmed.ru).

Let’s start with this letter.

Nadezhda, Krasnoarmeysk

My child is year and 8 months old. He’s been hospitalized four times. The first two times with pneumonia, the third and the fourth with bronchitis. All the incidents were accompanied by severe sense of suffocation, which was relieved by prescribed inhalation of Berodual and antibiotics. All begins with a running nose, after which wheezing and shortness of breath ensue. We’ve stopped socializing with others, spend outdoors 40-50 min but each time after a walk I’d check whether his hands and feet are overly cold. There is no family history; no pets at home. What is the cause of it and what could be done?

Our comment:

What happened was a result of a “slip-up” in the immunity, which has affected the pulmonary (lung) system of the child causing its inflammation. Therefore, some parts of the lungs turned unable to participate in breathing process, that is have lost their function. The gas exchange became impaired, the organs stopped getting enough oxygen. The disease is characterized by pronounced signs of inflammation of the airways resulting in less oxygen being able to get in (hypoxia).

Usually the treatment in this situation is symptomatic, that is, elimination of the symptoms but not their cause. Prescribed are anti-inflammatory drugs and antibiotics.

Let’s try to understand why such treatment is destructive rather than constructive. The fact is that the microbes themselves are not the primary cause but rather the consequences of the inflammation, therefore, the antibiotics would only treat the advance of the inflammation due to the presence of the microbes, and would not eliminate the primary cause of the disease.

Anna, Electrostal city

My child, a girl of 3.5 years suffers from the attacks of suffocation and shortness of breath for more than two years. The symptoms start with some “light” acute respiratory infection (an ARI). For example, we would go to a doctor with a sore throat, but later in the night she starts having difficulty breathing. So we’d have to call the ambulance, meanwhile I give her a hot tub and Berodual via nebulizer, which had been prescribed by the doctor (however, after the last time it was used there was heavy breathlessness of unknown origin), mucolytics and antibiotics (until the girl recovers we have to often change 2-3 antibiotics and now even more). At the hospital she is diagnosed with either laryngitis or laryngotracheit is if there is no wheezing or with an obstructive bronchitis, if there are. Sometimes the diagnosis differ altogether but breathlessness and thick mucus secretions after taking the medications wouldn’t go away. What would you recommend? Do we have a chance?

Our comment:

The conventional treatment of the diseases of the lungs might provoke bronchial obstruction as a result of use of the mucolytics. Those medications are of chemical, mineral or plantar origin that thin excessive mucus (phlegm) in the lungs that expel it up the airways. It could be compared, for example, to the cleansing of the skin off a crust. Just like the crust on the skin the phlegm in the lungs are signs of “something wrong”. However, they are merely “by-products” of an impaired immune response. Thus, the phlegm will be re-appearing until the immune system is put in order. Until then the removal of the phlegm alone carries neither efficiency nor purpose. This procedure would not eradicate the cause of the disease.

Dmitry, 31, Volgograd

My son is a 7-year old. For more than two years he’s been having periodical (2-3 times a year) flare-ups of bronchitis. At first we used to avoid the antibiotics. The form is from a light one to severely obstructive. He has the history of allergies. The last year there was noted phlegm of white-to-yellowish color; the nasal mucus discharge would start as clear but then would turn into pus; there is reddening of the throat, without enlargement of the lymphatic nodes. The body temperature ranges from 37 to 38C but the last few times there were no signs of increased temperature at all. On the 2nd and 3rd day there was cough and on the 4th and 5th day there were some foreign sounds in the lungs (sopping-like); was diagnosed with an acute respiratory infection (an ARI) and obstructive bronchitis; was treated in-patient with an x-ray and antibiotics. General dynamics of the disease is: starts with an ARI or with something with the bronchi. Could it be under-treated consequences of an ARI? Could phlegm or mucus build-up lead to an infection? If there is an infection, could it remain inactive till a more favorable period? How to achieve a complete cure? Everybody says that the child will “overgrow” it but the general worsening is quite evident. We don’t want the condition to turn chronic. We really need an advice of a knowledgeable practitioner…

Our comment:

Yes, in such cases, the phlegm is accumulating continuously. It is a reaction of the body associated with the weakness of the immune defense of the pulmonary epithelium.

