Prescription Alternatives

by Earl Mindell; Virginia Hopkins

  Start to keep a record of the foods you eat. Look for the most common triggers of delayed food allergies: wheat, corn, dairy products, soy, citrus fruit, nightshade vegetables (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, red and green peppers, cayenne pepper), peanuts (usually due to aflatoxin, a fungus found in most peanuts), eggs, beef, and coffee. Ironically, foods that you feel you “must” have every day are most often the culprits. The release of the offending foods into your bloodstream causes the body to release adrenal hormones that give you a temporary surge of energy.

  IBS is often a result of allergy to dairy products. People with celiac sprue, which is an allergy to gluten, are allergic to wheat, rye, barley, oats, and all other gluten-containing grains. Food additives and colorings such as BHT, BHA, MSG, benzoates, nitrates, sulfites, and red and yellow food dyes cause delayed allergic reactions in many people, especially children.

  Watch out for antibiotics and NSAIDs (e.g., aspirin and ibuprofen), which are very hard on the stomach. Just a few ibuprofen a month can cause a chronically upset stomach.

  Artichoke leaf (Cynara scolymus L., Asteraceae)—not Jerusalem artichoke, but the kind of artichoke that’s delicious steamed and eaten with melted butter—has been used since antiquity as a medicine for gastrointestinal problems, including gas, intestinal spasms, and vomiting. A study in the journal Phytotherapy Research found that an artichoke leaf extract (ALE) significantly reduced symptoms of constipation-predominant IBS. This German study looked at 279 German patients with at least three of five IBS symptoms. All of them took an extract called Hepar-SL forte, which contains 320 mg of dry extract of artichoke leaf, with meals. After six weeks, they reported improvements ranging from a 65 to 77 percent decrease in symptoms. Eighty-six of the patients reported that ALE was more effective than previous treatments they’d tried.

  Peppermint oil has also been used for gastrointestinal complaints throughout history. In studies conducted in Germany, more modern formulations including peppermint oil and caraway oil in an enterically coated capsule (one designed to break down only once it has passed into the stomach) have shown promise as IBS therapies. Don’t take peppermint oil that is not enterically coated, because it can cause damage to the esophagus. Strongly brewed peppermint tea might be helpful if you can’t find peppermint extract.

  Medical testing for delayed food allergy is a tricky business. The existing tests vary in reliability and can be very expensive. Fortunately, self-diagnosis can be done with what is known as an elimination diet.

  How to Do an Elimination Diet

  You can do an elimination diet with the support of a health care professional if you don’t feel able to tackle it on your own. A terrific resource on food allergy and elimination diets is Optimal Wellness, a book by Ralph Golan, M.D. (Ballantine Books, 1995). Precede the two-week period with 10 days of eating your normal diet, keeping careful track of everything you eat and drink and of any symptoms. Then make a list of the foods you eat every day and a list of the foods you ate more than five times during your record keeping. After you finish your 10-day period of eating your regular diet, eliminate all of the foods on your “everyday foods” list and “more than five times in 10 days” list, as well as any other suspected allergens, for two weeks. Continue to record everything you eat and how you’re feeling. Be very careful to eliminate all potential sources of allergenic foods. Vitamins often contain fillers and fibers that may be allergens. Common food allergens such as wheat, corn, dairy products, and eggs are hidden in many processed foods. Be careful not to get into a pattern of eating some other food frequently during this time, or you may set yourself up for sensitivity to yet another food. Vary what you eat throughout the day and from day to day.

  At the end of the two weeks, reintroduce foods one at a time. No more than one food should be reintroduced every 24 hours. Your response to foods you have allergies to will be pronounced. Continue to record all symptoms you experience. If you are allergic to a food you have avoided for two weeks, you may experience rapid or uneven heart rhythms, sudden sleepiness, stomach cramps, bloating, gas, diarrhea, constipation, headache, chills, sweats, flushing, and achiness.

  If you notice that you are feeling very good on the limited diet, this is an important piece of feedback that you’re on the right track. Your intestinal wall is shed and regenerated completely every three days, so healing of a leaky gut happens quickly.

