Lung Disease Natural Protection Nutrition Medicine

Lung Disease

The young mother sleepily opened the door into her toddler’s bedroom to check one last time on two-year-old Christian before she went to bed. As she bent down to kiss his forehead, sheer terror overcame her: her son was blue and not breathing.

• After calling 911 she began trying to resuscitate him. The paramedics arrived and moments later Christian was in transit to the emergency room. They continued to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation because the little boy’s heart had stopped beating.
• But only the ER doctor was successful in getting Christian’s heart and lungs to respond. The once-lively little boy was admitted to the hospital with the diagnosis of severe asthma.
• The doctors stabilized Christian and started him on a drug called theophylline which dilates the airways.

Read And Learn More: Nutrition Medicine Physicians Defense Notes

• Though his parents were relieved that Christian had survived, they were terrified about his future-they had had no idea asthma could manifest itself so suddenly or become so severe.
• Obviously motivated to be sure Christian received all of his medication, his parents took the fragile boy home. Minimal lung reserve marred Christian’s childhood. He could not participate in normal rambunctious activities with the other children.
• And as he grew older, the doctors kept adding more and more medication because his lungs were just not performing well. Then when Christian was age fifteen, it happened again.
• He experienced another severe asthmatic attack. Passing out at home, he quit breathing. Again, with flashbacks from the past, his parents called the paramedics as they attempted to resuscitate their son.
• His heart and lungs finally responded only after the family reached the ER. After this hospital admission, Christian was placed on the anti-inflammatory drug prednisone, which he would continue to take for the next fourteen years.

At the age of twenty-seven, with very little lung function left, Christian was taking nine different drugs. His pulmonary function tests showed that his large airways were working at only 17 percent of normal capacity while his small airways were working at a mere 8 percent.

• In spite of all his medication, Christian was barely able to live his life. Unable to do anything requiring physical exertion, he lived with the residing fear of having another acute asthmatic attack.
• He had to continually make sure he had his inhalers and backups with plenty of medication. His life depended on them. It was at this time that Christian decided to try building his body up by taking a potent antioxidant and mineral tablet with each meal.
• Within ninety days Christian could tell he was doing better. Because of these encouraging results, he began taking some additional vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, and grape-seed extract.
• Over the next twenty months, Christian’s lung function improved enough that his doctor finally took him off the prednisone. Christian once said to me, “A person should only be on prednisone for fourteen days, not fourteen years!”
• Christian’s repeated pulmonary function tests showed consistent, significant improvement. After being on the supplement program for two years.
• Christian found that his large airways were working at 87 percent of normal capacity and his small airways were working at 56 percent-not bad considering he had decreased the number of medications he was taking from nine to three during this same time period.
• His Albuterol inhaler used to last only one month. Now it lasts at least six months, and half the time he doesn’t even know where it is.
• Today Christian is able to participate in sports and exercise comfortably. His asthma is simply not controlling his life anymore.

Lungs And Air Pollution

When you consider the major causes of oxidative stress in the body, the most serious and the most potent causes enter the body through the respiratory tract.

• This begins with the nasal passageways and ends with the very thin-lined alveoli of the lung. The air that we breathe today is filled with ozone, nitrogen oxides, fuel emissions, and secondary cigarette smoke. In short: breathe in, cough out.
• I will never forget my long journey to San Diego to start my internship at Mercy Hospital. I stopped along the way to see friends in Azusa. The smog was unbelievable, especially for a small-town boy from South Dakota.
• The next morning my friend took me outside in his yard to look at the magnificent San Bernardino Mountains. There was only one problem: we could not see them. I will never forget when he took a deep breath and told me how great the fresh morning air felt.
• I took a deep breath and couldn’t stop coughing. In fact later that day I was out playing a round of golf and every time I took a breath I coughed.
• After about the seventh hole, I had to quit. I was embarrassed because I couldn’t even stop coughing when the other players were trying to hit their shots or putt.
• Anyone who knows me knows how much I love to play golf. For me to quit in the middle of a round of golf, it had to be bad!
• It was odd to hear locals in Azusa joke about not trusting air they couldn’t see. This was my introduction to what the news later reported as a moderate smog day.
• Air pollutants cause a tremendous amount of oxidative stress in the respiratory tract and in turn, the body. When you add the most potent cause of oxidative stress to the body-cigarette smoking-you put your nasal passageways and lungs literally under attack.
• Still, God did not leave us defenseless. He created a sophisticated and elaborate defense system against this attack on our respiratory system.

