Dear Group,

I was seeing a phone in program in the local channel. Which is on Plumonology related diseases mainly on Asthma as it is the most common disease. The Doctors opinion is that only the allopathic medicine can mange the disease, And the best medicine is Inhalers he even told that use to tablets in not needed it is a waste and the cause the increased amount of side effects. The used to cortisone in inhalers is also safe by use of inhalers as there is absolutely no side effects. The so called cortisones are the preventive inhalers as are safe. He told that there are pt how fear cortisone and it is called corticophobia. One pt told that the Doc she was seeing had advised not to take the inhalers when she was pregnent and before she could complete the doc told that it was a totally wrong advise as the tab have more side effects. He also told that the preventives are better that the relivers. etc.

Now i what to know the opinion about this from You.

I have seen that now the pts who come for tt say that they where advised Inhalers as a preventive for them, so that their allergic sneezing would not change to asthma that also containing large quantity of cortisones.

I have also see that the pts change to hot pts after this.

And pt who are taking inhalers for more than one year tell it us difficult to get of the inhalers. Pts are addicted to it "A strong addiction"

Can any body give an advice to replace it with out tt. I know the constitution will help. But one pt of mine when advice to stop the inhalers so that the true picture of the disease come out had to be take to the casualty as a result of stopping the inhalers. ( was not given the constitution was the modalities where not clear.

Plz dont disappoint me telling that this is off topic. I believe that the medicines are as important as the advices and accessory methods are very very important in managing and helping the case to cure.

Dr. Nandana

Whatever is the cause of an attack , dust mites, contamination etc , the problem is that the immune system has been degraded by such things as vaccinations, antibiotics and crude pharmaceutical drugs .

Steroids are as addictive as cocaine and heroin.

Their effect is to alleviate WITHOUT cure . If that course is followed long enough the steroids will damage the structure of the body.

A relative of mine had a split aorta due to prolonged use of steroids.
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It was the sudden onset of asthma in a close relative that gave me my first interest in homoeopathy some 30 yrs ago. My GP gave her large injections of steroids. Only later in an article did I read of the dangers of steroids. I was in a corner where my doctor seemed to be endangering this individual.
At first homoeopathy looked to be the ideal DIY medical therapy, and for minor complaints and prevention that is the case. But in dealing with deep rooted and hereditary complaints the situation is more complex. It was about 10 yrs before I began to see clearly the complexity of the relationship between the Homoeopathic remedy and its interaction with the individual life force or vitality of the patient.
Now, with the hindsight of 25 yrs I realise why my efforts did little more than relieve the asthma of my relative. In that time I have cured some cases and relieved others.I know the power of the correct homoeopathic remedy - bearing in mind that it is possible to be totally sure of only one thing in life - - - uncertainty.
Checking the recent updated position on asthma , in the Oxford Textbook of Medicine confirmed little change in the orthodox view. There are enormous chunks of uncertainty.
"What is Asthma?." is a question that has a million answers. Simplistically it is a cramp or spasm of the circular muscle fibres of the small air tubes that drastically reduce the amount of air available to the 300 million alveoli which exchange deoxygenated air for oxygenated air,also involved is a watery secretion that inflatesthe mucous and has a 'plugging' effect on the already restricted airway diameter - giving rise to breathlessness and in bad cases cyanosis where the lips go blue. It's classified in textbooks as an abnormality of the immune response,and is the response of a damaged or depleted immune system.
It is only possible to treat the condition realistically if we know the cause of the spasm.Here we arrive at the ragbag nature of Asthma.
Extrinsic Asthma - brought on by external factors is similar to hay fever and may be seasonal if due to pollens at specific times of the year , or all year round if due to such things as domestic pets, dust or house mites. This type is at present more normal among young people and is esentially an allergic reaction to external factors.
Intrinsic Asthma happens spontaneously and the hypersensitivity is triggered by many factors. Also it tends to be "late onset" starting after some trauma/stress outcrop in 20/30's or midlife.
When I first came across Asthma I used to say that no one dies of Asthma. I soon realised that was not strictly true. Asthma associated with syphilis either primary or inherited could kill , but this was very rare.
Only in the post 60's did non syphilitics start to die of Asthma.That timing is in my view very important and should be kept in mind.

