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Asthma Treatment

Section 1. The Problem

Asthma isn't a disease. It is a condition of restricted airways characterized by wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath. Sometimes the only symptom is coughing. At its most mild, we see the patient who wheezes once in a great while, perhaps when they have a "cold" or a chest infection. At its most severe, we see life threatening shortness of breath, and even death, as a result of severe asthma.

Recent studies indicate about 15 million Americans have asthma. The incidence is rising year by year. There are about 500,000 hospital admissions for asthma each year. And there are about 5,000 deaths attributed to asthma annually It is estimated that 100 million workdays are lost each year due to asthma. Asthma causes 10 million days of school absences each year. Direct expenses related to asthma care are estimated at $3.8 BILLION annually. Then there is also an additional $2.6 billion in indirect medical expenses, including lost workdays for adults with asthma, or from caring for children with asthma.

Asthma has long been thought to be an "emotional" disorder, in that it was observed in children subjected to stress or anxious situations (..."clean up your room right this minute or I'll blister your bottom"...), who would promptly begin wheezing. So is it emotional? Not really. Since our "emergency" hormone ADRENALIN is such a powerful stimulus for muscle contraction, it stands to reason that emotional change (good or bad) is surely one of the many causative factors. Adrenalin can lead to bronchoconstriction, one of the two main culprits in the causation of asthma. We have finally reached some agreement that the other culprit is inflammation. Moreover, most physicians would agree, now, that this is about inflammation of the total respiratory system: nose, sinus, lungs and all. Some of the shortness of breath (SOB) is due to swelling of the soft tissue lining the airways. Some is due to muscle spasms in the smooth muscles that surround the airways. Some is due to mechanical obstruction from mucus.

In my office, I address a wheezing patient by immediately beginning intradermal "neutralization" of the airborne and hormonal causes of the swelling. In females, from adolescents to the elderly, I first attempt to reverse whatever part of their symptoms might be caused by an allergic reaction to their own hormones, particularly progesterone.

This has even greater significance if they have signs of hormone imbalance. The signs and symptoms of hormone imbalance most often include weight gain, fat production, loss of short-term memory, fatigue, mood swings, skin problems, and diminished sex drive. In young ladies (from pre-puberty to age 18 or so), a hormone imbalance is often evident from the first moment of the initial interview. The most common signs include skin problems, thin and fine scalp hair, increased facial and body hair, slender figures, small breasts, thin lips and an anxious or nervous demeanor. Typical skin problems include oiliness from the neck up, especially between the eyebrows and across the bridge of the nose. Often the scalp is oily with fine scalp hair. The eyebrows are frequently dense with coarse hair. Lip and cheek hair is increased. Less frequently, I see "acne" or red, irritated spots on the chest and sometimes across the upper back. Some ladies will find one or more coarse, dark, curly hairs growing around the edge of nipple tissue. Some see a few hairs of this type growing up from the pubic area toward the navel along the midline of the belly. What does this sound like? A sixteen year old boy! This clinical picture demonstrates a significant hormone imbalance. These patients exhibit varying degrees of masculinization. In extreme cases, I've seen teenage girls who shaved daily and had very thin scalp hair. These are not disease states. They are varying degrees of hormone "imbalance."

I order a standard panel of laboratory tests on my female patients who have begun menstruation. The panel includes estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone), cortisol and thyroid. The typical pattern I see is slightly low estrogen, low progesterone and testosterone, and dramatically low DHEA and cortisol (especially as ladies enter their 30's and almost always by their early 40's).

The significance of this hormone imbalance relates to soft tissue swelling (STS). Swelling leads to all the common symptoms of allergy. In the case of asthma, swelling in the cortex results in increased levels of adrenalin secretion. Adrenalin causes tightening of smooth muscle in the airways of asthmatics, resulting in asthma "attacks" or shortness of breath. Adrenalin also causes very rapid acidosis throughout the body. One of the many consequences of this state of acidosis is a reduction in our ability to extract oxygen from the air we breathe, which further aggravates the asthma "attack" or SOB. (See oxygen dissociation curve, Harrison, etc.)

So what?

If, for the moment, we suspend disbelief and accept my hypothesis that STS (Soft Tissue Swelling) is the direct cause of asthma, then hormone imbalance becomes a critical element in-so-far-as hormone imbalance results in such swelling. This occurs in my select population of allergy patients because they have an allergic reaction to one or more of their own hormones, usually the androgenic (male) hormone progesterone.