The Natural Protection Of The Lung

The first line of defense against these poisonous pro-oxidants is called the epithelial lining fluids (ELFS). From your nose to the tip of your lungs, the cells are covered with a thick mucous lining.

• The epithelial cells themselves have cilia, which form a very fine brush border. This brush border sweeps the inhaled foreign particles, bacteria, and viruses back outside.
• The thick mucous lining contains many antioxidants that then neutralize the inhaled pollutants like ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and fuel emissions.
• They provide a layer of protection that is so effective that most of the time these pollutants don’t even come in contact with the underlying epithelial cells.
• With ELFS as the first line of defense, the mucous, cilia, and immune
• response form a team that is extraordinarily effective in preventing infections in the respiratory tract. The underlying epithelial cells actually produce and secrete several antioxidants into this mucous barrier, including vitamin C, vitamin E, and glutathione.

All of these work hard to neutralize all the pollutants we inhale and thus protect the underlying lung tissue and lung function. Vitamin C is the most prominent antioxidant in this protective fluid lining.

• It is not only an important antioxidant in this fluid but also has the ability to regenerate vitamin E and glutathione. Still, respiratory tract infections or exposure to airborne pollutants can overwhelm this local antibacterial.
• Antiviral, and antioxidant systems are found in the epithelial lining fluids (ELFs). When this happens, a tremendous inflammatory-immune response occurs.
• The fluids in the lining of the lungs become very thick as the immune response attracts many white cells that literally attack the invading organisms or pollutants.
• As you have learned already, our immune response can cause an exaggerated amount of inflammation. If the invaders are quickly cleared out, everything settles down.
• But an inability to terminate or control the inflammatory response can result in injury to the underlying epithelial cells. This in turn can lead to chronic inflammation that can cause marked damage to the lung tissue and impair function.

Asthma

This chronic inflammation in the lung causes significant fatigue and a depleted immune system. Whether the immune system is fighting a chronic infection or pollutants in the air, chronic inflammation takes its toll on asthmatics, especially children.

• Kids seem to continually fight one infection after another, and their energy level is nowhere near that of children with healthy airways. When I first began my private practice in the early 1970s, physicians believed the underlying problem with asthma was bronchospasm.
• This is a condition in which the circular muscles surrounding our airway tubes actually go into spasm and narrow the passageways of our lungs, resulting in a very tight feeling in the chest.
• Shortness of breath, and wheezing (usually loud enough to hear without a stethoscope). Our first line of therapy back then was to use drugs like theophylline or Albuterol, which primarily worked on relieving the bronchospasm.
• If the person was in serious trouble or even had to be admitted to the hospital, we would then add a potent anti-inflammatory medication called prednisone.
• After a few years into my practice, however, research started to reveal that the underlying problem with asthma was a chronic inflammatory response.
• Our therapies changed considerably, and we shelved the theophylline-like drugs in favor of anti-inflammatory drugs (inhaled steroids or Intal) as first-line therapy.
• Research conducted over the past decade has since deduced that the underlying cause of asthma, and almost every chronic lung disease, is oxidative stress.
• My children’s physical education teacher told me that when she began teaching twenty years ago she would ask the school kids to run a mile. It was no big deal.
• Now the story is altogether different. When she asks kids to run a mile, she ends up with two pockets full of inhalers. Asthma is literally an epidemic in our children across the U.S. and the industrialized world.

When I spoke in London and the Netherlands, the greatest concern of the audience members was the severity of asthma present in their children.

• I’ve found that our current generation of children worldwide is exposed to more airborne pollutants than any previous generation. I see children who haven’t even reached two years of age who are suffering from serious asthma.
• The amount of drugs children are taking just so they can breathe is mind-boggling, Most drugs are now aimed at decreasing this inflammatory response and relaxing the accompanying bronchospasm.
• Nevertheless, the underlying root problem, oxidative stress, remains unaddressed. I have read several clinical trials in which patients with asthma showed significantly depleted antioxidants in the extracellular fluid lining of their lungs.
• Antioxidants vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta-carotene were found at low levels even when the children were not having an acute attack.
• They also exhibited markedly higher levels of by-products produced by oxidative stress leading to chronic inflammation and hyperactivity of the airways.

Adams Story

Adam developed a serious case of bronchial asthma at the age of three. It was difficult for his parents to see him struggle simply to breathe.

