Asthma is a relatively common disease. It often makes it hard for sufferers to breathe as it causes the airways to swell and generate more mucus than usual. Chest pains, coughing, and wheezing are some well-known symptoms of this ailment. Many people have a relative or friend who is currently dealing with it. Some even have the illness themselves. Still, that does not take away the need to know more about this infirmity.
We live in fast-changing times and healthcare is becoming more important than ever. The respiratory virus, COVID-19, is still ravaging the globe. Having a health condition such as asthma can add an extra layer of complications to an already difficult situation.
There’s also the fact that the way our bodies react to diseases keeps changing over the years due to diet, age, and other factors.
Best Books on Asthma: Our Top 6 Picks
Whether you need to deepen your knowledge of this ailment for health reasons or academic ones, these six books will prove valuable.
1. All About Asthma Guidebook: A Pulmonologist Explains Asthma
In this textbook, Dr. DiFilippo shares about 30 years of experience as a Board Certified Internist and Pulmonologist with his readers. He dives deep into the different complexities of asthma. If you think you know all about asthma, this book will surprise you with its wealth of information.
It outlines the criteria for arriving at a diagnosis of asthma from start to finish. There are details on what steps should be carried out to control this chronic disease. Multiple issues arise in the management of asthma in different groups of people. This book will lead you through those dilemmas and help you arrive at a broader and deeper understanding of the subject.
Besides a handful of technical terms, it makes for a smooth, easy read. There are pictures and treatment recommendations in it that add to its appeal. The pros and cons of using certain drugs are also spelled out.
If you want a book that practically answers all your questions about asthma and its management, this text is a must-have. Both the old and young will benefit from a careful study of it.
- Author: Dr. Nicholas DiFilippo
- Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
- Current edition: 1st edition
- Pages: 198
2. Asthma for Dummies
As the name implies, this is a simplified book on the symptoms, treatment, and diagnosis of asthma. It explains how to use the different medicines available to prevent a serious crisis. There’s a section on allergies and how to avoid them in your home. Often overlooked culprits in your home and garden are identified.
A discussion on food allergies and the complexities of dealing with them also form part of this work. Health insurance, its benefits, and challenges, as well as how to work with doctors and other healthcare professionals is not left out in this textbook.
There’s also an analysis of the dreaded complications asthma can bring. Ways to manage them and prevent them are thoroughly explained. A section on support is included. We all know how helpful peer groups can be for people suffering from a chronic ailment. Techniques that can be used to find the right kind of support are shared in the pages of this guidebook.
In every chapter, you can sense the author’s decades of experience diagnosing and treating asthmatics. This is one book you need to read.
- Author: William E. Berger
- Publisher: For Dummies
- Current edition: 1st edition
- Pages: 384
3. Breathe to Heal: Break Free from Asthma
This book is focused on sharing the original Buteyko Breathing Normalization method. It helps readers arrive at a thorough understanding of asthma and how to deal with it.
Specific breathing exercises are highlighted – things that kids and adults can start doing to live a relatively normal life despite having this incurable disease. Like any system, the organs that make up the respiratory system function a certain way. As the authors underscore, knowing how to optimize that function is the key to breaking free from asthma.
In this guidebook, the emphasis is on self-help therapy free from the disadvantages of reliance on medication. Tips are shared for common problems such as breathlessness, nasal congestion, and coughing, sleep apnea, and other breathing issues.
A lot of asthmatics live in fear of running into a crisis. It affects the quality of their lives and prevents them from reaching their full potential. This publication can help such people work, exercise, eat, and sleep without the fear of an asthma attack. It is a comprehensive book filled with breathing exercises, testimonials, and recommendations for people of all ages.
- Authors: Sasha Yakovleva, K.P. Buteyko, A.E. Novozhilov, Jean Boles
- Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
- Current edition: 1st edition
- Pages: 274
4. No More Allergies, Asthma or Sinus Infections: The Revolutionary Approach
Written by a renowned American country doctor and self-proclaimed common-sense medical practitioner, this book is meant for those with breathing afflictions. It teaches readers to get rid of allergies, sinuses, and other ailments of the upper respiratory tract.
In it, Dr. Jones explains his special treatment method of using nasal xylitol for patients. Incidentally, the use of this same product helps to fend off cavities and ear infections, especially in children.
Asthmatics know all about using antihistamines, antibiotics, and many other drugs to get a grip on their condition. The problem is this is a lifelong ailment and using medication for the rest of your life is not an appealing prospect. This makes the author’s suggestions inviting to many patients. It presents a way to reduce or eliminate dependence on medicines and the many side effects they bring on.
Our bodies have a natural cleansing mechanism. Dirt and dead skins cells are expelled periodically. We don’t even need to lift a finger. The same thing happens in the respiratory system. Your airways are constantly trying to get rid of pollutants and irritants. But the technique taught in this text is aimed at helping asthmatics optimize that cleansing process.
- Author: Dr. Lon Jones
- Publisher: Freedom Press
- Current edition: Illustrated edition
- Pages: 160
5. The Allergy and Asthma Cure: A Complete 8-Step Nutritional Program
This work describes the Allergy and Asthma Cure of the famous Dr. Pescatore. It reveals the environmental and nutritional inadequacies which are the root cause of respiratory conditions. Traditional and alternative treatments are combined to create a system that drastically improves the health of patients.
The book draws on his years of clinical experience and practice of nutritional medicine. It offers readers a way to stop needing to take medication for the rest of their lives and spare themselves the side effects. It cites nutritional deficiencies as the cause of chemical imbalances and shows how that leads to asthma, hives, sinus problems, and other allergies.
Asthmatics who have tried every available drug without getting results are extremely likely to have positive results with this treatment regimen. This manual goes on to list tips to help you determine if you have a food allergy. It also names a wide array of little-known asthma triggers such as estrogen, mold, heartburn, obesity, among other things.
There are some fast facts around leaky gut syndrome and the connection it has with allergies such as asthma. Suggestions to help you know if you have it or not and the next steps to take if you do are laid down. There’s a discussion of allergy shots and the problems they cause as well as the dangers of using steroids for long periods.
This book is a practical guide to taking control of asthma and ridding yourself of the many problems it brings. Medical practitioners and students of the subject will find it helpful.
- Author: Fred Pescatore
- Publisher: Wiley
- Current edition: 1st edition
- Pages: 272
6. ASTHMA DIET AND COOKBOOK: Complete Asthma Remedy Recipe Guide, Delicious Cookbook, and Meal Plan
As the name implies, this handbook is filled with suggestions on meals that help patients manage the symptoms of asthma. It lists the foods to avoid and the ones to consume for optimum respiratory health.
The author doesn’t view asthma as something that should be taken for granted but as a potentially life-threatening illness. She acknowledges exercise, tobacco smoke, cold or dry air, pets, pollen, dust, and upper respiratory infections as triggers of the disease.
Recurrent symptoms such as insomnia, pain in the chest, breathlessness, and daytime fatigue are things that inspired the writer. There is no question about it. The result is this recipe guide that is as practical as it is helpful.
- Author: Dr. Elizabeth David
- Publisher: Independently published
- Current edition: 1st edition
- Pages: 62
Wrap-up
A lot of advancements have been made in the field of respiratory health in recent years. It will take some time and effort for anyone to keep up. If you want to learn all about them, you don’t need to waste time reading through countless web pages, scouring the internet for information. All you need to do is pick up the books listed above. You’ll watch your knowledge level grow to unimaginable heights and it will be transformed to power that can and will change your worldview for good.