The hormone imbalance causes STS in two ways. The first is a result of diminished cortisol production. And the second is a result of the elevated level of progesterone (or the hyper-sensitivity reaction of the patient to it, which has the effect of heightening the effect of even a very low level).

If the patient has an allergic reaction to his or her own progesterone, their body releases adrenalin, this in itself can cause spasms and result in asthma symptoms.


We can only make a limited amount of hormones and nature places different priorities on different hormones. If we look at the graph below, we can imagine we are looking down into the body and viewing the TOTAL FLOOR SPACE of our hormone factory.


The Hormone Factory


  1. Cortisol
  2. Metabolic (thyroid)
  3. Progesterone (or "boy" hormone)
  4. Estrogen
  5. Adrenalin


Nature's TOP priority is adrenalin. Anyone who didn't have enough adrenalin didn't make it... they were eaten by the bears.

Homeopathic dilutions of Progesterone are either injected intradermally or administered using sublingual drops. I usually start with a dilution of Progesterone diluted with 10-1 to 10-3 parts water. That is a unit of water with twelve zeros after it. Then, further injections or drops are administered to try to eliminate the wheezing or shortness of breath as completely as possible. These reactions usually occur within fifteen to thirty seconds after the antigen is injected. And if the Progesterone makes the patient's condition worse, it can be reversed immediately with an even weaker dilution of Progesterone.

This methodology is fast, economical and very effective.

Section 2. The Causes

For many years there has been a "turf war" between physicians over who might be best qualified to treat asthma. It still seems to be "up for grabs."

The pediatricians, of course, feel they should take care of the kids. And the "Adult Allergists" and the Pulmonologists compete between each other and the Primary Care physicians.

So what are the causes for asthma? I think the causes include the air we breathe (and the pollen, mold and chemicals in it), the food we eat, the substances, chemicals, toxins we come in contact with, hormone imbalances and hormone allergies, stress, infections and acidosis. I think that about covers it.

If I am correct, then our different specialists are missing the big picture. Some may even be blinded by the bias of their training or, heaven forbid, economic considerations.

For example, in the last year I have seen the first studies showing the inter-relationship of allergy, sinusitis and asthma. Allergic rhinitis is found in 80% of patients with asthma. Sinusitis is found in 80% of patients with asthma also. So how do you deal with that? Do you see an E.N.T. for the sinusitis, an allergist for the allergic rhinitis and a pulmonologist for the asthma?

And of course you need a neurologist for the headaches, a rheumatologist for the joint pain, an ophthalmologist for the transient blurred vision, a gastroenterologist for the irritable bowel, (or the "hiatal hernia" that only seems to occur when your allergies flare up).... And eventually a psychiatrist to help you figure out if it really is..."all in your head."

Anyway, you see what I mean. The pediatricians tell me "you can't treat a child's allergies until he is at least one year old (or "two," or "three," etc.). They also tell us with complete assurance... "it could NOT have anything to do with food allergy, which exists only rarely, if at all...try these antibiotics."

Or the pulmonologist who SEEMS to feel asthma sufferers are experiencing a systemic deficiency of oral Prednisone! Prednisone certainly helps, but why on earth would we want Prednisone in your feet, legs, arms, head, etc., with all of the well-known, horrendous side effects of Prednisone (including Diabetes and Death) when the lungs are the only place we need it?

The ENT physicians and the Primary Care physicians continue to prescribe antibiotics for the sinus infection. I say "the sinus infection," because I think it's always the same one. You cannot get rid of a sinus infection with antibiotics. Antibiotics are carried around the body in the bloodstream. The sinus doesn't have any blood running through it. It's a "cave" in your head. So how can the antibiotic get to the infection on the surface of the sinus cavity? It cannot. Why do antibiotics seem to help? Because, as in the case of ear infections, the antibiotic has a mild anti-inflammatory effect thereby reducing the swelling. This allows the sinus to drain once again, the pressure is reduced and the infection goes back to sleep...until the next time the allergic swelling causes the sinus to become "blocked." When the pressure builds up the vascular interface is pushed back, the dormant bacteria wake up, look around and say..."the cops are gone, lets have lunch"...and your old friend the sinus infection is back.

I think asthma is simply one of the more severe degrees of allergy and NOT a separate disorder. Almost everybody with allergy experiences stuffy noses, itchy eyes and mucus drainage. If this continues they may get more soft tissue swelling in adjacent areas, sort of a "DOMINO EFFECT."