• The little boy consequently took several different medications and used a nebulizer (a breathing machine that mixes medication with normal saline) to receive his Albuterol treatments. But he didn’t tolerate his medication well.
• Because it has a stimulant quality, Adam had a difficult time falling asleep and he struggled with heart palpitations. More discouraging was the fact that even with the medication he was unable to run, play ball, or participate in even the simplest activities.
• He was frequently fighting colds and made lots of trips to the ER when he had trouble breathing. The most frightening time came on Adam’s fourth birthday.
• He had developed a cold and quickly became very ill. He began to run a 105-degree temperature, and an x-ray in the ER revealed a severe case of pneumonia and out-of-control asthma.
• Few of us think of our children possibly dying from pneumonia these days, but the threatening reality certainly crossed the minds of Adam’s parents.
• The birthday boy was fortunate and survived this serious illness, but it left him even weaker and his underlying asthma remained a severe problem.

Adam continued to have problems tolerating the medication the doctors prescribed, though they were doing everything medically possible for him. Their answer wasn’t good enough.

• His father began to look into any other possible therapies that might help his son. As his dad told me Adam’s story, he remembered that it had been early summer when they decided to experiment with a potent chewable multivitamin to see if it might help.
• He distinctly recalls in that early summer Adam would stay near the edge of the swimming pool, barely venturing out into the water. But by the end of that summer, his son was swimming the full length of the pool.
• Within sixty days Adam changed from a child who could virtually do nothing physically to one who could keep pace with other children. Adam also started playing baseball and eventually even soccer.
• In fact, he qualified for a traveling soccer team over the following four years. Adam was not only able to play, but he excelled in the sport. (As a physician, I must say soccer is probably the most difficult sport for an asthmatic to play.)
• He was able to discontinue most of his meds and needed his inhaler only occasionally. Adam is now thirteen years old and continues to be very active in sports.
• He has chosen to play baseball over soccer and enjoys a life neither he nor his parents ever thought possible. This young athlete continues to take a potent multivitamin and has added a little grape-seed extract and extra vitamin C to his supplement program.
• It must be amazing for parents to see their child go from being basically disabled to being normally active. And they certainly don’t miss the emergency room visits! How simple and yet profound is the potential life-changing effect of nutritional supplementation?

Asthma And Nutrition

I realize now that when a child comes into my office with severe allergic asthma or hay fever, he has significantly depleted immune and antioxidant defense systems. By the time he visits me, he’s been fighting chronic inflammation in his nasal passageways and lungs for some time. In turn, it seems these children become allergic to just about everything.

• They have dark circles under their eyes, they’re fatigued, and they take a lot of medication. I start them on a potent antioxidant and mineral supplement and also add some essential fatty acids in the form of cold-pressed flaxseed oil or sometimes fish oil.
• As we discussed, essential fats are important in the body’s production of natural anti-inflammatory products, which help to bring inflammation back under control.
• The grape-seed extract is not only a great antioxidant, but it seems to have anti-allergen effects also. This is a strong additional supplement for a child with asthma.
• I usually recommend that parents give their child 1-2 mg of grape-seed extract per pound of the child’s weight. I also give these children additional calcium and magnesium supplements.
• Magnesium helps relax the bronchospasms of the muscles in the lungs. Since spasms of these muscles are what narrow their airways, this will help open them up.
• I always tell parents that it takes about six months to build up a child’s antioxidant and immune systems, so they shouldn’t get too anxious. If I see them in the spring, I tell parents their child will be doing much better in the fall.
• All of my child patients with hay fever or asthma have improved using this nutritional supplement program. Some stories are dramatic like Adam’s, and some reflect just modest improvement, but they all get good results.

Please note: I never have asthmatic children discontinue their medication because as I shared before, nutritional supplements are not alternative medicine-they are complementary medicine.

