Hi, I am trying to help my teenage son who is almost 17 years old. He apparently has "cough variant asthma" which basically means that he has frequent (several times per day) coughing fits that are dry and non-productive. He had asthma as a pre-schooler many years ago but I thought it had cleared up, so I was surprised when the coughing was diagnosed as asthma. But the diagnosis makes sense, because it is worse during exercise, causing him to be pulled from soccer games, and the symptoms do fit cough variant asthma completely.

The docs want him using a broncho-dialating inhaler several times per day, but I'm concerned about him using drugs regularly and have not started him on the meds, and would rather not.

Here are the natural things I've got him on right now, trying to bring down the lung inflammation and stop the coughing:

- magnesium
- vitamin D3
- turmeric
- fish oil
- apple cider vinegar with raw honey drink

He is taking these things daily in reasonably high amounts (though I'm not sure what the dosages should really be). He started this regimen about 3 days ago, and so far I'm not seeing a lot of improvement. However, he did wake up today feeling like he has a mild cold (healing reaction?).

I'm always a little wary about herbs with him because he is allergic to certain plants, and I don't always know which ones he will react to. However I'm considering adding some of the lung herbs like lobelia, etc.

Please reply with any advice or thoughts.

Thanks!
RB