WHY WE HAVE AN EPIDEMIC OF ASTHMA
Digging Deeper
Looking For Root Causes
Twenty years ago, most doctors still thought that the fundamental root cause of
asthma was bronchospasm, or sudden contraction of the bronchial tubes that
bring air to the lungs. Therefore, they treated asthma by dilating the bronchial
tubes when they went into spasm.
Then the medical community began to dig more deeply into the root causes of
bronchospasm. Doctors discovered that most bronchospasms are touched off by
several classic triggers, including mold, pollen, pollution, infection, and pet hair.
Therefore, they told their patients to try to avoid these triggers.
Some doctors and researchers, though, dug even more deeply into asthma's root
causes, and found that inflammation was the most fundamental root cause of
asthma. It became apparent that bronchial tubes went into spasm from the
classic asthma triggers only when they were already aggravated by inflamed
muscles that had become overly sensitive, and inflamed tissues that poured out
too much mucus.
Over the next decade, most physicians began to agree that inflammation was the
root cause of asthma, so doctors added a new treatment. In addition to the
existing treatment of dilating bronchial tubes when asthma episodes struck,
doctors began to also put patients on continuing courses of steroidal, anti-
inflammatory drugs, to help prevent asthma episodes from being triggered.
Most doctors still use these two standard approaches:
(1) Dilating bronchial tubes during asthma episodes.
(2) Prescribing steroidal anti-inflammatories to help prevent asthma episodes.
This still fails to reach the real root cause of asthma.
The root cause of asthma is: the original source of the inflammation.
To defeat asthma, we must dig all the way down to the basic sources of airway
inflammation, and eliminate them.
This can be hard to do. It’s much easier to just give patients inhalers. It can take
months of medical detective work to identify the original sources of inflammation,
and to remove them. This work can be confusing, because many of the root
causes of inflammation, such as mold and infection, are also common asthma
triggers. However, not all triggers are causes of inflammation, and not all
inflammation is caused by classic asthma triggers. Doctors and parents need to
just keep digging, until finally the actual, root sources of the inflammation
emerge.
There are three primary sources of inflammation, and each of the three has
several sub-categories.
3 Root Sources Of Asthmatic Inflammation
Infections. A virus, bacteria, or a fungus can infect the airways, or they can start an
infection somewhere else, such as in the gut, which can then migrate to the
airways, or send inflammatory chemicals to the airways.
This can be an infection that may seem totally unrelated to asthma, such as a
chronic yeast infection, or perhaps chlamydia, or even a lingering measles
infection in the gut. That is why diverse treatments – such as antibiotics,
antivirals, or antifungals – can result in dramatic improvements in asthma
symptoms.
Food Reactions. Food allergies, sensitivities, and intolerances can also cause
inflammation, even though some physicians who treat asthma tend to ignore this
aspect of causation. Food reactions also contribute to two other factors that are
related to asthma:
Overproduction of mucus. Excessive sensitivity of the nervous system, which can
contribute to muscle spasms. Milk products are the most common asthmatic food
factor. Wheat is second. Saturated fats can also contribute to asthma, by spiking
inflammation.
Toxins. As the body struggles to eliminate toxins, it creates inflammation. Heavy
metals, even more than other toxins, kick up inflammation. Heavy metals that are
most commonly found in asthmatic children are:
- Mercury
- Lead
- Aluminum
- Cadmium
- Tin
- Arsenic.
Air pollution is both a common asthmatic trigger, and a frequent cause of
inflammation. When air pollution spikes, hospitalizations for asthma spike. Even
indoor air is often excessively recycled within homes, and frequently contains:
· Chemical gasses emitted by home furnishings
· Dust
· Mold
· Mildew
· Dust mites
· Insect waste products
The Root Sources of Inflammation Can Have a Cumulative Effect
It all adds up.
Infections, food reactions, and toxins can form a terrible triad. Correcting this triad
of inflammatory factors can be difficult. But it can be done. The Healing Program
helps clear infections, and helps reduce toxicity and food reactivity. When this
happens, inflammation decreases, and kids generally suffer markedly less from
asthma.
Even so, children must adhere to the comprehensive Healing Program for weeks,
months, or even years to control the inflammation caused by these root sources,
and to be free from significant symptoms of asthma. This takes time
