Many asthma sufferers may know that there are alternative treatments to dealing with asthma who, in addition to the inhalers and medications on the market in traditional or allopathic medicines. Much research is currently going on with regard to alternative forms of asthma treatment and relief. Unfortunately, many in the medical profession give them little merit.

However, doctors are only responsible for part of the blame in this. It is indeed true that many doctors don't like being told about alternative forms of asthma treatment, especially by their patients. They may think that they are more knowledgeable than their patients are, even though patients themselves have often lived with the disease for years and therefore may know almost as much as their doctors, if not even more.

But there's more to it than that. In the first place, medical schools don't teach student doctors about alternative remedies this is because allopathic medicine operates on a different principle than do the more traditional, centuries old treatments such as acupuncture or herbal remedies, which deal with bringing the body back in balance and letting it right itself, with a little help. Allopathic medicine deals with treating symptoms, not necessarily the cause oh the disease itself. However, there is another factor, and that is that the pharmaceutical companies are simply in the business of making money. The drugs they produce to help asthma sufferers, as with other diseases, make them a profit.

Therefore, if the diseases are cured, the pharmaceutical companies' profits go away. Now, it's absolutely true that there are some "quack" treatments out there that are of little use, and the people who run those types of scams are also in the business of making money, not benefiting the asthma sufferer. However, there are many alternative treatments out there that have shown very promising results for asthma and other diseases, and these are the ones that should be investigated. In many if not most cases, the reason the FDA or the ADA are against them is because these treatments do not make the pharmaceutical companies or the ADA any money. In addition, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), which is the governmental body that regulates and approves all drug treatments in the United States, does not recognize or approve of most alternative treatments. This is slowly changing, as remedies like acupuncture are slowly gaining credence as ways to control disease symptoms.

Unfortunately, for the present, whether or not doctors do agree with alternative treatments, they are not permitted to administer any treatment not approved by the FDA. In fact, doctors can have their licenses taken away from them or face heavy fines by doing so. Simply put, their hands are tied, too, and it behooves this country to change its practices enough so that doctors may practice alternative therapies in addition to the more familiar allopathic ones.

As alternative therapies gain more and more credence, it is hoped that the tide in this country will slowly shift, to one where allopathic and alternative medicines can work hand-in-hand, for the treatment and management of diseases like asthma. Indeed, more doctors are seeing the benefit of these, and as medical schools graduate younger and more open-minded doctors, this trend should continue. Some state that within 20 years, alternative treatments will be put on the "shelf" alongside allopathic treatments as bona fide methods of managing and curing disease. Although this may not be soon enough for current asthma sufferers, it is at least a start, and it should be of note that alternative treatments do exist today, even if your doctor doesn't currently approve of them.