Asthma is a potentially critical illness that can be debilitating to your health and lifestyle. If you’re a chronic sufferer, you’re probably on permanent preventative medication and always on the lookout for irritants (eg, mould, dust, certain foods or plants, wood or cigarette smoke, to name a few). You’re also living with the constant threat of a life-threatening attack.

Even if you have mild symptoms or occasional attacks, you still have to be vigilant – ensuring you have quick and easy access to medication (because attacks can be completely unexpected) and avoiding known irritants.

Asthma is an inflammation of the airways, the small tubes that carry air in and out of the lungs. The muscles in the airways become tight and the linings enlarge and produce mucus. These changes narrow the airways, resulting in coughing, wheezing, a tight feeling in the chest and shortness of breath. Triggers vary from person to person, but can also include coldness or sudden changes in temperature, pets, chemical irritants and outdoor pollution.

One in 12 people (that’s 25 million) in the US are asthmatic and at least fifty percent of them had an attack in the past twelve months. A lot of these attacks could have been prevented with the right management plan, which should include the use of probiotics. Here are three reasons why:

Asthma is an allergic reaction of the airways to particular irritants and so is directly linked toyour immune system. Experts say that 60 to 70% of your immune system is found in the gut, where trillions of bacteria called probiotics assist you to digest your food and prevent harmful bacteria from penetrating your intestinal wall.

The more harmful bacteria (including triggers for your symptoms) that infiltrate the intestinal wall and enter the blood stream, the more likely the immune system is going to cause an allergic response by way of histamine production to get rid of the attackers. This causes the symptoms of asthma. If you have strong probiotic colonies in your body gained as a result of supplementation, these will assist to prevent these harmful bacteria from entering the blood stream, resulting in less attacks.

Secondly, as you now have less toxins in your body, the probiotics can focus all their energies on getting rid of the attackers when they attack – again resulting in less attacks. It’s vital to note that due to many variables, probiotics may not be able to prevent some toxins from entering the blood stream, which means you will still have symptoms, but reduced in regularity and intensity.

And thirdly, many types of medication, including steroids which are commonly prescribed for asthma, strip the body of a lot of its good bacteria, resulting in a bacterial imbalance which can leave you prone to more illness in the future. To obtain the maximum benefit from your medication it’s vital to take probitoics as well, to repair the levels of good bacteria andassist you recover more quickly.

Numerous asthmatics say that their symptoms have lessened after a length of time using probiotics. It’s vital to remember that probiotics are not a cure – they must be taken in addition to your normal medication and not instead of it, and made an vital part of your asthma management plan. Take them as specified by the manufacturer or by your doctor or health consultant.