Food allergy is a common and often neglected cause of asthma in children. In a group of
320 allergic children with eczema, 55% had
asthma. Food challenges triggered respiratory symptoms in 59% of including
nose congestion,
laryngeal edema, wheezing, and shortness of breath. Gastrointestinal symptoms occurred in 41% of
positive challenges.
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.
Here are basic ideas about asthma causes and treatment:
-
Asthma is allergy until proven otherwise.
-
Allergy comes from airborne and food sources.
- Solve asthma by improving air quality and doing diet revision.
-
Use drugs if avoidance measures fail.
The three basic treatment
choices are:
- Remove the Cause of Asthma
- Treat the symptoms
- Alter the host to be more tolerate of the causes
Air Sources
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, although
rates of asthma are equal or higher in rural residents compared with urban residents.
People living in rural areas do not automatically breath cleaner air.
Food Sources
Food allergy can cause both immediate and delayed patterns of asthma. Immediate food
reactions can cause sudden, dramatic and life-threatening asthma is one of the
consequences of anaphylactic reactions to food. Delayed patterns of food allergy can cause
chronic asthma and/or bronchitis and are among the most neglected causes of chronic
"intrinsic" asthma.
Remove
the original cause
Consider asthma to be an allergic disease and look at the air and food supplies for the
triggers of asthma. Here is a simple problem-solving approach:
If asthmatic; then
-
Stop all smoking and association with smokers
-
Stop all use of volatile chemicals
-
If attacks of asthma are intermittent and related to airborne exposures then avoid the
exposure or wear air-purifying filters when exposed
and/or use preventive medications
-
If asthma attacks are seasonal and related to plant cycles, then get allergy tests and
consider using preventive medication. If pollen allergy is the main and only cause of
asthma, consider immunotherapy.
- If asthma is chronic and tends to occur in all seasons and is not related to airborne
exposure, then consider delayed pattern food allergy as the cause and do diet revision
using Alpha Nutrition.
While airborne problems are more obvious to asthmatic sufferers, food problems may be a
well-hidden source of lung-disease. Many studies of food
allergy involve patients with food-induced asthma; the asthma is easily recognized if
symptoms begin within a few hours of eating food and is the asthma is associated with
other symptoms of food allergy. Eczema and asthma are often associated in atopic patients
with food allergy.
James et al reported that in a group of 320 children with atopic
dermatitis, 55% had asthma. Food challenges triggered respiratory symptoms in 59% of
including rhinitis, laryngeal edema, wheezing, and dyspnea. Gastrointestinal symptoms
occurred in 41% of positive challenges.
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."
IgE and Non-IgE mechanisms can cause asthma. Patients with no positive skin tests were
shown to react to foods. In Wraith's studies, milk, wheat, egg, yeast, preservatives,
colorings, coffee and cheese were the main foods implicated. Other manifestations of food
allergy are typical in 65% of the asthmatic patients.
In children under 15 years eczema, gastrointestinal symptoms, rhinitis and nasal
polyps, enuresis, and behavior problems were common. Older patients had more
gastrointestinal symptoms, rhinitis, arthralgias, and migraine headaches. Diet revision
with elimination of foods or a "hypoantigenic" diet were used to induce
remission of symptoms then foods were re-introduced to determine reactivity.
In a review of 320 children and young adults with atopic dermatitis 55% had asthma. With
food challenges respiratory symptoms occurred in 236 (42%) including nasal symptoms,
dyspnea, wheezing, and laryngeal edema.
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.
Patients with delayed pattern food allergy have the most severe and persistent
inflammatory form of chronic asthma. The good news is that complete diet revision may
allow remission of chronic 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. Our patients usually have asthma with
associated symptoms that suggest a whole-body food allergy problem.
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.
A trial of clearing on Alpha ENF for 10 days may be beneficial.
Patients
following the Alpha Nutrition 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 sequence, usually beginning with nose and throat congestion, coughing
and/or wheezing, followed several hours later by a delayed, more serious episode of
breathing difficulty. The initial reaction should be treated with a bronchodilator
(ventolin) and a generous dose of steroid (flovent, pulmicort) which
attenuates the delayed response. We also recommend retreating to Phase 1 foods and/or
Alpha ENF for several days if the attack is severe.
How to Use the Alpha Nutrition
Program
Self -Help: The diet revision program is explained in enough detail in the Alpha Nutrition Manual
that an intelligent, well-motivated person can follow the steps
outlined. A parent can modify the diet of
his or her child to alleviate chronic asthma. Diet
revision is an experiment, not a guaranteed cure. The hypothesis is that
your "normal" diet is causing or contributing to your child's symptoms. The
experiment is to retreat to a low allergy diet and/or take a food holiday diet
to find out if he or she improves.
The good news is that your child may benefit
greatly by the effort you make. We recommend the slow track for all prolonged and serious
symptoms. This means that you follow the rules in Phase 1 of
the program exactly. You are trying to establish improvement quickly - at least within the
first 10 days.
It is always necessary,
therefore, to correct illness problems by complete diet revision using the the
Alpha Nutrition Program. A children's
rescue starter pack combines this program with the Book of Children in
printed or eBook format with a 500 Gram jar of Alpha ENF, our complete
nutrition, food replacement formula. You can order a Children's Starter Pack
and add the Book of Asthma for
complete instructions. You can try the Alpha ENF. Find out if your child will accept
the formula in juice so that his or her nutrition can be safely
supplemented. Then decide if
and when you are ready to begin. You can order the starter pack
with an eMail support option so that you can correspond with a tutor and have help getting started.
