Subject: Asthma - asthma.txt [1/1]

From: [email-masked] (larry withers)
Date: 8 Sep 1995 17:35:36 GMT

Asthma 
Asthma is an allergic response to materials in  
the air and food supply.  Food allergy is a  
neglected cause of  Asthma. 
 Diet revision is often helpful especially if  
asthma is severe and prolonged. 
 
Asthma is increasing world-wide and higher  
numbers of deaths from asthma in affluent  
countries worry authorities. The Center for  
Disease Control in Canada reported a threefold  
increase of asthmatic deaths over 20 years, mostly  
in teenagers and young adults. Asthma has been  
treated with drugs, both inhaled and taken orally.  
World-wide about 400 million prescriptions a  
year, costing up  5 billion dollars are used to  
combat the disease.      
 
In the past, medical textbooks divided asthma into  
inside and outside forms. Extrinsic (outside)  
asthma tended to occur in sudden attacks triggered  
by exposure to airborne materials. Intrinsic  
(inside) asthma seemed to occur continuously or  
in prolonged episodes for no apparent reason. The  
spring or summer wheezing attacks of pollen  
sensitive patients is a form of extrinsic asthma,  
usually obvious to patients and allergists alike.  
Indoor allergens often play a role in maintaining  
year-round asthma and may present as "intrinsic"  
asthma. Allergy to house dust mites is a leading  
cause of winter asthma. Cigarette smoke is always  
a major problem for asthmatics. Air pollution is a  
growing concern.  
 
Bonchodilator drugs are commonly used to treat  
asthma but may worsen the disease in the long  
run. These drugs dilate the small tubes in the lung  
which constrict during an asthma attack and  
usually the drugs relieve the wheezing and  
shortness of breath quickly. This is symptomatic  
therapy which does not address the cause or  
mechanisms of the asthma. Many patients are  
instructed to inhale these drugs continuously and  
rely on them completely to control their asthma.  
Newer, better treatment strategies emphasize  
other drugs which prevent the allergic response or  
treat the inflammation that keeps asthma going.  
An even better strategy would be to prevent the  
asthma by removing the original cause. Other  
causes of asthma must be considered. Often,  
asthma is treated only as an airborne allergy  
problem or as a problem unrelated to allergic  
processes and the possible role of food allergy is  
neglected! Dr. Wraith stated:   
 
"Food allergy is a very important cause of asthma but 
is often overlooked. It is important because it may 
cause severe symptoms and asthma still has a high 
mortality despite improvements in drug therapy. It is 
overlooked because the usual skin tests are often 
negative and the history is often not  
helpful as symptoms appear gradually hours or days 
after ingestion of the food." 
 
Drs. Pelikan and Pelikan-Filipek demonstrated  
asthmatic responses to food ingestion  and  
suggested: 
 
"The role of food allergy in patients with bronchial  
complaints is still underestimated by clinicians 
because 
(1) of the dearth of information in this area. 
(2) The involvement of foods in patients with allergic 
disorders is very complex and has various forms...
(3) The diagnostic procedures and confirmation of the 
involvement of adverse reactions to foods...is a 
difficult problem."  
 
Chronic coughs may mean allergic bronchitis  
with or without asthma. Food allergy patients are  
often given antibiotics repeatedly, since allergic  
symptoms and infection symptoms are similar.  
Antibiotics may offer no benefits and may  
increase the risk of further allergic reactions.  
Many patients report long-term deterioration  
after repeated or prolonged antibiotic use. This  
apparent adverse effect of antibiotics has been  
blamed on yeast overgrowth in GIT, but the real  
reason is probably more complex.  
 
Food allergens travel from the digestive tract  
to the lungs. Food allergens may be found in the  
blood stream in circulating immune complexes  
which trigger the release of immune mediators in  
the bloodstream. These chemicals cause a variety  
of symptoms, including constriction of the  
bronchial smooth muscle in the lungs; this is the  
first event of an asthmatic attack. Airflow is  
reduced in the narrowed tubes. Air has a harder  
time leaving the lungs than entering_the result is  
prolonged noisy expiration. Later, the small tubes  
in the lung swell and plug with increased mucus  
secretion, making the obstruction to airflow  
worse. This inflammatory, obstructive phase is  
the most important mechanism of chronic  
asthmatic bronchitis.  
 
