Asthma and Fasting - Can Someone Please Help!

by Graham
(Sheffield)

I have severe asthma so can anyone tell me if fasting will ease my condition?

Thanks from a fasting beginner

Graham


Dear Graham:

This is Rob Johnston, webmaster of Fitness Through Fasting. Thank you for your question. Indeed, fasting CAN help give you relief from asthma. Here is some information that I found some time ago that I think you may find useful:

According to Dr. Joel Fuhrman M.D., author of the excellent book "Fasting and Eating for Health", the more severe the asthma and the greater the dependency on medication, the longer it takes to archive a recovery when natural healing methods are applied.

He found that a long fast - up to 21 days -,or sometimes two fasts with impeccable dietary habits in between, is usually essential for asthma patients that have relied on medications for a long period of time.

The beneficial effects of fasting in asthmatics have been well documented in the Russian medical literature. Their clinical trials illustrated that more than 75 percent of patients had greatly improved conditions or never had symptoms of asthma again after fasting.

Exception from Dr. Fuhrman book (for asthmatic patients)

“… Beth was a severe asthmatic and had history of recurrent hospitalizations before she came under my care. At first we avoided further hospitalization only by keeping her on high doses of steroids, as well as other medication.

Frequently, we had to add oral steroids in addition to the inhaled steroids when her condition took a turn for the worse. She was never in good control of her asthma even with high doses of medication and always endured wheezing and poor air flow. She awoke nightly to uses her breathing machines.

Although she followed a careful diet, we saw no improvement. We talked about fasting, but she was not able to set a definite date to begin a fast because of her work responsibilities and her fear of undertaking a prolonged fast.

But eventually she overcame her objections and began a fast.

Slowly, through the first week of the fast, as Beth’s breathing improved, we tapered her medication. Within four days of beginning the fast she developed a red, itchy rash all over her arms and legs.

This represented the elimination of retained toxins that her body had never effectively been able to remove while she was eating and taking medication, especially because she was habitually on steroids.

I assume her that this type of rash is extremely common in patients who have been on steroids in the past, because these medications suppress the body’s self-cleansing and detoxification mechanisms, permitting the retention of tissue waste products.

Taking an oatmeal bath a few times daily helped relieve her itching. The rash began to clear, her breathing improved. And by the eighth day of the fast we were able to safely stop all medications. Beth continued her fast for 21 days, and for the first time in years was on no medication or inhalers.

I was unsure where or not she still had a touch of asthma left; her peak flow measurements on spirometer were still slightly below normal, and I suspected that, in such a severe case, she should undertake another fast six months after the first one to make sure her body had adequately normalized and healed.

Some studies:

In patients with preasthma and bronchial asthma, short-term courses of fasting dietotherapy (FDT) with a 7-day fasting period proved to be effective, as evidenced by clinical-and-functional and laboratory investigations.

The incidence rate of viral infections was much lower with short-term courses compared to long-term courses. Too low an effect, if any, with FDT short-term courses can be explained by excess of the patient's body weight.

Short-term FDT courses with a 3-day fasting period have been found out to result in a significant decrease in the level of anxiety.


I know that all of this information is medical in scope and could be a little confusing. I am glad you brought this up because it is something I have wanted to investigate further for some time. I hope that, in the meantime, this helps.

I also hope that others can chime in and present any information or experience they may have to help you!

Warm Regards,
Rob