I Don’t Like Taking Drugs

A little over a year ago I went to the doctor. I had been dealing with a bad cold. My chest hurt and I felt breathless. I thought I might have pneumonia. The doctor surprised me when she said I might be developing asthma. She said this was common for allergy sufferers.

I guess I shouldn’t have been taken aback too much as I live in the Central San Joaquin Valley which is known for increasing air pollution. To help improve my symptoms, I was prescribed Symbicort. After several months I discontinued using the inhaler as my allergies improved.

About a month ago, as the new allergy season kicked into high gear, I started experiencing the same symptoms as before and I had to start using Symbicort again. So I decided to do a little research. You see I don’t want to rely on drugs to fix every little health problem that comes along. So today I performed a Google search for “how to improve lung function without drugs”.

Well guess what I found out. Breathing exercises were recommended which is understandable and even beneficial if you already have healthy lungs. There was also an article by a chiropractor that linked the benefits of spinal adjustments to improving the health of asthma sufferers. But the one that amazed me the most was apples.

Yes, apparently eating an apple a day really will keep the doctor away. Apples contain antioxidants and vitamins that protect lung health and improve lung function especially in those with asthma or lung cancer. It seems that apples have the potential to cut the risk of lung cancer in half. In fact they found that the normal decline in lung function we experience with aging was offset by the consumption of apples. Even just 2 apples a week can help prevent asthma. And to top it all off, the medicinal properties in apples have the ability to preventing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in long-term heavy smokers.

Wow! What great news. I like apples. So my next question, “Are some apples better for you than others?” The answer is, “Yes!”

A study was done in Canada of 8 varieties of apples grown on the same Ontario farm. Red Delicious won the prize with an apple call Northern Spy coming in second. Red Delicious had more than twice the antioxidant activity as Empires, which had the least activity of the eight. The other apples studied were McIntosh, Cortland, Ida Red, Golden Delicious and Mutsu. Another researcher found that eating 100 grams of apple per day provides the same amount of antioxidants as eating 1,500 milligrams of Vitamin C per day. So next time your feeling under the weather, don’t pop the Vitamin C alone, and eat an apple. Oh yeah, don’t peel the skin because the good stuff is five times greater in the skin than in the flesh. Just try to buy organic or wash them really well first.

So I guess I’ll be buying more apples and I’ve already told my husband he needs to start eating apples as well.

The good stuff found in apples include:
* Quercetin and other flavonoids
* Pectins
* Tannins
* Vitamins, especially ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) (3-30 mg/100 g)
* Fruit acids, chiefly malic acid

What are they good for? Apples and apple pectin are indicated for use in the following health challenges:
* Impaired lung function
* Lung cancer
* Colon cancer
* Diarrhea and constipation
* Toxic accumulation and toxicity syndromes

And there are no side effects or adverse interactions with other drugs!