06/22/2026
Most people treat asthma as a lung problem. We treat it as an inflammation problem — and that distinction changes everything about the approach.
70–80% of your immune system lives in your gut. So when gut health is off — from chronic stress, antibiotics, alcohol, or a high-sugar diet — your immune system gets more reactive.
A more reactive immune system, means more inflammation. More inflammation, can mean more airway symptoms.
The good news is that inflammation responds to what you do every day. Foods rich in flavonoids (onions, apple skin, parsley, celery) and anti-inflammatory compounds like turmeric have been shown to help calm an overactive immune response — not as a replacement for your treatment plan, but as part of addressing what's actually driving the flare-ups.
This is the conversation we have with patients every day: not "manage your symptoms forever," but "let's find out why they're happening."
See comments for a link to an article by Dr. Elizabeth Boham that includes a patient case that changed how we think about asthma, gut health, and inflammation.