Garlic has been proven to heal many health issues and help maintain health. We’ve explained some in Benefits of Garlic for Your Healthy Heart and Health Benefits of Garlic to the Liver. Many nutrients found in garlic contribute to its healing ability for many respiratory ailments like asthma. You probably just heard that fresh garlic provides more than twice as much vitamin C as tomatoes. It’s indeed unfamiliar to know that this herb has something that only fruits and vegetables have. This vitamin C has become one of the reasons why garlic has an ability to fight asthma.
Asthma is a condition in which your airways narrow and swells and thereby produces excessive mucus. This causes breathing difficulties and triggers coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath. Although asthma can be a minor nuisance for some people, it can also be a major problem that distracts daily activity. The worse is that it can be dangerous enough to kill someone.
There’s no cure for asthma. But, we can control its symptoms. We may have Benefits of Ginger for Asthma Treatments as one of the helpful herb to control the symptoms. Since asthma often changes over time, it’s important to consult to your doctor to track your signs and symptoms. That way, they can adjust the necessary treatment. So, what are the Symptoms of Asthma? Below’s an overview.
- Shortness of breath – People with asthma experience an uncomfortable condition that makes it hard to fully get air into their lungs.
- Chest tightness or pain – It can be in form of a sharp stab or a dull ache.
- Trouble sleeping caused by shortness of breath, coughing or wheezing – The discomforts make it difficult to fall asleep.
- A whistling or wheezing sound when exhaling (wheezing is a common sign of asthma in children) – The abnormal condition of the respiratory tract leads to a whistling or wheezing sound while letting the air out of the lung.
- Coughing or wheezing attacks that are worsened by a respiratory virus, such as a cold or the flu – A respiratory virus make the symptoms even worse since the respiratory system works abnormally and has been vulnerable.
As we know that we can at least control the symptoms to prevent the worse asthma attack, we should know what kind of herb that can actually help treat asthma. Garlic is the answer. How does garlic provide benefits for asthma. Check these benefits of garlic for asthma.
1. Promote histamine breakdown
Since garlic contains high amount of vitamin C, it can promote histamine breakdown. Histamine is a chemical that our immune system makes. It acts like bouncers which help our body get rid of something that’s bothering us. In this case, it’s an allergy trigger or commonly called as allergen. Histamine start the process to fight those allergens. That causes you to react like sneezing, tearing up, or itching.
That’s what it takes to get the hustling job done. Simply, it’s a part of our body’s defense system. Its job is to keep our body safe. Now as we know that garlic can trigger histamine breakdown, it helps reduce the allergic effects that can worsen the asthma symptoms. Many asthma sufferers find it get worse when they catch allergens. Garlic is there to reduce histamine release, which involved in allergic reactions and is known to promote inflammation in people with asthma.Â
2. Neutralize free radicals
The next benefit of garlic for asthma is that it can neutralize free radicals. Free radicals are unstable molecules that promote contraction of the airway muscles in people with asthma. Besides of vitamin C, another natural compound found in garlic that help neutralize free radicals is allicin.
As explained in Health Benefits of Eating Fresh Garlic, when we bite into or crush a fresh garlic, it develops a component called allicin. It’s from the precursor component alliin. Alliin, a derived compound of amino acid, is odorless even though it contains sulfur. As garlic is crushed, alliin encounters the enzyme allinase, which converts alliin to allicin. Allicin has a responsibility of garlic’s health benefits and give it a pungent odor.
3. Boost prostacyclin’s production
Another benefits of garlic for asthma is to trigger the ability of the body to prostacyclins. Prostacyclins are lipid molecules that help keeps the airways open thereby making it easy for asthma sufferer to breathe.
The reason why people have asthma is that they get troubles of breathing easily since the air passage of respiratory system gets narrow unlike the normal one. It’s making it hard to breath normally and even causes panic. The production natural prostacyclin from the body is a form of body’s defense action. Garlic helps boost the production of prostacyclin through its natural compounds.Â
4. It has antibacterial
Containing allicin which has antibacterial, garlic can also act as an effective bacteria killer. This has something to do to prevent worse symptoms of asthma which related to bacteria. In our house, dust can be a reason why bacteria can trigger asthma. Bacteria by-product is what’s responsible for this. We call this by-product as endotoxins. People who live in homes with high endotoxin levels are prone to have asthma.
Dust in the bedroom was the biggest cause to trigger asthma. Study shows that endotoxins from dust on bedroom floors and in bed covers were most strongly associated with asthma in adult. With garlic, it’s very helpful to fight the bacteria that triggers asthma.
Those are benefits of garlic for asthma that you should know earlier. Asthma sufferers are common around us. It’s probably your mother, father, siblings, friends or maybe you yourself have asthma. whoever it is, we need to spread the helpful information about asthma treatments. One of them is using garlic.
- To consume garlic for asthma, choose raw garlic instead of the cooked ones since allicin won’t work effectively.
- Add some raw garlic to your diet.
- Chop it and add it to soup, salad, milk or whatever you want.
- You can also consume garlic on its own by making garlic juice and garlic tea. Sounds unfamiliar, doesn’t it? But, it’s worth the try.
To have garlic juice, you just need to crush some garlic cloves and add some water to make a paste. Extract the juice and take it 3 times daily.