But congestive phlegm is a suitable medium for microbial growth. Under certain conditions, they do cause inflammation.

Snezana, Ulyanovsk

My son is 6 year old, attending daycare since 2008. Within one year he suffered pneumonia, three cases of bronchitis, often had some acute respiratory infections, even constipation. Recently a jogging ended up in continues cough and wheezing (before that he had had those symptoms when he was two but they haven’t come back until now). He was taking Erespal and got better. Now his condition is stable, no cough or difficulty breathing; presently is under observation at the allergology department; was diagnosed with bronchial asthma, atopic and adenoids, an allergy to rabbit fur. At home we have a dog, a hamster and aquarium fishes. (Do we need to get rid of them?). Prescribed were injections of histoglobulin (10 every three days); Intal via a spacer for three months reducing the dose gradually, and BIOPAROX, IRS (an immunostimulatory agent), Derimet, and Bronhomunal to treat adenoids, for three months. Is it not too many medications, at once? May be enough of injections and medications? Is INTAL so necessary (what if addiction will result)? We were told by a pediatrician that Bronhomunal is not necessary if we’re using INTAL. During an asthma attack, we use Berodual via a nebulizer.

Our comment:

Another mechanism of protection of the lungs with reduced immunity is bronchospasms. The starting point is the detection of inconsistencies between the protective resources and the invasions from the outside. When immunity is strong, then bronchospasm occurs only in respond to very strong poisons (eg, ammonia fumes, chemical agents), when the immunity is impaired, the reaction could occur even to a speck of dust, a drop of perfume or just cold air. At a critical weakening of the immunity the lungs cannot withstand even a normal ventilation with warm clean air.

And so bronchodilators start being prescribed, the medications that “force” the organism to remove the protection reaction to the environment and forcing the lungs to work. What’s wrong with this scheme? Gas exchange improves, the person feels subjectively better at the moment due to enough oxygen supply and no difficulty breathing, “right now”. In general, for all the organs other than the lungs, such treatment is useful, as metabolism normalizes. But, at what expense? At the expense of the destruction of the lungs epithelial, as a number of those cells die out with each use of the bronchodilators.

This might seem doubtful, at first, as bronchodilators are used even for the prophylactic of asthma attacks. People use these drugs for years and live without a shortness of breath. This is because the organism tries to restore the cells of the lungs that have died out. But the statistics is relentless: under such a treatment with those medications the patients with chronic obstructive bronchitis after 10 years become invalids and, as invalids, would live only for another 7 years.

Elvira, 29, Ufa

Hello. My son is 6 years old. At the age of 2 he was diagnosed with bronchial asthma. For two years we were using Pulmicort, then Seretide 50 mg twice a day for another two years until now. Plus, the allergist has added Singular pills, at night. Regularly he was tested for lambliasis, treated for that, but the follow-up tests still showed the presence of lambliasis in the blood. We’ve tried numerous “second” opinions from other doctors. Our allergist has diagnosed him with the uncontrolled infection-dependent bronchial asthma. We were referred for testing for cystic fibrosis but there are no results yet. The mucus specimen has shown streptococcus pneumoniae; in the blood were detected aspergillosis. So the diagnoses were: allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis and bronchial asthma. I’d like to ask, would you be able in your clinic to treat those diseases? Thanks a lot.

Our comment:

Your child has been on steroidal treatment for more than a half of his life. This is a necessary measure, an emergency, and is recommended by the official European medical science. However, due to the prolonged treatment the growth and development of the internal organs have been damaged.

Genetically, all the tissues and organs of a child must grow, so the demand in oxygen is growing, too. The lungs of an asthmatic child cannot provide the required supply of oxygen for a healthy gas exchange. The introduction of the steroids as anti-inflammatories slows the natural development of the endocrine system and, as a result the body’s need for oxygen. Yes, it does reduce the functional load on the lungs. But it also reduces the production of the natural hormones. This, in turn, would force a make-up for the insufficiency by administering corticosteroids externally.