In the past I have treated asthma along strict homoeopathic lines. I ask myself what are the signs of imbalance that I see in the individual. One then tries to match those signs to a particular remedy - and bring the individual back into a natural balance.
In more recent times I have taken an interest in TB and AIDS as they have a bearing on the basic theory of Homoeopathy. Because of that interest I have become more aware of the essential underlaying part that the immune system plays in all physiological problems.
There are many ways to get asthma and I will list a number of those , but for now I'd like to trace one particular path leading to Asthma as being , in my view, typical of the many roads leading to that condition.
Dr D. Foubister was a Consultant at a London Hospital for many years. He was a noted homoeopath who published many books and pamphlets and died in 1988. He pointed out that one of the basic roots of all illness is inflammation.
Mutiple Sclerosis is condition resulting from inflammation which has disseminated along neural pathways damaging and scarring the myelin sheath.Any disease ending in '- itis' indicates an inflammatory condition - meningitis; of the brain and spine - endartitis; of the artery - endocervicitis; of the cervix - endocarditis; of the heart - proctitis; of the rectum - colitis; of the colon etc.
To quote the Oxford Textbook of Medicine "The pathology of Asthma is characterised by the infiltration of the airways by esinophils and other inflammatory cells which migrate in response to chemotactic factors released by mast cells macrophages and lymphocytes.
Esinophils contain a substance, which damages the airway and is responsible for the large amorphous pink masses in the muscous and submucosa seen in patients who have died of Asthma." So inflammation is a characteristic of Asthma, which accounts for the widespread use - in the past - of steroids in their anti-inflammatory role.
Let us for a moment look at the reason for,and function of, inflammation in disease of all kinds. I quote a medical dictionary
"Inflammation is the defensive reaction of tissue that has been attacked and is the start of the natural process of healing. Inflammation is instigated by the immune system and is essential to the proper natural bodily process of healing. - It involves pain, heat,redness, swelling and loss of function of the affected part. Blood vessels are dilated so that the local blood flow is increased. White cells enter the tissue to engulf bacteria and foreign particles. Similar cells from the tissues remove and consume dead cells and the process of healing commences."
Before man came down from the trees - in evolutionary terms - inflammation has been essential to the natural process of healing and is today correctly shown to relate to the body's basic defense system and to the immune system.
However since the mid 40's [i.e. approx 50 years] antibiotics have been used to abort or short circuit the natural healing of the inflammatory process. I have often said to people that antibiotics are ok in the role they were originally employed - in life threatening conditions and NOT otherwise.
It has long been established that whatever provokes an attack of asthma , the condition itself is due to a defective or underactive immune system .
A consultants handbook points out that -" Both humans and animals have an apparent relative immunity against a second infection if they are left for 6/12 weeks before being treated. However if antibiotics are promptly given in the early infection no such immunity develops and immediate reinfection is then possible". Obviously we have here a direct relationship between inflammation and the immune system - both being natural bodily processes .
But the short circuiting of inflammation has many affects. From a homoeopathic point of view the inflammation does not disappear under antibiotic treatment. It is dispersed from its original local intense and painful site - where the immune system is busy healing the body - and driven along the path of least resistance. Where it takes up a chronic character such as tennis elbow,trapped nerve, neuralgia, rheumatism etc. Its function as part of the healing process is defeated and the immune system is affected.
In some individuals the immune system becomes underactive and results in lethargy - M.E. - and numerous minor infections 'the never well syndrome'. In other individuals the immune system becomes overactive and gives rise to many allergies due to its supersesitivity. Among the many immune/allergic effects is Asthma.
It has been shown that in TB, and particularly in AIDS , it is possible to inherit a damaged immune system. That being taken in conjunction with the time span since the 40's we now have a third generation of people treated with antibiotics. It is interesting that the first generation had few allergies - that the second generation in the 60/70's had increasing degrees of allergic response and that some of the third generation now die due hypersensitive allergic response.
It would also be of interest if a study could be carried out to see if the rise in Asthma was paralleled by the rise in the uncontrolled indiscriminate use of antibiotics.
So having shown a homoeopaths view of the mechanism of asthma and identified antibiotics as one of a number of culprits let us look at other aspects and culprits listed in the Oxford Textbook of Medicine [15.142 tab 1.] as;-
"Drugs which may produce or exacerbate asthma."

