Hello, this is Dr. Mercola.

Today I'd like to talk to you about a common condition called asthma.

In fact, it's so common that it's increased by over 300% over the last 20 years.

And just what is asthma?

Well, it's an inflammatory condition, typically of the upper airways that causes you to have chest

tightness, shortness of breath, wheezing, and sometimes coughing.

In fact, coughing can be one of the hidden symptoms of asthma.

If a person comes in and that's the only thing they're having is coughing, then one needs to seriously consider the diagnosis of the condition asthma.

And if you're being treated for this conventionally what

are the typical choices? Well the typical choices are a brocodilator inhaled agent

that you inhale and what that does when you do that is to, it causes the smooth muscle cells in the lungs to actually relax and opens up your airways.

And if that doesn't work, the next level above typically is to use inhale steroid which isn't a very

potent anti-inflammatory and the reason these aggressive types of interventions are

performed is because asthma is a serious disease it can can kill you, so really you need to be serious

about treating it.

Unfortunately, the conventional approaches

are not without side effects.

Of course, they can have local side effects but the most common one and one that's not typically

typically appreciated is that the bronchodilators, the non-steroidal bronchodilors, will double

your risk of a heart attack. That's not a good thing.

So it clearly doesn't treat the cause, as do this, the steroids, the steroids, even though

they can help reduce the inflammation in the lungs. They are fraught with side effects.

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