• I have enjoyed working with children with severe allergies because they respond so well to nutritional supplementation. I remember a story one mother shared shortly after starting her child on my recommended supplements.
• Her five-year-old was sledding in the snow. As was the custom, the mom was patiently waiting at the door with the child’s inhaler.
• Her child had not been able to undertake any activity, especially outside in the cold, for more than two years without the aid of her inhaler.
• How amazed the mother grew as her little girl was able to sled in the snow all morning without once needing her inhaler. I also remember the time our family got together in Sioux City, Iowa.
• My daughter and niece began racing during our walk along the Missouri River. As all good uncles do, I goaded the girls on, giving my niece a hard time when my daughter beat her.
• My niece quickly replied she was just thrilled she could run. She had not been able to previously due to exertional asthma. I had forgotten that I’d put her on nutritional supplements a few months earlier.
• Adult asthmatics can benefit as well. When my wife was suffering from chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, one of the most troublesome problems she had was severe asthma and hay fever.
• She could not even go into the barn unless she was wearing one of those huge masks that people use when working with hazardous materials. My wife loves her horses, and she would do whatever it took to be around them!

Liz was on about five different medications, including allergy shots, in an attempt to control her asthma and allergies. But as soon as she began her aggressive supplement program, her asthma and hay fever dramatically improved.

• Once her body began rebuilding its defenses, Liz stopped wearing her mask and she came off all medication. On occasion, she still has some allergy problems and will take some of her medication; however, this now occurs only two or three times a year.
• Needless to say, our children and many adults are literally under attack from our environment. It is wearing them down, and they need the support of nutritional supplementation.
• As in the cases of Christian and Adam, medicine does not hold all the answers, and when people are at the end of their rope, they begin to look for other options.
• But remember, I am not suggesting alternative medicine; I am strongly recommending the complementary medicine of nutritional supplements.
• The question is, why am I alone in this? Why are physicians so reluctant to recommend that their patients with asthma and allergies take nutritional supplements? It’s a mystery to me.

Air Pollution And Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

There is nothing harder than watching patients, young or old, struggle with every breath, often requiring nasal oxygen twenty-four hours a day. This is the case in those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and bronchiolitis.

• These patients are hardly able to exert themselves at all and find that their pulmonary disability greatly hampers their joy in living, Not everyone is able to make a conscious choice to live in a healthy environment, but prevention weighs heavily on my mind.
• Here again, I realize it is not the years in life that are important, but the quality of life we have in those years. We need to do whatever we can now to boost our health or restimulate it if it’s weakened.
• Air pollution is a key player. Considerable evidence shows that the inhalation of cigarette smoke and airborne pollutants causes the increased oxidative stress that is the underlying cause of COPD.
• The resultant chronic inflammation in one’s airways creates even more oxidative stress, which leads to the damage of sensitive lung tissue.
• This eventually decreases lung function by disrupting the easy transfer of oxygen through these damaged membranes to the blood.

Studies Show Oxidative Stress is the Cause of COPD

W. MacNee reported in the medical journal Chest and at the Novartis Foundation Symposium that he felt that there was considerable scientific evidence that oxidative stress was the cause of COPD.

• He discovered that many of these patients had depleted antioxidants in their lung tissue due to the increase in oxidative stress and possible dietary deficiency of antioxidants.
• He stated that antioxidants that have good “bio-availability” (are easily used in the lung) may therefore be potential therapies that would not only protect against the direct injurious effects of oxidants.
• But also may favorably alter the events that have a central role in the development of COPD. The progression of COPD is relatively resistant to traditional medical treatment, especially the use of steroids.
• Obviously, the first task of the physician is usually to help smoking patients quit. This is not an easy task. I find that it is more difficult to get my patients off of cigarettes than alcohol and even some narcotic medications.
• Still, the benefit to the patient is tremendous. Consequently, I will try almost anything to help my patients to quit smoking.
• (A principle you will find throughout this book is that you absolutely must do everything you can to decrease your exposure to those things that create increased oxidative stress. Health is not simply a matter of building up your body’s antioxidant defense system.)
• If you are developing COPD and have never been a smoker or are not presently smoking, nutritional supplementation may become the best way to slow down the progression of COPD.
• The basic principles apply with all of these chronic lung diseases just as it does with asthma: the earlier you start an aggressive supplement program, the better your chances of hindering its progression.
• Once the lung has become seriously damaged, as many smokers have discovered, there is very little chance of significantly improving their lung function.

Cystic Fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a lethal hereditary disease primarily marked by digestive malabsorption (the body doesn’t readily absorb the nutrients from one’s diet) as well as chronic pulmonary (lung) infections.