"Pharmacological effects;- ORAL
Cholinergenic agents e.g. carbachol pilocarpine
Cholinesterase inhibitors e.g. pyridostigmine
Prostaglandin F2alpha
Histamine release e.g. curare derivatives
Beta sympathetic antagonists
Idiosyncratic effects;-
Analgesics and anti-inflammatory agents
Asprin
Idomethacin [inlcudes] Artralin
Imbrilon
Indocid. Indoflex. Indomod.
Kap-ind. Rheumacin.
Mefinamic acid[inc] Ponstan
Flufenamic acid
Phenylbutazone
Fenoprofen [inc] Fenopron. Progesic.
Ibuprofen [inc] {Apsifen. Brufen. Ebufac. Fenbio {Ibular. Ibumetin. Iboslo. Inabrin
Ibuprofen (cont) Maxagesic. Motrin. Novaprin.
Nurofen. Paxofen. Proflex.
Relcofen.Seclodin. Uniprofen.
Diclofenac [inc] Volterol.
Naproxen [inc] Laraflex. Naprosyn. Synflex.
Paracetamol.
Tartrazine-containing compounds (used to color medicine & food ;E102 food additive)
Carbamazepine[inc] Tegretol
Idiosyncratic;- BY INJECTION
Penicillin
Aminophylline[inc] Phyllocontin
Hydrocortisone [inc] Cortisol. Cortril. Dioderm
Hydrocortone.
N-acetyl cysteine
Idiosyncratic;- INHALED
Ampicillin
Benzyl Penicillin
Cephalosporins[used intransplant ops to suppress the immune system
Alpha-methyl dopa
Cimetadine[inc] Tagamet
Piperazine[inc] Antepar. Ascalix.
Psyllium
Pancreatic extract
Pituitary snuff
Ipratropium bromide(hypotonic solution)[inc] Atrovent."
The Oxford Textbook of Medicine also points out;-
"The potential exacerbation of Asthma by drugs used to treat it presents a particularly acute dilemma as drug effect may be difficult to dissociate from spontaneous deterioration. Apart from potential problems related to tartrazine there are well documented cases of worsening asthma after both aminophylline and hydrocortisone, the latter may be particularly aproblem in asthmatic patients with analgesic sensitivity. -- Bronchodilator and other drugs formulated as a dry powder sometimes have an irritant effect , as also may the propellants used in pressurized aerosols."

Hi Nandana,

Somewhere I have a good stash of posts on the subject, which I'll try to find and re-post. But here are a couple of things I recall: 1) Will Taylor, in a *wonderful* post on the topic, said that, in the early stages when you don't yet have control of the asthma, it is *far* better for the parents to learn to recognize when an attack is coming on, and have the child use the inhaler in the *early* stages, to avert it, rather than hold back until a full-blown attack takes place; he says you will use *far* less medicine by nipping an attack in the bud.

He recommends that parents buy a "peak flow meter" and become good at using it. This will alert them that lung function is being compromised before the situation really becomes bad.

2) Some people (I *think* a large percentage) are able to avoid asthma attacks simply by drinking sufficient plain, pure water--around 8 cups daily for an average-sized adult, proportionately more or less according to weight. (This was 100% successful for my daughter and two others that I know, and was mostly successful for another person; he says it would probably be enough if he could *remember* to drink more regularly.)

3) Lobelia is said to be useful, tho for my own daughter (before we got her "water cure") mullein was more successful.

I'll try to find the rest tomorrow, unless others beat me to it.

Shannon

Dear Nandana,

I could share with you my experiences with my own bouts of asthma which I suffered from till a few years back.

I found great relief from Kali Phos/Mag Phos and Kali Mur/Natrum Mur during bouts. Also the combination of Ocimum/Zingiber/Justicia in Q was my constant bedside medicine. To prevent the bouts I sometimes took an antihistamine (anti allergic). Sometimes a dose or two of Aconite 30 also did the trick if I was very frightened and excited. I could anticipate the bouts as they were preceded by a tickling sensation in the throat.