To cure a child now it is not enough to address the very initial causes of the asthma. We’ll have to get rid of the dependency from the steroids. To obtain that, we need to restore the structure and functionality of the damaged organs and systems in accordance with the age of the child. Most of the time to exactly estimate the level of damage to the inner organs including the adrenal glands, even at the current stage of advancement of the medicine might be quite difficult. That is why the duration of treatment cannot be predicted.

Olesya, 28, Tara.

My 3-year-old daughter has an obstructive bronchitis. It all starts with a runny nose and sneezing, followed by shortness of breath and severe wheezing. She’s been screened out, venous blood work has been done, nasopharyngeal swabs have been taken, and so on. The results are normal, showing no infection and normal immunity. Revealed was only an allergy to house dust – 15%. However, the child continues to sneeze and cough, although there might be 2-3 days of a “recesses”, but then it starts again. She’s been out of the daycare for already 5 months. Could it be the effect of the obstructive bronchitis? Also, some doctors say it might be temporal and related to the young age. Is that really so?

Our comment:

The child is clearly not healthy, but the analysis are “normal”. This shows how primitive the available methods of laboratory diagnostics are. According to the existing European Classification of Medical Science, a disease that is lasting more than 6 months is chronic. Put simply, the disease cannot be cured, as the chronic diseases are considered presently by the European science incurable. So, the doctors will be treating them according to the standards existing at the hospitals and pediatrics centers. They will consider periods of remissions (when there is no acute flare-ups) as “improvement”. However, the disease will still be there.

Lubov, 36, Moscow

Hello! My daughter is 13 years old. Six months ago, she developed an allergic rhinitis (before that she’d never had any allergies). Some two weeks ago she started experiencing feelings of suffocation, difficulty breathing. Yesterday after some testing she was diagnosed with bronchial asthma. Prescribed was Salbutamol and Budesonide. However I’m reluctant to start giving them to her, as I’ve read out about the numerous side effects, especially in the second one. My girl is a bit overweight, what if she’ll gain even more weight? Do you think my fears are founded? Please, help!

Our comment:

Mom’s fears are well founded. The side effects of the medications are related to the fact that they are all toxic. The doctors skillfully use those substances trying to cause the least harm to the body. This harm is, therefore, a foreseen but still unavoidable.

The question is: How justified is the treatment of chronic ailments with medications?

Anna, 31, Barnaul

Hello, my child is 6. At the age of 4 he was diagnosed with bronchial asthma. I’ve read that to diagnose asthma it is necessary to do the hemoscanning test. What is it about? Is asthma treatable? He had an asthma attack only once but has a dry cough from time to time; was tested for the allergens: an allergy to the home dust mite was revealed; was tested for parasites: the result was: the lambliasis. Could those parasites provoke a dry cough? How to treat them? I’ve read that it’s very difficult. Thank you in advance.

Our comment:

When the immunity is weakened, atypical forms of bacteria begin to multiply in the body. Ordinary their destruction with anti-bacterial toxins is not quite effective, as re-infection occurs again and again. More so, after such treatments the body becomes even weaker.

Natalia, 39, Volgograd

Is there a treatment for an allergic bronchitis? My daughter started having it since January, after some antibiotics, and a rotavirus infection. Takes Zyrtec, but the cough is still there in the form of attacks.

Our comment:

Each time the child receives a medication, it weakens his immune system. A complete cure is possible but not with the medications, of course.

Catherine, 35, Nizhny Novgorod

My son is 11. He has asthma, but the course is mild, without attacks. The last bronchitis was 2 years ago. This spring had atopic dermatitis. We’ve tried to cope using ointments for two months, but without a desirable results. Now we’re put in the hospital and receiving an IV. Immunoglobulin is 6000! Total blood and urinalysis is within norm. what could be the reason of such a high level of the antibodies and what are we to do next? Please, help, thank you in advance.

