Summary

Asthma is a complex bronchial disorder with a wide variety of root causes.  Simply described an asthma attack occurs as the air passageways become inflamed and muscles may contract both of which limit the air being taken into the lungs.  As the body tries to compensate for this loss wheezing, coughing, excess mucus or other signs of shortness of breath occur.  Symptoms can also be complicated by previous medications used to treat the problem.

Asthma varies in severity.  Most suffering will have attacks of shortness of breath interspersed with longer periods of normal breathing.  Some will have more severe attacks and others suffer milder shortness of breath continuously.  With more severe attacks immediate medical attention should be sought.  There are a number of types of asthma and sometimes it appears to run in families.  The various types include: Allergic Asthma, Exercise-Induced Asthma, Cough-Variant Asthma, Work-Related Asthma, and Nocturnal Asthma.

Allergic asthma attacks (or even other forms) may be triggered by common allergens or everyday situations.  Some of the most common are:

·    Animals (pet hair or dander)

·    Dust

·    Changes in weather (most often cold weather)

·    Chemicals in the air or in food

·    Exercise

·    Mold

·    Pollen

·    Respiratory infections, such as the common cold

·    Stress

·    Tobacco smoke

Inhalers or other techniques to quickly open air passageways are helpful to some but in other cases tend to exacerbate the problem.  Therefore using them should be carefully tested to be assured they provide positive results.  Most experts in essential oils advise a slow and metered approach to using oils with attention to what the root cause and triggers for attacks might be. 

 

Special Precautions: With potential life threatening diseases, it is always recommended to progress with treatment under the care of a licensed medical practitioner.

Oils, blends & products recommended:

Oils & Blends: bergamot, Breathe, eucalyptus, frankincense, lavender, lemon, peppermint, rosemary

Essential oils based products: Life Long Vitality supplements

Also consider: Helichrysum, marjoram, OnGuard, thyme

Suggested protocols:

Asthma varies so much depending on the root cause, age, previous medical intervention, and severity it is difficult to give a "one protocol fits all" summary so we have included below a summary of individual positive experiences and suggestions.

·    With asthma, normally do not use cup and inhale or diffusion in hopes of immediately easing the symptoms. Rather use topical or massage applications, starting with gentle aromatic oils like lavender, then progress to oils with more expectorant properties like eucalyptus. Finally use rosemary or relaxing oils for calming.

·    Diet, especially if allergies are suspected, is very important.  Most recommend avoiding sugars and dairy products. 

·    Provide a solid foundation of nutrients using supplements like the Life Long Vitality products is also suggested.

·    To prevent attacks:

      Rubbing 2-4 drops of Balance on the bottom of each foot morning and night.

      Layer bergamot after the Balance on the feet if there is stress.

      Take a capsule with 3-5 drops of frankincense in the morning (and evening if necessary).

·    Oil Pulling has been the best method some have found for applying the oils with their asthma.

·    It is vitally important to find the root cause of asthma.  Study the root cause and the triggers that cause attacks to best determine which oils to use and how to apply them.

·    If asthma is caused by allergies of some type consider the methods suggested under allergies.  The most popular technique is 2-3 drops each of lemon, lavender, and peppermint in a shot of water, swish it for a couple minutes in your mouth, and swallow.

·    Some with mild asthma have carried Breathe (in a bottle or a vaporizer like Vicks comes in) with them to work or school to help with exercise induced asthma.

Experiences and Testimonials of others

Williamson - My 12 year old daughter has had severe asthma her whole life. She has been in the hospital several times. The last couple of years, her asthma has been under pretty good control because her doctor put her on very strong medications (advair-500 dose, singulair, flovent). She has been taking these every day for about 2 years. Before that, she was taking advair, but not the other two. She does not like the side affects that go along with these medications and we are trying to wean her off of them and only use oils.

Has anyone done this before that can give us good advice? She was able to get rid of her inhaler pretty easily with just using Breathe. The other medications are proving much harder. Your body gets addicted to the steroid in advair from what I hear which makes it even harder. We are currently using the following oils: Breathe, eucalyptus, and frankincense. We've been rubbing them on her chest. She is still really struggling most days. Is there anything that can heal the damage that has been done to her lungs? Please help us. She really is sick of being so medicated all the time, but also has a great desire to be able to breathe!

Ftballwidow – Be sure she is using the Life Long Vitality supplements.  Beyond this for me Breathe also works because my asthma is exercise induced. My kids are a different story. I highly recommend 2 things:

1) Read about Oil Pulling and have your daughter start it immediately.  We are a family of asthmatics and oil pulling is amazing for it.  We don't use any medications.  My son is 7 and I started him at 6 1/2.  Could probably do it earlier if you do some reverse psychology and tell them how wonderful they are at doing the pulling. I tell everyone in front of my son that he is the King of Oil Pulling!  It works, but you can't get some adults to even try it! I think it is too easy!