My asthma lost its sting after an eczema that was suppressed made its appearance while under the treatment of a kind homoeopath.

Must you ask your patients to totally stop all allopathic medication they have been taking? Why not try and ameliorate their condition slightly so that they have more confidence in you and then slowly wean them off the medications. Allopathic medicines are addictive and sometimes the withdrawl symptoms can be extremely distressing.

I'm sure Shannon will see you through this case. She's a wonderful soul.

Regards,
Jagannath.

Nandana

corticoid tablets are worse than corticoid inhalers because they act in the hole body trough the GI tract while inhalers acts "mainly" in the target organ lung, nose, etc) "reducing" the side effects that doesn't mean they cannot lead to a suppression if we know that a corticoid ointment leads to suppression, think in an inhaler used on a regular basis for months or years

there are corticoids inhalers, bronchodilator inhalers and combination of both never stop the corticoids from one day to the other, taper them down slowly while the patient is getting better bronchodilators may be useful until the patient has no more attacks.

I hope it helps

Dr Guillermo

Re the asthma/inhaler thread, another saved bit, an old post from Will Taylor, M.D.--really interesting, and useful, IMO!

Shannon
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>From Will Taylor:

Joanne -

Sorry I couldn't jump in soon enough to be of help in the moment, but with the future in store, here are some thoughts. P.S., you are a saint (but aren't all mothers):

* Get the book _Children with Asthma_. I posted the author & publisher in a previous note, it's at work tonight, if you want that info write me for it. I think the author is Kaplan. Allopathic re tx, but really valuable for understanding asthma home management whether using allopathic meds or other approaches. This book evolved out of a spiral-bound manual written for a family asthma education project at the Medical Center at Hershey, PA.

* If you don't already, get & use a peak flow meter; about $15, easy to learn to use; good instructions in the book noted above. Establish a baseline norm when well, & monitor at these times to see if asthma is around the corner. It is *much* easier to prevent or abort an attack early than to salvage it later - whether using allopathic inhalers or nebulizer, or homoeopathic tx, or both. Many parents try to hold off on meds until they can't anymore, but you'll use much less medication (of any kind) jumping in earlier. The peak flow meter will indicate an incipient attack well before cough or wheeze or shortness of breath or chest pressure sets in.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joanne Tuesday morning began with a cough. Said his chest hurt sometimes but he played so I waited. Mistake 2

With the peak flow meter, you would have started tx well before this & interupted the spiraling course of this illness earlier, when it is much easier to do. Missing that, here you have learned a really valuable thing, an early symptom for your child - and this will be different for different children, so *you* are the one who has to identify it. I have learned *never* to argue with a mother who tells me that her child is nearing the edge of an asthma attack, even if the sign or symptom she reports to me seems implausible to medical science.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joanne Tuesday evening- Cough sounded deep, no nasal discharge, throat sore. Gave hot tea with milk and sugar - he likes and Bryonia 30c coughing stopped - Mistake 3

Following with a peak flow meter, you would have seen that you were not really "out of the woods", and could maintain your aggressiveness in treatment. It is very possible that the tea (black tea?) palliated the attack somewhat - the caffeine-like xanthine in tea is theophylline, which was once used as the first-line allopathic medication for asthma. We used to think it acted as a bronchodilator, but it appears more likely that it is a diaphragmatic stimulant. A cup of black tea is often sufficient to palliate asthma significantly for a few hours. Problem is, he'll wake up a few hours later tight again, & you'll think he needs Kali-c 'cause it's worse at 4 a.m.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joanne Tuesday night- slightly coughing, very tight, wheezing upon expiration, chest hurts both sides, bilateral rales, loud and low can hear from across the room, breathing shallow, face slightly flushed- no fever Gave Antimonium Tart 10M q 2 h. Nasal discharge begins slightly, able to move mucus with cough. Chest still hurts, no blueness around mouth. Lips are very red, tips of nose are red. He takes the covers off puts the covers on. Says he's hot on the inside and cold on the outside. Has goosebumps on his arms. Still no fever, slightly flushed in face. Drank some warm tea this morning. Anti Tart not working now. Grunting with each expiration. Gave 1Sulphur 10M. He is asleep soundly for first time in the night except it is 7 am and breathing is a little deeper BUT now he is developing a fever. A good sign? He is not grunting but is wheezy still.

