Asthma and Chiropractic
When I first entered Chiropractic College, my daughter was 5 years old. As a toddler she had many bouts of what we were told was bronchitis. We seemed to always have a bottle of pink amoxicillin in the refrigerator. For those of you who are not familiar with amoxicillin it is a broad spectrum antibiotic given as a pink liquid. The reason that we always had it in the refrigerator is that she seemed to always have bronchitis. So it seemed that the amoxicillin was not curing her condition, it was just hiding the symptoms for a while.
When she got older, her doctors change the diagnosis to asthma. So there was a change in her medication to Slo-Bid™, a medication that is supposed to relax the muscles of the lungs and chest, and an inhaler. Later in her life, I found out the side effects to these drugs which, to name a few, were; Chest pain or discomfort, dizziness, fainting, fast/slow or irregular heartbeat, increase in urine volume, lightheadedness, persistent vomiting, pounding or rapid pulse, seizures, and shakiness.
Looking back I cannot believe I gave my baby girl these drugs. I was not informed about the possible side effects. As I mentioned before in an earlier blog, I blindly trusted the medical system and did what the doctors told me to do for my child. There was no internet back then; we had to take the doctors at their word. These drugs did not cure her; they just stopped some symptoms for a while.
While in Chiropractic College I learned that the nerves that control the lungs exit the vertebra at the top of the back where the upper back meets the neck. If these nerves are impinged due to the vertebra being misaligned (Subluxation) then the lungs will hyper-react to allergens and can cause an asthma attack.
The next time my daughter had an asthma attack, I adjusted her upper back and within 5 minutes her breathing went back to normal. The response was so fast that it was hard for me to believe. It happened again on successive asthma attacks where I would adjust her and the attack would subside. I must admit that we did keep her Slo-Bid™ and inhaler on hand in case she got really bad but we hardly had to use it. Eventually she grew out of the asthma.
Chiropractic adjustments realign the spine taking the impingement and irritation off the nerves and allow the body to heal itself. Nutrition can also affect the body of an asthmatic. Many times asthma can be traced back to a milk/dairy allergy. Nutrition and asthma will be addressed in an upcoming blog. For more information please call us at the clinic and we would be happy to talk with you about it.
If you, a friend, or a family member have asthma, contact Demaray Chiropractic & Nutrition Center to schedule a consultation and examination to see how chiropractic can help you breathe easier.