Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood. It is a lung disease characterized by difficulty in breathing, cough with sputum and sometimes fever. Children with asthma typically cough, wheeze, and experience chest tightness and shortness of breath.
Asthma in children and infants is a major health problem showing steady increase in prevalence both in developing and developed countries. Seventy-four percent of asthma attacks in children are experienced in children less than 5 years of age and 26 percent in less than one year of age. The ratio of male and female incidence is 2:1.
According to Ayurveda, asthma in children can be of two types: Beejadosha (genetic), or Sahaja (acquired).
Sahaja type of asthma is easy to treat, whereas asthma due to genetic causes (beejadosha) wherein there is a history of asthma in the family, is difficult to treat. In some cases, it has been observed that after 8th or 9th year of age the problem disappears spontaneously. This type of asthma may have been caused due to the imbalance of kaphadosha.
Kapha is one of the three biological energies or doshas (Vata, Pitta, and Kapha) responsible for health and disease in every human being. It is a mucus like substance, which is dense, heavy, firm, stable, slow, thick, sticky, wet, clear and cold in nature. In asthma, kapha imbalanced due to various causes accumulates in the lungs and leads to blockage of bronchioles. The blocked bronchioles in turn produce symptoms of asthma.