Greetings, it's Eric Bakker the naturopath from New Zealand, thanks for coming back.
Here's a question I got from a lady over in Australia.
Is it possible to get rid of asthma by healing my gut, my digestive system?
If I improve my gut function, can I ditch the puffers?
Can I get rid of the puffers?
You know, the medications people take for asthma?
Well, I never use the cure word, but what I can tell you is this.
If you start really improving your diet and lifestyle, and lessen your dependence on asthma
medications, and particularly start looking at the Buteyko method of breathing, which
I'll write down for you now, Buteyko, you can, over time absolutely lessen our dependence
on medication.
I wouldn't use the cure word.
You can't cure asthma by fixing up the gut, but you'll be able to get the symptoms down
to a point where asthma is barely noticeable.
You can certainly reduce the amount of medications you are taking whether it's Ventolin, the
blue inhaler or whether you're using the preventative.
I've worked with many patients over the years and helped them reduce, reduce, reduce, and
eventually even stop these medications altogether.
It can ne done.
Let me write down this word for you.
B-U-T-E-Y-K-O.
So Professor Buteyko is a Russian professor who basically worked out that most people
breathe incorrectly.
They breathe wrong.
A lot of people mouth breathe.
You're not supposed to mouth breathe.
You're supposed to nose breathe.
So I'd like you to have a look on YouTube of the Buteyko method, or look up about Buteyko
and read up in general.
If asthmatics follow the Buteyko method carefully, they will usually not need any medications
at all for asthma.
It's totally possible to do that.
But the question here is, can you get rid of asthma or fix it by healing the gut.
I would say yes and no.
It really depends on how much medication you take.
One of my patients was taking over 30 Ventolin puffs per day, a builder, a carpenter, and
he said he could not even ascend stairs or a ladder, go up a ladder without having a
puff of the Ventolin.
And again, once we got this guy on to a correct way of eating, you know, instead of drinking
Coca Cola all day and eating crap food, we got him onto a better diet.
We got him to improve his sleep cycle.
But most importantly, I got him to learn how to breathe properly, nasal breathing, and
also taught him some of the elements of the Buteyko method.
And the puffers within months were gone.
No more Ventolin required whatsoever.
Not only that, the guy felt a hundred percent better.
So when you rely on these medications, it's not really a good idea to do that.
So the beneficial bacteria certainly play a big role, as I've always mentioned, in boosting
up your immune system.
Having asthma means that you've got problems with your immune system.
So improving your gut to any degree is guaranteed to help you significantly improve your asthmatic
symptoms.
So remember, we're not saying cure, but we're saying you can get better and better and better.
And not only that, as you improve your gut function and your sleep and your diet, and
you start looking at incorporating elements of the Buteyko method, let me just hold that
up again, the Buteyko method, once you start incorporating this into your lifestyle, it's
goodbye asthma.
I have a very good friend, a dear friend, up in Auckland, who's a Buteyko practitioner
who was trained by Professor Konstantin Buteyko back in the 80s.
Glen has helped thousands of people with asthma recover, get the health back again.
In fact, I believe he's even now working with the New Zealand Asthma Foundation to some
degree, they are finally working with this guy after many years of just basically laughing
at Buteyko, they're sitting back and paying attention to it.
Most people don't breathe correctly.
It's a fact, they don't understand about the parasympathetic and the sympathetic control
of breathing.
They don't understand how stress affects breathing.
And furthermore, they've got no idea on how the asthma medications actually work against
them and not for them.
So there are many different ways you can skin a cat, I tell you, but the way to beat asthma,
in my opinion, is the natural way.
It's not the drug way.
Thanks for the topic.