After many failed attempts at a raw diet I would love to know from a raw foodist that used to be plagued with asthma on how to make the change successfully.
I have been using an inhaler for 20 years now and in those 20 years was vegan for 7 years and tried going all raw with no success.
My body does not take kindly at all to the detox process. I can only assume it's the meds coming out which is great but leaves me unable to breathe and eventually leads to an adrenaline break down of sorts.
I can only assume I'm doing something terribly wrong or my body is too broken down to "fix' which I know deep down inside can't be true.
Iv'e tried cold turkey and slow either way I get to the same point where I can't function. It's quite scary. Can't afford to see a natural doc or I would have done it ages ago. I have never heard a personal testimony from an ex-asthmatic either in all my readings. I can't stay on this path much longer either as the meds are causing problems as would be expected.
Thank you to anyone who could help.
mimi

i feel for you. i know how bad asthma can get, as i had it when i was young. I still have asthma but it only effects me if im around a cat or if im around a new house that has built up dust. I dont really use an inhaler except for maybe once a year.

so with me i did grow out of alot of symtoms. but as i got older i had this constant sneezing in the morrnings, runny nose and eyes. I would sneeze for at least an hour in the morrnings. Now i dont and it was because i gave up gluten and dairy, my asthma is still there just as my uc will still always be there but you can improve it. or at least thats what happened to me.

my big problem now is Ulcertive Colitis, if i go back eating the way i was with gluten and diary, my sneezing will retrun and my colitis will be worse than it ever was in my life. this is why i am just sticking with this as i know i will never be perfect but i can be alot better. the only way is to stick with one thing, and it may take years, depends on your body.

hope this is a help. its all i can offer though

When you did use your asthma inhaler regularly, how often would you use it? And while you made the transition to healthier foods, did you have any out of the ordinary respiratory issues?
Thanks for taking the time to answer,
mimi

When i was a child i used to use the inhaler alot. i dont know how many times a day. i used it practally every time i did any sprots. then when i was a teen i did something stupid, i tried smoking, there was alot of reasons why i did this but in any case i was a teenager and stupid. i used it alot when smoking. then i quite when i was 21. and felt so much better, of course. then i used it every once in a while, or if i got a cold or something i would use it. but now i really dont use it at all maybe once a year.

ive only changed to healther foods 3 months ago so i would say no my lungs improved immediatly and the allergies disapeared immediatly.

does your lungs fill with fluid? what out of ordinary respiratory issues do you have? does your inhaler work for you?

I only ask those questions as sometimes respiatory issures can be to do with the heart, but im no doctor.

oh when i was young as well i did take more than inhaler when i was sever. I had a nebulizer for when it got really bad, i have had an adreneline shot when i was about 6. i used to take slow bid, and i have had broncitis which i was on steroids for.

all this was realted to my environment, i was also really sensitve to milk, but was forced to drink it because in the 70s and 80s that was what was good for you.

Hi mimi,

I was an asthmatic for over 20 years - I used my inhaler atleast 12 times a day and would go through one inhaler each month. It was a battle dealing with my asthma doctors because they did not like to prescribe so many inhalers and would try to get me on other medicines. At one point I was ordering inhalers from online pharmacies just so I would have enough.

I have been health-conscious for just as long, although I gave up trying to cure my asthma. When I was younger, my asthma would go away if I would do a short fast (or once I went to Hippocrates and drank wheat-grass juice for 3 weeks and it also went away) - but would come back once I ended the fast (or returned from Hippocrates). When I got older (I am now 45) even fasting would not stop my asthma.

In the last 4 years my life circumstances changed and I finally had the resources and time to do more radical things to improve my health (I have other problems I was still hoping to help). Much to my surprise, these things cured my asthma. For the last two years I have been essentially completely off my medication. I no longer have the chronic bad asthma that had plagued me for ~23 years. Very occasionally (once every two months), I will need a hit on one of my old asthma pipes. I no longer have to deal with the asthma doctors.

I don't know exactly which thing I did that cured the asthma - I suspect it was the fasting. So I will just tell you what I did:

The summer of 2006 I did a 3 and 1/2 week water fast. I did have asthma all during the fast. In December of 2006 I became a 100% raw foodist. I was a high-fat raw foodist and found the diet very easy to stick to and very satisfying. I noticed some improvements in my well-being on the diet, I still had asthma though. The next summer (2007) I again did a 3 and 1/2 week water fast. Again, my asthma showed no signs of abating during the fast. After the fast I resumed my raw food diet (at this point I was naturally eating less nuts, so maybe it was a medium-fat raw diet now). Still my asthma was the same.