In choosing the "acute" remedy here, it is important to bear in mind that this "acute" is actually the transient surfacing of a chronic (syco-psoric) disease; even if it is precipitated by an epidemic viral illness. A total anamnesis of the chronic disease will help a lot in finding the remedy needed in this "acute" setting; it may be the chronic remedy, or a remedy complementary to the chronic remedy for the case. Most of my asthmatic kids have a pretty standard "acute" picture, which can be found by looking at the various acutes they have had in the past collectively, as well as at the case when not "acute". Some have more than one "acute" picture, and may respond one time to one remedy, and on other occasions to another. It is important to look at this larger picture when choosing a remedy in the acute setting, as the picture in the moment may be somewhat one-sided, making an "acute" remedy difficult to identify.

The timing of this aggravation may be unreliable as a symptom - it may be the result of the wearing off of the theophylline from the tea.

You make a pretty good case here for Ant-t. It sounds like Sulphur may have been a big remedy for him in the past by your choice of the 10M? These 2 points, along with the absence of fever, make me think (I'm brainstorming now! not a remedy suggestion, but an idea to expand your thinking here) of Kali-s. Kali-s has a real rattly asthma, lots of bronchial mucus, like Ant-t; it's complementary to Sulphur; comes on gradually out of a "cold", like Puls; has the redness, like Sulphur, & the heat. It won't come up easily in a repertorization - it's really underrepresented in the repertory, you'll see stuff suggesting Sulphur, & stuff suggesting Kali-c, & maybe some respiratory stuff like the Antimoniums (rattly, bronchial mucus, heard across the room), and some stuff like Pulsatilla & you have to know to look for it.

I use the "acute" Rx in water, so frequent repetitive dosing in the attack is easier to do effectively. LMs are nice here (usually LM1 or LM3), but 12C or 30C in water (e.g., 1 pellet in 4oz, dosing 1/2 tsp from the bottle) works well too. Dosing of course needs to be individualized, but the above is what I most often end up with.

Now I'll expose myself to possible attack here, (I will only respect flames from parents who have had to take care of asthmatic children turning blue in the face at 1 a.m.) but - remember the "wagon of rice and water" vs "digging wells and growing crops" metaphor? Well, once we *know* the remedy that will probably work acutely, and are also addressing the chronic nature of the asthma with a chronic treatment plan (i.e., we are digging wells & planting crops in anticipation of irrigation), I see nothing wrong with hitting up the relief supplies & helping everyone sleep. Get a nebulizer (not just a hand-held inhaler; for about $150 you can get an ultrasonic nebulizer; threaten your insurance plan with ER visits for asthma, they should pay for it with a doc's prescription - I've never had a hassle with this) & use a prescribed bronchodilator (e.g. albuterol), & use it *early* in the attack, per the peak flow meter, so you don't need to use much of it. If you wait 'till he's in distress, you'll end up using a *lot* more medicine. Repeat this as indicated (use the peak flow meter, & repeat if/when he *starts* to tighten up again) to keep him open, while using the remedy as well. You'll use a lot *less* albuterol using an ultrasonic nebulizer than you would with a hand-held inhaler, 'cause the delivery is just so much more efficient.

The mistake here would be to consider this the solution to his chronic disease - and send him to school or whatever with a hand-held albuterol inhaler, so he gets referred to me for ADHD 'cause he can't sit still with all that albuterol swishing thu his system (Jack Kerouac did some of his best writing while doing asthma medication - I love his train of thought, but it won't get you by in the 6th grade).

I have never seen this to be suppressive (it only palliates transiently), and it is usually very well tolerated, the only real problem would be that it may mask & alter the acute picture, so it may be hard to perceive the acute remedy if you have not done that already; and if you start working with a kid who uses a bronchodilator routinely, you'll convince yourself he needs Kali-c 'cause he routinely has aggravations at 4 a.m., when the bedtime dose wears off. Although albuterol is stimulating, when used for a kid who's been sick & is exhausted from not being able to breath well, *most* fall asleep with the relief offered. The ultrasonic nebulizer also delivers the medication efficiently to the bronchi, so much less medication is needed, and systemic side effects (restlessness) are minimized.