After the typical eye, nose and throat symptoms, you begin to get swelling of the ear tubes (otitis media), or the sinus passages (sinusitis). Finally, if the swelling gets bad enough, you reach what I consider to be the three worst symptoms of allergy: asthma, brain allergy (fatigue, depression, or Attention Deficit Disorder) and SKIN problems. I believe it is most effective to treat the underlying causes of the allergic swelling, not just the asthma, or brain allergy or skin problems.

If I can stop all the allergy swelling and prevent its return, I don't have to worry about the asthma...it will disappear. NO SWELLING... NO ASTHMA.

The following is a report from the A.C.A.A.I., a conference sponsored by the National Institute of Health focused on allergy and asthma.

The Bronchoconstriction Factor

Sometimes the airways just snap shut. This can be slow or lightening fast. Many factors can precipitate such a spasm but there is one primary hormone involved... adrenalin. This hormone can cause powerful spasms of the smooth muscles that affect the respiratory system and the throat and chest.

Adrenalin comes mainly from the Adrenal Gland sitting on top of your kidneys. In various form it is also found throughout the body as the triggering chemical for many muscles. Adrenalin is basically an emergency hormone designed to allow you to avoid life-threatening emergencies. If a car careens off the street toward you and your baby, adrenalin squirts out and gives you the instant strength and speed to snatch your 100 pound baby and leap in a single bound to safety... on the roof of your house. Okay, you get the picture.

Section 3. Treatment

Part 1. Neutralization

Neuro-Humoral Reactions

Everything we know about immunology proposes the existence of a "humoral" mechanism of action. All of our current scientific principles of immunology are based on this premise. In most instances, Neutralization by Titration with homeopathic dilutions of antigen bears these principles out. When the antigen is injected intradermally, the reaction (an increase or decrease of subjective symptoms) usually occurs within fifteen to thirty seconds. This is what one would expect if a humoral reaction were taking place as these times correspond to "circulation time."

However, sometimes the patient reports a "reaction" (i.e. an increase or decrease in the symptom) in much less time than "circulation" time. In one example, a sixty-year-old female patient, S.V., was seen with arthritic pain in her knees of "10" (ten being the worst pain she had ever experienced with the condition, and "0" being no pain at all). She had been taking large doses of Prednisone (a corticosteroid) for several years and was frankly "Cushingoid" (extremely swollen, a common side effect). Progesterone was administered intradermally. In less than ten seconds she reported the pain was, "Gone. Zero."

I have seen this phenomenon repeatedly during the last several years. I am forced to conclude that in addition to the humoral mechanism of immune reactions there must also exist a NEURO-HUMORAL mechanism of action that is sometimes elicited. In many instances, the reaction takes place so fast (less than 10 seconds) that it would be impossible for a humoral reaction to take place.

open airwayasthmatic airway How can this happen so fast? How can this happen at all?

In the case of asthmatics, a part of the problem always seems to involve "swelling" in the airways caused by a "reaction" to the airborne antigens. If airborne antigens are causing swelling because of antibody response in the "soft tissue" of the airways, a certain number of antibodies or "defender" cells are in "equilibrium." That is to say, if one thinks of mold spores (these cause nighttime symptoms) as "robbers" and our antibody or "defender" cells as "cops," then the reactions of the two (cops and robbers) together cause the swelling in the airways.



So if a normal airway has lots of defenders or "cops" available and if mold spore antigens or "robber" cells cause the "cops" to grab them, swelling results from the congregation of massive amounts of "cops and robbers" complexes in the soft-tissue of the airways.

If "R" = "robber" (mold spores, for examples) and "C" = "cop" (defender cells), the complexes might appear like this: "R"+"C" = RC or CR or cR. In any event, the result is the same. The soft-tissue "swells" reducing the air passages.

Some of the "cops" get tired and break "loose" from the complex and fresh "cops" enter from the vascular system to replace them.




How Neutralization Works

Healthy Lungs


If mold spore ("robbers") "R" cells are injected intradermally into the very dense tissue of skin where highly reactive histamine cells reside, the circulating ("cops") "C" cells attack the injected "R" cells and a shift in the equilibrium takes place. The result is the immediate reaction at the injection site with an accompanying release of histamines causing redness and swelling. Because this is such "dense" or "tight" tissue, the reaction is "locked" in for two to three hours. The reaction is initiated when the easily dislodged "C" ("cop") cells are instantly shifted from the soft tissue of the airways and immediate relief of the "swelling" and shortness of breath is possible.

Once the acute swelling is reduced, medication becomes much more effective providing long term relief. Now we can begin the serious work of prevention of the asthma. In the next sections, we will discuss various Medications, and their uses, and tactics for avoiding foods that may be causing some of the problems.

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