Then a few months after the second fast, I learned that asthma pipes (ventolin) contained flourine - something I had gone to great lengths to avoid the last 20 years - and here I had been inhaling it 12 times a day all that time! That freaked me out so much that I just decided to stop taking it. So, when I had my next asthma attacks, I would try to not use the inhaler. I would just struggle with my breathing, unless it was really really bad. Much to my amazement, I found that I was quickly able to massively reduce my usage of my asthma pipe, and within maybe a week or two (I can't remember exactly) - I was off of my medicine. I have been off it ever since (except for rare occasion).

Now, could I have just stopped it all along? Who knows? I do know that I did try to stop one of my asthma medications in 2005 because I was unemployed most that year and lost my health insurance. One of my doctors had prescribed me Singulair to help the asthma (I did not always win the battles with my doctors...). This medicine cost $100 a month, so I tried to stop taking it. But I could not, my asthma would just get worse and worse. Stopping the asthma pipes seemed out of the question. (Incidentally - I was able to get off the Singulair during the first fast, just not the asthma pipes.)

Now, all of these measures did not help the problem I had been trying to solve, which was my problem with severe exhaustion. I eventually realized that I have adrenal gland problems (my Mom had Addison's disease), and am now addressing that by other methods. Adrenal insufficiency and asthma are related though. Doug Graham says he helps adrenal fatigue patients with fasting (I read this on his boards). So I think that my fasts helped my adrenal glands enough so that I could stop my asthma medicine? I don't know, it's frustrating not knowing exactly what is going on...

I hope this helps. I am very grateful to breathe freely now for over two years. I wish you the same. I even have cats, and can now breathe around them!

mindy

wow cats that is someting. i couldnet be around them. 3 weeks of water fasting i am a little scared to do, ive been eating less this week and water fasted on sunday. i have already lost my 106lb and now am at 104lb. i look like a bit of an anorixic really. in this pic im 106lb-107lb

Thank you gals. I can see we all have the basic health issues along with asthma. I have adrenal problems as well I suspect because of the inhaler.
I believe like most meds, ventalin has an addicitve nature. If you use it, your body asks for it wether you are really wheezing or not. It's strange to say the least.

Thank you for the encouragement, Mindy. I use my Ventalin almost as much as you did and for just as long which scares me. I don't even know what Flourine is but you got me worried.

Eating raw vegan always helps alleviate my asthma but then one month or less into it ,my adrenal glands start to produce way too much adrenaline for some reason. I breathe like a fish out of water unable to take regular, slow rythmic breaths and being unable to get a full inhale in. It feels like when a yawn is cut short.
It's highly life debilatating as I have to concentrate to breathe. The weird thing is that there is no wheezing like an asthma attack so I don't use my inhaler.
I do notice the more greens I consume, the faster and more severe the problem becomes.
I'll keep trying and one of these days my efforts will be blessed.
Thank you both for piping in.
mimi

thats weird that you notice the more greens you eat the worse the problem becomes. do you eat organic. honestly i dont always my self, but im just wondering if you allergic to the pesticides.

Hi Mimi,

Sorry, I spelled it wrong - fluorine is just fluoride.

I agree with you on the ventolin, I was amazed at how quickly my asthma abated after just enduring a few asthma attacks without reaching for the asthma pipe right away.

Your breathing problem sounds very frightening, I feel for you. I hope you are able to figure it out. I think with adrenal problems, raw foods alone is not enough. There's a good book on adrenal problems called "Adrenal Fatigue: the 21st Century Stress Syndrome," by James Wilson. I am currently taking vitamin supplements along with the adrenal hormone supplements DHEA (available at health food stores) and cortisol. I am usually opposed to supplements, but nothing else was helping me (including the 80-10-10 diet), and these seem to be helping.

Again, best wishes,
Mindy

Thanks, Mindy
That is a huge help. I will definitely get the book and look into the supplements before I get agressive with the diet again.

And I never thought about a pestiside allergy. It very well could be. I don't always get organic as I am financially strapped right now. I do what I can but may be harming myself more by doing so.

Dr Fuhrman talks about helping asthmatics with fasting in his book fasting and eating for health. I think the longer you have been on meds the harder it is to sort out (goes for a lot of illnesses)