The good news is that complete diet revision may  
significantly relieve symptoms. Asthma that  
seems to originate inside the body (intrinsic  
asthma) should be treated as food allergy until  
proven otherwise. This assumption should lead to  
careful diet revision, using the Core Program. A  
trial of clearing on ENFood (en elemental  
nutrient formula) for up to 14 days may be  
beneficial.    
 
Asthma is often associated with other symptoms  
which suggest a whole-body food allergy  
problem. Asthma is one of the 3  manifestations  
of a pattern of allergy, called Atopy. The  
associated disorders are eczema and hay fever.  
Often patients have positive skin tests to inhalant  
allergens  which cause hay fever, but may not  
show skin reactions to foods which prove to be a  
major problem. If all the attention is directed  
toward the more obvious skin-positive inhalant  
allergies, an opportunity to benefit from diet  
revision is lost.  
 
A comprehensive management plan will  
include solving the food allergy problem, solving  
airborne allergy and toxicity, and providing the  
right medication, at the right doses and at the  
right time when preventive efforts fail. The most  
serious airborne problems at home are cigarette  
smoke, dust, molds, and house dust mites.  
 
Drug treatment strategies have shifted away  
>from  drugs which relax smooth muscle and dilate  
the branching tubes in the lung to drugs which  
block allergic reactions and reduce inflammation.  
Thus cromoglycate (Intal, Fivent) or  
nedocromil (Tilade) by inhalation or more  
recently ketotifen (Zaditen) orally have been  
favored to block allergic reactions as a  
preventative measure. Inhaled steroids  
(Beclovent, Pulmicort) have become "first line  
of defense" in treating chronic asthma. The  
bronchodilators (ventolin, bricanyl, berotec)  
are used to treat the acute wheezing attacks, along  
with steroids which block the delayed  
inflammatory swelling effects. Prednisone orally  
is prescribed if the asthma eludes control by  
inhaled steroids. 
 
Patients following the Core Program experience  
a reduction or clearing of asthma symptoms, but  
they are vulnerable to acute attacks if they eat the  
wrong food. The attacks occur in a typical  
sequence, beginning with an immediate episode of  
congestion, coughing and/or wheezing, followed  
several hours later by a delayed, more serious  
episode of breathing difficulty. We  recommend  
retreating to Phase 1 foods in the Core Program or  
an ENF, (elemental nutrient formula) such as  
ENFood C1, for several days if the attack is  
severe. 
 
An occasional patient will react catastrophically  
to food allergens with a life-threatening breathing  
problem as an immediate anaphylactic reaction or  
a more delayed "pneumonia" (inflammatory  
swelling and edema of the lungs) and will require  
hospital treatment with adrenaline, nebulizers,  
oxygen, and steroids. A milk-triggered pneumonia  
in infants was reported by Heiner and Sears.   
Infants with the Heiner Syndrome have ear, nose  
and throat symptom, vomiting, colic, and anemia  
>from  blood loss and iron malabsorption.  
Removing cow's milk from the diet cures this  
milk disease! We see similar collections of  
problems in adults to milk and other food  
allergens. 

Page C. Asthma as a chronic inflammatory disease 
and the  
implications for future therapy. Ann of Allergy  
1992;69:251-260 
2 Wraith  D.G. Food Allergy and Intolerance  486-
497; 1987 
  Pelikan Z., Pelikan-Filpek M., Bronchial response to 
the  
food ingestion challenge. Annals of Allergy. 1987; 
58:164- 
172 
  Osterballe H.O, Bundgaard B., Weeke B., Weiss, M.  
Double-blind controlled trial of Elemental Diet in 
severe,  
perennial asthma. Allergy 1981,36:257-262 
 Vincent J. Avoidance therapy: time-tested methods 
to treat  
asthma. Family Practice Recertification 1990; 12(11): 
71-87. 
 Heiner D.C., Sears J.W.: Chronic Respiratory 
Disease  
associated with multiple circulating precipitans to 
cow's  
milk. Am J Dis Child 100:500,1960