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Treating pneumonia is not easy, as pneumonia patients tend to be already weak from other illnesses in the first place. The typical pneumonia patient might be someone with a life-threatening illness like cancer or Aids. Very often, the person's immune system would have been almost completely destroyed by strong medication like chemotherapy. So a lot needs to be done to restrore the person's health.
The fact that pneumonia is difficult to treat does not necessarily mean that we should turn to pharmaceutical drugs. There is a common mis-perception that drugs are more effective and quicker acting than natural remedies.
This is not true. If you have ever tried natural cures, you will know that they often work faster. I have ever experienced simple natural remedies bringing down a fever, or stopping a runny nose, within minutes. Drugs don't work as quickly (if they work at all)!
Treating pneumonia presents a difficult balance. On the one hand, you don't want the side effects of drugs to weaken the body further. On the other hand, pneumonia is a very serious disease that can deteriorate quickly, so if you want to try natural treatments, you have to be very confident of what you are doing - and be prepared to accept the outcome, whatever it may be.
Some natural healthcare professionals feel that serious illnesses like pneumonia are best left to conventional medical care. Unfortunately, medical treatment does not have a good record with pneumonia either. Whatever your choice, it is useful to know about natural treatments for pneumonia as they can also complement medical treatment.|
Yin and Yang
I would also recommend you to read the article on yin and yang of the flu. All the recommendations there about the flu apply equally to pneumonia. Some websites recommend fruit and vegetable juices, as well as a raw diet of fruits and salads, for treating pneumonia. This, to me, is very dangerous advice coming from raw food advocates who view a raw diet as the solution to every iillness. From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine and macrobiotics, and from my personal experience, raw foods will worsen respiratory ailments like pneumonia, asthma, etc. The first time I ever had an asthma attack was soon after I started a raw foods diet! Click here for my discussion about cooked versus raw foods. |
Treating pneumonia symptoms
Most symptoms of pneumonia are similar to flu symptoms and you will find plenty of natural remedies for these in the various articles on fever, cough and sore throat as well as the general article on natural flu remedies.
The one symptom that distinguishes pneumonia from the flu is that it attracks the lungs, often leading to an accumulation of fluids and pus in the lungs, resulting in breathing difficulties.
Unfortunately, this is one area where natural treatments for pneumonia are not very helpful. I know of only one method to remove fluids from the body naturally and this is using a buckwheat plaster:
However, this method is not known to be very effective. Some fluids will get drawn out, but not a lot. You probably need many repeated applications, changing the buckwheat plaster every two or three hours. And if the patient has difficulty breathing, the buckwheat plaster may not work fast enough to be of adequate help.
Acupuncture, qigong therapy and other energy-based therapies, however, can he helpful in enhancing the breathing capability of the patient.
Killing the germs
The medical way of treating pneumonia - at least in the case of common forms of pneumonia associated with bacteria infection - is to destroy the bacteria with antibiotics. Increasingly, however, this no longer works as new strains of pneumonia bacteria develop antibiotic resistance.
Such bacteria, however, will be destroyed by the many types of natural antibiotics, including garlic, propolis, olive leaf extract, echinacea, hydrogen peroxide and umeboshi.
Many herbs and spices also have natural antibiotic properties. One that is often mentioned as a possible natural treatment fo pneumonia is fenugreek, a spice used in Indoan and Mediterranean cooking. Besides killing bacteria, a fenugreek tea will also help to expel phelgm. To make fenugreek tea:
It is also important that the room of the pneumonia patient be kept clean, well-ventilated and, if possible, well-lit by natural sunlight.
This is where essential oils - the pure, aromatic oils extracted from herbs, spices and other plant products - come in useful. These, too, are very powerful natural antibiotics. Most essential oils are too potent for direct consumption. So one way to use them as natural antibiotics is to spray into the atmosphere. This, alone, is often good enough to destroy the bacteria and viruses in the room within one or two minutes.
Helpful essential oils for destroying bacteria and viruses include the oils of lemon, oregano, thyme, pine, cinnamon, cloves, peppermint, lavender, rosemary and tea tree.
Immune system
Finally, a key element in treating pneumonia is to build up the body's immune system and the overall health of the patient. This is a big topic, so rather than make this article too long, let's look at it in the next article about how to boost the immune system for treating pneumonia and other illnesses.