  While you’re on an elimination diet, you can take some supplements to aid in healing your intestines. Glutamine is an amino acid essential for healthy gut mucosa; take 500 mg three times a day. Essential fatty acids, found in borage and evening primrose oils, help prevent inflammatory reactions in the gut and throughout the body. The B vitamin pantothenic acid (B5) is an important building block of the intestinal walls. Use 500 mg twice a day.

  During an elimination diet, be sure to drink plenty of clean water every day, and take supplements to help heal your small intestine.

  If you’ve suffered for many years from chronic, low-grade health problems caused by food allergy and leaky gut, you may be dealing with other problems such as nasal allergy, sinus infection, arthritis, autoimmune disease, or candida overgrowth.

  Once you’ve pinpointed problem foods, omit them from your diet for two months. Try reintroducing them again, one at a time, at that point. If you still have a reaction, wait six months and try again. You should eventually be able to reintroduce food allergens into your diet and enjoy them occasionally, but chances are that if you start eating them every day again, you’ll become sensitive to them again.

  Children generally outgrow food allergies, but it can be frustrating for the family to deal with a child’s sensitivity to common foods such as wheat or dairy products. The improvement in health, however, should be well worth a few months of deprivation.

  Chapter 12

  Cold, Cough, Asthma, and Allergy Drugs and Their Natural Alternatives

  These days we are aware that stress, a weakened immune system, and poor nutrition can all tip the scales in favor of coming down with a cold or flu. Pay attention to your body’s signals. It will tell you, in no uncertain terms, when it is fighting off a cold or flu. You already know the signals. Your sinuses may be painful when you wake up in the morning. You may feel especially tired and achy after work or develop a sore throat, headache, achy muscles, sneezing, or chills. If you apply the natural remedies described in the latter part of this chapter as soon as you get these signals, your immune system will have a fighting chance to knock out that bug before it gets the best of you.

  If a full-blown cold or flu can’t be averted, you can find many ways to suppress cold and flu symptoms at any drugstore. But suppressing symptoms with drugs may turn out to be counterproductive, for reasons you’ll discover more about in this chapter. Those symptoms are, in fact, important aspects of your body’s immune defenses against these diseases. In the case of a viral infection—which is what colds and flu are—your body’s natural mechanisms for beating the illness need support, not suppression.

  Physicians adamantly push flu shots at everyone these days, but little good evidence has found them to be an effective form of prevention. A close look at the studies on flu shots—as well as their track record in actually reducing flu infections or death from flu—shows that a flu jab isn’t as good an insurance policy against flu as many believe.

  Is It a Cold, Flu, or Allergy?

  Allergies and asthma affect rising numbers of people worldwide, probably due to a combination of factors: increasing air pollution, consumption of highly processed foods tainted with artificial additives, and a more or less constant barrage of medications from infancy on that alter the natural function of the immune system, causing it to become overreactive. While allergies are rarely more than a nuisance, asthma—a form of allergic reaction—can and does kill, and is a serious public health problem.

  The symptoms of common-cold-induced nasal congestion may be very similar to the congestion caused by allergies. The underlying causes of both
have to do with a malfunctioning immune system. How do you know whether you’re allergic or infected?

  Cold viruses are always in our environment, and whether you “catch” a cold is a function of how healthy you are and how well your immune system is working. Cold symptoms are caused when a cold virus attacks and kills cells, which then release substances that cause inflammation, mucus production, and infection, and possibly a slight fever. Most colds will resolve within five to seven days. If you take care of yourself by getting plenty of rest and warm fluids and eating wholesome food, a cold can resolve itself within three days.

  Symptoms of influenza or flu virus tend to be more severe, including a higher fever, aches, chills, and nausea.

  Neither a cold nor flu can be effectively treated with an antibiotic. Antibiotics kill bacteria, and colds and flus are caused by viruses. While a cold or flu can cause a bacterial infection, you are best off allowing your own body to fight it and heal it unless a doctor determines that you are at risk for pneumonia or some other serious infectious disease.

  Allergy symptoms, on the other hand, result when the immune system overreacts to an irritant such as dust mites, pollen, perfumes, air pollutants, pet dander, or food. When the immune system mistakes these harmless invaders for deadly enemies, it sends out the histamines to attack, which in turn cause inflammation.

  Inflammation caused by allergy can occur almost anywhere in the body. The most common sites are the mucous membranes of the nose, eyes, ears, and throat. However, inflammation in the joints (arthritis), the brain (headaches, confusion, fatigue), lungs (asthma, cough), gastrointestinal system (cramps, indigestion, diarrhea), and skin (hives, rash) can also be caused by allergies.