2) Also do you know what is the main reason for her asthma? If it is allergies then you can use the lemon, lavender, and peppermint.  We use 2-3 drops of each in a shot of water, swish it for a couple minutes, and swallow.  I know others just do it topically and get major relief but with someone like her I would do it internally for sure.  

That is good that Breathe is giving her some relief but Breathe does not touch my younger sons asthma.  I learned that GX Assist worked for him and I gave him a one pill every few days and that worked.  But then, that led me to think that I needed to control his allergies so then I moved to lemon, lavender, and peppermint with him and that really helped.  Last year at this time, he was home with asthma symptoms many times and now this year not one day missed.  

Hopefully you will get some other ideas.  Experimenting is key. These are just things what worked for me and it feels really good to help my kids. My son had problems when I was out of town.  I told my husband what to do over the phone and it worked.  I talked to my son on the phone and I knew, just by hearing his voice, that he was fine.

Williamson - She is not on the Life Long Vitality supplements yet. We just started using doTERRA products 2 months ago and It was suggested by someone else to start her on the supplements a week or so ago, but I wasn't sure why that helps.  What is it in the supplements that helps asthma?

Ftballwidow - The supplements are the basis for overall health.  It is hard to get someone healthy that is unhealthy when they aren't building a foundation.  That is what supplements do. They work on your cells and there are individual things in them that actually help asthma and are antihistamines (would apply if her asthma is allergy triggered).  Also consider her diet.  Really work with her on things that we know are a big no no but we do it anyway,  like dairy, foods with dyes, white sugar, etc.  May be tough for a 13 year old. You never know kids are amazing when they are educated and we give them some credit.

Here are some things that I found that the supplements have that help with asthma.  I researched each ingredient so I could know some specific things that directly affect asthma.

Alpha CRS:

boswelia serrata

pineapple extract

grape seed extract

quercetin

marigold flower extract

Multi-Vitamin

Vitamin D - helps severity of asthma

I just wanted to pick out some specifics for you but in general these supplements are anti-inflammatory.  That really helps with the inflamed lungs of asthmatics.

Pat - She needs to diffuse Breathe in a diffuser to help her so she can inhale the oils. This is going to take some time since there is probably a lot of damage done. She needs to go off the medications very slowly and only when she is comfortable with her breathing. You might also consider two capsules a day with frankincense and wild orange in them.  Be aggressive and consistent with the oils.  I would also highly recommend the supplements.

Ramona - About 18 months ago, when I was introduced to these wonderful oils, my 4 year old son was on prednisone (for every attack), an inhaler twice a day (flovent) and albuterol as needed.  We did go cold turkey off of them, and I'm happy to say that we haven't had to use one of the medications in all this time. However, he had only recently had the daily steroids added, so I think that would make a difference.  Pat's suggestions are good ones, but I wanted to share my story to give you hope.

As for past lung damage, I have another story to share. My son who is now 11, when he was 3 had been through 14 bouts of pneumonia (every 6 weeks over 22 months) and they finally found the cause to be a nodule on the outside of his right lung, blocking one of the airways.  It had caused a 1/3 of his right lung to be collapsed for most of that 22 months.  They told me he would never play sports, that he would have severe asthma his whole life, etc.  We tried for 5 months, on their medications to treat it and nothing was helping.  Our next option was going to be surgery where they were going to crack open his chest, biopsy, and remove the lump.  They were planning the surgery for summer when he would be at the smallest risk of more illness.  This just didn't sound right to me, so after many hours of prayer, I met a woman who introduced me to Super Greens by Dr. Young in  Alpine, Utah.  For whatever reason, I felt that this was my answer.  I gave him scoops of the super greens in his sippy cups of soy milk, every day.  I modified his diet to be mostly vegetables and whole grains.  I cold turkey stopped giving him his medications. 

At the end of one month, when we went in for our monthly x-ray, not only could they no longer see the nodule, but his lung was no longer collapsed and the "damage" that had shown up just a month previous was fixed.  They were completely stumped and didn't have an answer when I explained what I had done.  However, even a follow up cat-scan 6 months later showed that the nodule was completely gone.  He is active and runs and plays like any boy his age.  He hasn't had an asthma attack in years and rarely even gets sick.  My point in sharing this is that I truly 100% believe that healing can come through the natural, God given tools, we have.  I don't believe that most  medications are designed to heal but rather to treat.  Follow your instincts, and it will all be okay. It may take some time depending on how long it has taken for the damage to occur.