Our comment:

Impaired immunity is not an abstract concept. This is a very real shortage of necessary elements for cell recovery after their interaction with the environment. Stimulation of the immune organs will yield no results, even if they start producing more leukocytes and antibodies. This is due to the poor circulation. Therefore, the immune cells won’t be able to attack the environmental invasions. At best, they will be idly circulating in the bloodstream, in the worst, they will attack the cells of the body, mistaking them for invaders.

Tatiana, 28, Orel.

Dear Doctor, please tell me how can we strengthen the immunity. My boy is often sick, he is now a year and four, began to suffer from the age of 10 months. At first, it was a common cold, or an acute respiratory infection (an ARI), which were in the light forms, that would resolve in 3-5 days. He often has sore throat, once has had a fever of 39.9C. The emergency doctor said it was the throat. At the end of May he fell sick again, with an ARI. The symptoms were the same again: sore throat, running nose, cough, no fever. In two days the doctor had told us there were no improvement (we’ve been having treatment for only a couple of days, so it was explainable). After 5 days a clinic doctor having casually assessed us said that “everything is ok”. My questions about the throat were ignored. After a week we had to come back to the clinic again with the symptoms, but were seen by another pediatrician. She said that the throat was reddened and prescribed the following: Oscillococcinum, Tonzilgon and some nasal drops. On June 5, we were taken by an ambulance to the hospital with obstructive bronchitis. We were placed in the infection department for 8 days and recovered. The treatment was very intensive, with an intravenous, with injections, physiotherapy, and so on. But there we were again: there he had contracted a rotavirus!! So we had to spend in the hospital another 7 days, it was so bad that at the end I just had to take my son away. So, my question is: How could we strengthen up his immunity in this case? I’ve been giving him Viferon, Anaferon, Kipferon, Glutamil-Triptophan, Imunal, but you cannot just temper with the immunity all the time. Now I’ve heard a lot about body hardening by low temperatures. But, how to do it if he fall sick so easily?

Our comment:

There are people who can force the heart and the circulatory system to work with an increased intensity to enhance blood flow to those areas of the lungs with a weaker defense. But if you would be just thrusting the body into a cold water, the organism, of course, would abandon all the “primary responsibilities” of providing grow and development of the internal organs, as it would be now busy trying to ward itself off the catching cold. If a child is strong, he could withstand the hardening a few times, but a weak child would, with time, get even weaker. The result would be the same: both kids will grow weaker, and won’t realize themselves in life. If you doubt it, just before starting freezing your child have a look at the cucumbers. What do you think will grow if you will be watering them with an icy water?

Olga, 32, Moscow

My son is 3 years and a half. When he was 2 and a half he had his adenoids removed. Now he has huge tonsils, it is scary to even look into his throat. A year ago the sizes were at 3 and at 2. However, it looks like now they’ve got even bigger. The passage in the throat is only a bit bigger then a dime. The child sleeps poorly, there are some gurgling sounds in the throat, has prolonged colds and coughing. The voice has become more muffled-like. Recently he had a sore throat. Sometimes swallowing elicits a gagging reflex. Our oto-rhino-laryngologist says let’s wait another 5-6 years, as it is “developmental”. But I can’t just sit and wait. What do you think? Could they be just cut, and what consequences would be? Lately the cough’s got worse, last winter he had a croup. The cough is very dry, productive only after Berodual. Both his grandmas have asthma. What are the symptoms of asthma beginning? Could we go to the south therapeutic resorts, like “Evpatoria”? What medications should we take with us?

Our comment:

The child’s illness is systemic, to a certain extent due to the hereditary factors. He undergoes inadequate treatment, to put it mildly. There is a destruction of immunity going on. The medicated treatment is good only as the first aid.

Surgical cutting of the tonsils would not eliminate the cause of their enlargement.

A treatment in the therapeutic resorts would strengthen him, in general. However, before elimination of the cause such a treatment would only lead to depletion of the body’s resources and would temper with its development.

