More MS Patients Also Have Asthma

After adjusting results for age and gender, asthma was found to be almost three times more common in MS patients than in the general population according to a new study presented at the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIM) Forum.

This finding didn’t surprise me.

According to the dictionary, asthma means difficulty breathing due to spasms or inflammation in the lungs usually as an effect of allergic or hypersensitivity reaction.

I hope that those of us already diagnosed with autoimmune conditions already recognize that we are hypersensitive people and riddled with inflammation, at times both severe, as during a flare-up or exacerbation, and chronic, low-level hidden inflammation.

Asthma is a symptom of inflammation. Integrative medicine teaches us to look to the root of the symptom in order to address the real issue. Asthma is not the real issue; it’s what’s causing the hypersensitivity reaction that is the problem. Identify and remove the triggering offender, and the symptom will disappear.

The reason this finding didn’t surprise me is because I welcome all of my MS and other autoimmune sufferers to the “club of the hypersensitive.” Congratulations, I tell them. “You have just entered an exclusive club of those of us who have crossed our tolerance thresholds and are now officially hypersensitive. Your job now is to identify and avoid your inflammatory triggers while healing your gut so that you can live a pain-free life again.”

Why heal the gut? 80% or more of our immune system is based in our digestive tract. A dysfunctional gut may have helped send you down the road of autoimmunity to begin with.

Oh yes, and parasites. The buggers can contribute to chronic inflammation, too.

It’s a new paradigm in thinking about and managing inflammation and immune dysfunction.

If any of this resonates with you, shoot me an email and I’ll be happy to offer you a free initial phone consultation to talk about it.

#ACTRIMS2019 – Asthma More Common in MS Patients Than Public at Large, Study Finds