I have folks start out with both this and the acute remedy, & follow peak flows, repeating the nebulizer if they drop; most often the remedy moves things along, & the nebulizer is held in the wings as long as the peak flows stay up.

The other advantage of doing this, is that it gives you the principal tool that is used in the ER, in your own control, to keep you out of that damned place & the inevitable Prednisone (often disguised under other names for parents who object to it) that will follow a nebulizer treatment there. And the machine costs *much* less than just walking in the ER door even once. So if things are not going well with the homoeopathic acute remedy, you don't have to lose control of home-management.

I do not recommend the herbal bronchodilator ephedra - it is the substance from which albuterol is modified, and is much "dirtier" re side-effects (especially cardiac stimulation & anxiety, restlessness, insomnia). Likewise I don't recommend using black tea specifically for the theophylline - too stimulating, disturbing of needed sleep, and too much of a roller-coaster ride with its short duration of action. Maybe to add (the tea, *not* the ephedra) to a nebulizer treatment if you are about to give up on home treatment & hoof it to the ER.

Hope this is helpful.

Will Taylor, MD

Hi Shannon,
great post by Will Taylor. Confirms my clinical expereince as well.
Thanks for saving it and posting it.

Just one point. I have often found that if the parent (mother) and the child remain calm before and during an asthmatic attack (more reliance and confidence on the homeoatahic remedy - acute or chronic), it very rarely goes into severe distress. In those situations, one cana void the use of inhalers (the nebuliser) or keep it to an absolute minimum.
The idea of keeping well hydrated as you suggested is a very helpful clinical hint.
Leela

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http://www.homeopathy2health.com

As usual please excuse my typos (eg: 'Numbulizers' = nebulizers) - I must be half blind sometimes!
d.r leela

__________________
http://www.homeopathy2health.com

Will was full of gems! So sad that his no-longer-new job keeps him to busy to "play" with us any more... :-(
:-)

I found the many posts on helping the Asthmatic patient very interesting but among the many remedies that were mentioned above, I did not see any reference to a remedy that I observed Dr Luc de Schepper who was in Sri Lanka recently, use in the case of 6 Asthmatic patients whose progress I was able to follow up later. In the case of almost all he used Nat Sulph 6c in the Split Dose method.

A 500ml bottle of water was used from which he decanted 100ml and 3 pellets of the remedy were dropped into the water and left to dissolve for a few minutes. The bottle was then succussed by banging hard on the palm or on a cushion and the water was observed to fizzle in the same manner that occurs when a bottle of soda is opened. This was done 6 times and a teaspoonful of the potentized water was stirred into half a cup of water. A teaspoonful is taken from this cup and is slowly sipped. The remedy is taken every other day.

It was the sequel to this therapy that was of interest and 3 patients who were only mild cases of Asthma with a slight wheeze were cured within a week. 2 cases were more resistant to the remedy and one case had to be put on Blatta Orientalis 6c as his attacks were only in the hill country where it is cooler than in Colombo.

The 2 difficult cases were chronic and both had been suffering daily from Asthma for over 10 years. In the case of one patient who was the more chronic he had been compelled to use 2 puffs from one brand of inhaler in the morning and 2 puffs from another brand in the evening both of which contained steroids. They were both on this same remedy Nat Sulph 6c succussed in the Split dose and in just 2-3 weeks into the therapy they were both almost fully cured. They were taking the dose on alternate days but in the case of one patient I instructed him to take the dose daily instead of every other day as he was uncomfortable otherwise and had to resort to his inhaler on the day he did not use the remedy.

The great benefit that these patients had was that they do not have to use their steroid inhalers any more and they can be considered to be well on the way to full recovery when they may be able to stop their therapy.

I believe that it was the succussion 6 times before every dose that was the reason for this response in the case of all patients who used this remedy.

The remedy used to alleviate the suffering of a patient who arrived breathless and in a SOS condition was Ars Alb 200c. 4 pellets were given in the dry dose under the tongue and the patient was relieved in a few minutes.