The child is in need of the Complex Systemic Therapy, and, unfortunately, not just a single course of it.

Svetlana, 32, Tver

Tell me, please, what climate is most suitable for a child with asthma and atopic dermatitis?

Our comment:

The air must be warm and clean; not dry.

However, it is not enough for a complete recovery. Until the immunity of the respiratory system is totally able to withstand contacts with the atmospheric air, there will be no fundamental improvement in the child’s health.

Julia, 40, Irkutsk

Can’t achieve a remission from bronchiectasis in my 5-year old child. Pneumonias as acute exacerbation of the bronchiectasis are up to 6 times a year since he was 3. The middle part of the right lung has been removed a year ago. Now I’m looking for a doctor who is experienced in the rehabilitative and therapeutic measurements. I want a solid and aggressive scheme of treatment, so my child would have exacerbations no more than 3 times a year. Would you advice a therapeutic resort?

Our comment:

This letter is also from someone who tries to treat her child with a chronic condition with medications. They live in hope, alas, often in vain. The likely eventual outcome of the toxic medications is total destruction of the lungs and surgical removals.

15 years we’ve been engaged into the Complex Systemic Therapy of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. Promptly, we can heal the children, who haven’t been taking medications for a long time. Can cure other kids, too, even those dependent on the steroids and bronchodilators. Our treatment is without drugs and surgeries.

Let us show you a letter from the parents whose child recently has had a treatment in our center. Before the Complex Systemic Therapy Anton was constantly receiving the full range of medications due to the monthly exacerbations of asthma.

Natalia, Belgorod

Dear Anatoly! My name is Natalia, mother of Anton Grehov. We’ve completed the course with the homeopathic remedies, which was prescribed to us to maintain the achieved effect and we ask you to familiarize us with the next step of the treatment.

After a course of the Therapy Anton’s disease has subsided and it’ll be 8 months that we’ve not been using any antibiotics.

Anton (Antoshka) drinks only warm water. I myself drink about 2 liters at work and still more at home.

We are all very grateful to you for your help to my son and to me.

To tell the truth, I didn’t believe in all this in the beginning, but when you diagnosed me, though I got upset, I decided to try the suggested course of the treatment.

I admire your course so much. I myself exercise three times a day for 5 minutes and have lost 11 kg. But this is not the end. I want to lose another 9 kg, but now the weight loss has stopped.

Antoshka exercises along with me and he even attends Wushu classes twice a week.

Now he doesn’t miss daycare for that long anymore. For example, he hasn’t been sick for already 2 months. Even if he does get sick it lasts, as I’ve said, a week or two at most.

We all, Sergey, Natalia, and Anton wish you and your family good health, long life, and great spirit.

It is wonderful that there are such amazing doctors that help people back to their health.

We all saw you doing it with great pleasure. It is a hard job as serving people you give away part of yourself.

And we wish you great happiness and love of your most close people.

We look forward to your response and advice on further treatment for my son and me.

With great respect,

Sergey,

Natalia and

Antoshka

In the introduction to the ancient treatise on the theory and practice of therapeutic effects of the Chinese points and meridians, the Emperor Huang Di wrote that the Treatise was written in order to render his people a healing by clean pure metal needs as oppose to poisonous herbs. Currently, traditional Chinese medicine still emphasizes the use of herbal remedies.

In our Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine “House of Health” we do not use herbal medicine. We treat with needles, and children – with a hardware acupuncture (without pain). The effect persists after the treatment, as opposed to the conventional medical treatment. At the end of the treatment our patients have to maintain a healthy life-style, exercise, etc, and be as “pill-free”, as possible.

The purpose of this article was to convey the information that the medicated treatment creates nothing but a semblance of recovery. If a child fell sick again during a year so that antibiotics and mucolytics had to be used, if the treatment involved the use of steroids, means that the illness is going to take a chronic form. Immunity in such a child is critically impaired and weakened. He needs the Systematic Diagnostics to identify the causes of the impairment and the treatment with the Complex Systemic Therapy.

Enjoy good Health!