• The malabsorption syndrome found in cystic fibrosis patients is primarily due to deficiencies in pancreatic enzymes. In addition, the epithelial cells of the lungs’ airways also do not function well.
• Leading to increased mucus accumulation and bacterial infections. The damage to the lungs that characterizes this disease is again due to the tremendous oxidative stress that is occurring within the lungs’ lining.
• Several clinical trials have demonstrated that cystic fibrosis patients are seriously deficient in vitamin E, selenium, beta-carotene, and the important antioxidant glutathione, found both within the epithelial cell and epithelial fluid lining of the lung.
• This continual inflammatory process depletes essential antioxidants needed to protect the patient’s lungs and because of the ongoing malabsorption problem, it is impossible for the patient to replenish nutrients adequately.
• Cystic fibrosis is a perfect example of what happens when our natural immune and antioxidant defense systems are not able to function properly.

The accumulative oxidative damage to the lung tissue occurs quite rapidly, and the majority of these people die before they reach their adult years.

• Recent studies have brought encouraging results; namely, the potential in slowing down the progression of this disease by the use of nutritional supplements.
• By combining pancreatic enzyme supplements with potent antioxidant supplementation in patients with cystic fibrosis, researchers were able to bring vitamin E and beta-carotene levels almost back to normal.
• Clinical trials also indicate that when patients take important antioxidant nutrients, oxidative stress comes back under control, and the patients’ depleted immune systems also improve so they are able to fight chronic infections better.
• Such clinical studies provide physicians with a strong rationale for supplementing their patients with cystic fibrosis with potent nutritional supplements and pancreatic enzymes.
• Supplementation can only help improve a patient’s condition and hopefully slow down the progression of his or her disease.

Sharlies Story

Sharlie is a beautiful young woman. She is vibrant and energetic-the picture of health. You would never guess that every day she is fighting for her life. You see, Sharlie was born with cystic fibrosis.

• She is now twenty-three years old and is already in an elite class when you consider that only 30 percent of these patients make it to adulthood.
• No one realizes this more than Sharlie and her mother, Collette. Sharlie’s sister died several years ago following a bilateral lung transplant because she also had cystic fibrosis.
• The two girls were inseparable. Because they both had this chronic disease, they shared a bond most children never get to experience.
• In fact, watching her sister suffer and die following a lung transplant created a deep desire within Sharlie to do whatever she could to protect her own lungs and help win the fight against their common enemy.
• Sharlie was fifteen when her sister, Lexi, died. The grief was a heavy burden to bear, but Sharlie also carried the weight of her own struggles-lungs that functioned at only 35 percent capacity most of the time.
• Her doctor also wanted to put her on the lung-transplant list. Against the backdrop of her sister’s experience, Sharlie decided against this option and chose instead to try improving her disease with the use of potent antioxidant supplements.

Lexi had instilled in her this hope. Sharlie saw Lexi respond well to supplements following her lung transplant.

• Physicians had thought they would lose Lexi shortly after her surgery, but she was a fighter and with the help of nutrients, she recovered remarkably well.
• Although Lexi only lived a few months longer, Sharlie was convinced her best option was to try to build up her own body through supplementation.
• She began taking a potent antioxidant and mineral supplement along with additional vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, and grape-seed extract.

She experienced astounding results. Several months later her lung function had improved to over 50 percent. Her physicians were amazed. Sharlie began to participate in physical education and even some minor sports.

• She always believed that the more active she could be, the better, even though she continued to have infections and had to be hospitalized from time to time to receive intravenous antibiotics.
• Despite these small setbacks, Sharlie saw her life and activities rise to almost normal levels. Her decision not to go on the lung-transplant list but instead start an aggressive supplement program was the best decision of her young life.
• Sharlie became a symbol of hope for many other children with cystic fibrosis as well. Unfortunately, Sharlie’s battle continues. About three years ago she developed acute shortness of breath.
• This was more difficult than anything else she had experienced. After her doctor evaluated her, he had to inform her mother that one of Sharlie’s lungs collapsed and was not working at all, a condition known as pneumothorax.
• This certainly depressed Sharlie-at first. But determinedly, she overcame this setback and eventually returned to a near-normal life, fully relying on the one damaged lung she has left. She continues her battle for air and victory over infection.
• Following a bout of pneumonia that brought her breathing capacity down to 15 percent, she again regained her active lifestyle and shocked her doctors. In fact, her breathing capacity has returned to 35 percent.
• Sharlie’s success story is one of undaunted courage and strength supported by the complementary team of the best medical attention and nutritional supplements available.
• Sharlie has learned to live one day at a time. This certainly makes every day a precious gift. I have known sharlie now for more than seven years, and she has been a pillar of encouragement to me.