Lisa - Here is some more info that might help you.   My daughter is 14, she has had exercise induced asthma since she was 8 or 9. She is also very active in sports, running, travel soccer, ice speed skating. We tried using an inhaler and it never really worked well and she had to scale back sports because there were so many times she couldn't breathe.  We were totally frustrated because no matter what doctor we went to see, nothing worked.

We have found that Balance on the bottom of her feet can prevent the attacks.  I don't know why.  We also use a capsule of frankincense in the morning and sandalwood in the evening.  If she gets stressed out we add bergamot to her feet.  We use Breathe and lime on her back right before sports.  However, the treatments that are the most effective are the Balance, frankincense and bergamot.  Since we've done these 3, we don't have any attacks.  Sometimes she forgets to put the Breathe, lime, bergamot and Balance on before a workout .  In this case the attacks are a huge order of magnitude less than they ever were so from this I concluded that the frankincense and sandalwood must be having a big effect.  I notice since adding these two oils, especially the frankincense, that her overall breathing is much better.  So I think the frankincense is very important and I would keep on doing that.  It may take time, but eventually the inflammation will be healed.  

Diet also plays a big role here too.  Sugars and therefore white carbohydrates are major triggers for her, so she doesn't eat sugar and eats minimal carbohydrates.  We also found a source of raw milk and use that.

I think the green food supplement is also a good idea.  Actually, I was going to try that next.  I'd like to get her off the Breathe and lime so when she goes to sports camps she can do all her oils herself and I'm thinking the extra greens might help.  I'm glad Ramona mentioned that because that was just a gut feel on my part.

I hope this helps. You just need to experiment and go with your gut feel.

 

CaroI - I just spoke to someone that I gave a sample of Breathe to and she informed me that it didn't work for her.  Can someone give me something else to give her. She has tried many things for her Asthma and nothing seems to help her.  Any ideas?

Teresa – Eucalyptus and frankincense.  Plus avoid sugar and dairy products.

Carol - I called back the lady with Asthma and she flatly told me she is NOT interested...she works in a Health Food Store for goodness sakes...she wants to own her sickness. 

Brooke - I'm sorry she wasn't more open to the opportunity to try something else.  I have a thought - but I wonder if she has gotten to the bottom of what the cause of the asthma is.  I know people who know their kid is allergic to animals, and still have 3 cats in their house!  I know another person who, because they were diagnosed with asthma like conditions as a child were put on steroid type asthma medicines at a very early age.  This caused yeast problems, which increased the asthma issues.  I also know others who because of 'cleanliness' issues, or dietary issues have 'asthma'.  There are so many 'causes' - and until they decide to get to the 'root' of the problem, there really isn't anything anyone can do.

For future reference. I have used Breathe, melaleuca, frankincense, peppermint, Purify, eucalyptus and even lemon (not all at the same time) throughout the last year and a half on my son with amazing success.   We are still finding what some of his triggers are - but he hasn't had to use his inhaler since the beginning of last school year.  He takes Breathe to school with him - and uses it when his exercise induced asthma sneaks up on him. The allergy induced ones we are still working on, but we are still able to get them under control using the essential oils.  Frequency is the key – as well as prevention.  If we know he may be doing something strenuous - we put the oil on him BEFORE he goes out!  Hope that is helpful to others in the future.

 

April - Are there any suggestions of which oils to help with chronic asthma? Thanks so much

Nicole - My son has asthma and he is supposed to be on an inhaler twice a day. This year I started using the blend Breathe.  We apply it on his chest, upper back and feet. I should do it once a day, but sometimes I don't always remember. He is no longer on an inhaler, we just use the oils.

I have found that I have been using the OnGuard quite a bit with it, just to make him really safe during the winter season. I really didn't want him to catch any sickness, because in the past we have been in and out of the hospital and doctor’s office so often. By using those two blends, he has been SO HEALTHY this winter season. We haven't visited the ER or the doctor’s office once....which is HUGE for us. It is really exciting to feel like we have more control of his health by using doTerra's oils. It is great.

 

Protocols folks recommend for children

Editor's note: April's experience with asthma and oils.

April - My 9 year old gets asthma and starts wheezing bad whenever he starts to get a cold. The week before I joined doTERRA we had to give him 2 Albuterol breathing treatments to kick it. After I joined doTERRA, he started to get another cold. I put Breathe with Eucalyptus on his back, chest, throat (with coconut oil) and on the bottoms of his feet with socks. I had to apply once more to his chest and back, but he stopped wheezing and fell asleep and didn't wake up the whole night. That may not sound like a big deal to many of you, but to us it was a VERY big deal. Little miracles, you know?

 

 

Diet and Nutritional complements to essential oils

 

What Science & Research are saying