Asthma treatment

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The Simplest Asthma Solution

 


 

  Drs. Ralph & Lahni DeAmicis

During the Democratic convention the Reverend Al Sharpton quoted a
shocking statistic: One third of the children in Harlem suffer from
asthma. This shouldn’t be completely surprising since asthma cases have
been consistently increasing over the years, especially in the cities,
escalating recently during the rollback of some key environmental laws,
but it is a trend we must turn back.

While parents have only limited control over the environment where they
raise their children, there is a personal environmental decision they can
make that may dramatically reduce the symptoms their children experience.
It all comes down to detergent, and not just any detergent. It is the
detergent that they use to wash their children’s clothes and sheets. The
biggest selling detergents in the United States contain large amounts of
irritating phosphates, which are not only a major irritant to the skin
and respiratory system, but a source of serious pollution, and a
component in global warming.

If you are wondering if your laundry detergent contains phosphates just
read the label, it is listed there. In most industrialized countries
phosphate detergents are outlawed for good reason, but in the United
States the chemical industry has a strong lobby and cheap phosphates help
manufacturers keep their costs low, so their use continues. The next time
you walk though the laundry detergent section of your supermarket, take a
deep breath and notice how much the smell irritates your nose and lungs.

What kinds of detergent contain low, or no phosphates? Baby detergent! No
mother would dream of washing their newborn’s clothes and sheets in the
family’s powdered detergent! That would give their baby’s delicate skin
rashes, not to mention an increase in crying and crankiness. There are
many readily available natural detergents that are phosphate-free and
it’s worth the time to find them.

We have noticed tremendous improvements for both children and adults when
their clothes and sheets are consistently washed in a phosphate-free
detergent. By itself this change may not alleviate all of the symptoms of
asthma and those related skin rashes, but it clearly removes an insidious
irritant from the equation.

It might be helpful to explain why this simple change is so effective.
Testing in Europe shows that, while sleeping, people are between two
thousand and ten thousand times more sensitive to chemical and
electromagnetic pollution than while they are awake. When a child’s
pajamas are washed with a chemical irritant and they sleep on bedclothes
containing those same toxins, their immune system is challenged nightly,
during a time when they are most vulnerable. Their body’s nutritional
reserves are consumed in that battle and they are less able to defend
themselves from the pollutants they encounter during their day. Asthma
and allergies are not produced by a single irritant, but by an
accumulation of minor irritants that eventually overwhelm the body’s
ability to adapt. It is not a huge leap to imagine that removing a
respiratory irritant from the sleeping environment, where a person spends
one third of their time, is going to produce an improvement in a child’s
ability to breathe.

Drs. Ralph & Lahni DeAmicis are Naturopathic Physicians. Their
educational program, The 10 Minute Herbalist, seeks to put the knowledge
of everyday good health into everyone’s hands. Information about their
program and publications is available at www.SpaceAndTime .

ralph@spaceandtime

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The Simplest Asthma Solution