  What we’re most often concerned about in the spring is known as allergic rhinitis, or hay fever, which usually consists of a runny, itchy nose and watery eyes. About 20 percent of the population of the United States suffers from hay fever, and the incidence is rising. Thirty years ago, estimates were that under 100,000 people suffered from hay fever. Today that number has risen to more than 40 million. Allergies are also on the rise because children’s immune systems are under attack from vaccinations, antibiotics, and the constant use of medicines such as Tylenol (acetaminophen) that harm the liver, our most important organ of detoxification. A growing body of research demonstrates that children who are medicated frequently with antibiotics and fever-reducing drugs are more likely to end up with allergies and asthma. After starting out with a compromised immune system, most children are then fed foods devoid of nutrition but loaded with additives, dyes, preservatives, pesticides, and hormones. They are also exposed to the toxic effects of “fake” fragrances (fakegrances) found in everything from laundry soap and fabric softeners to so-called air fresheners and perfumes. Children with an unrecognized sensitivity to dairy products, wheat, or sugar, for example, who have also had their immune systems and intestinal systems compromised by constant antibiotics, are primed for a lifetime of allergies and other environmental sensitivities. Adults are in the same boat, but to a less sensitive degree.

  Spring is a big season for hay fever because that’s when trees pollinate. In the late spring and summer, grasses pollinate. In the fall, weeds are the culprits. Nonseasonal indoor causes of allergies include food, dust mites, cigarette smoke, aerosol sprays, room deodorizers, insecticides, cleaning products, fresh paint or varnish, mold, fungi, and pets.

  How can you tell if your runny nose is being caused by hay fever? According to W. Stephen Pray, a pharmacist, professor, and allergy expert from the Southwestern Oklahoma State University College of Pharmacy, some of the differences between a cold and an allergy are:

  • A runny nose caused by allergies is usually clear, while a cold causes a yellow discharge within a few days, indicating infection. Chronic, long-term allergies can eventually cause a sinus infection, but in general, discharge from the nose will be clear.

  • The nose is itchy with hay fever, usually not with a cold.

  • Sneezes come in groups during a hay fever attack, sometimes as many as 10 to 20 sneezes one right after another. Sneezes caused by a cold generally come on one at a time.

  • Watery, itchy eyes tend to be a sign of hay fever rather than a cold.

  The ears are often involved in an allergy, causing hearing problems, popping, and sometimes ringing in the ears. More than 80 percent of people who suffer from frequent ear infections have allergies as well. Older children and adults who get a cold don’t often get an ear infection with it.

  A classic sign of chronic allergies and particularly food allergies has been dubbed the “allergic shiner,” a semicircular area below the eyes that is dark or bluish in color. Long-term blocked nasal passages interfere with the ability of blood to flow away from below the eyes, resulting in an accumulation of blood in that area and a darkening under the skin that makes it look bruised.

  Chronic allergies can cause many side effects, especially in children, that may go unrecognized. Some of these side effects include fatigue, headaches, irritability, a poor sense of smell and taste, hearing problems, fatigue in the morning, and snoring. Chronic eye, ear, nose, and throat infections can take hold because of the constant irritation and inflammation caused by allergies. In children, permanent facial changes can be a result of chronic allergies.

  It’s helpful (if not pleasant!) when our bodies fight off a real invader such as a virus with an immune reaction, which we call a cold or flu. This immune response eventually rids the body of the invader. But when we react to allergens, there may be no end in sight, and this can interfere with our enjoyment of life.

  Childhood Exposures Decrease allergy and asthma Risk

  During the past decade, researchers have found that exposure to dust and dirt during early childhood, especially in the first year of life, may be protective against allergy. Such exposure is thought to “activate” aspects of immunity that keep allergy and asthma at bay.

  In a study from the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine in Basel, Switzerland, researchers evaluated 812 children living in rural parts of Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. They compared children who lived on farms—where they are constantly exposed to animal dander and bacteria from animal waste—to children who did not live on farms. Samples of dust from the children’s mattresses were analyzed for endotoxin (substances known to cause allergic irritation in sensitive people) content, and blood samples were analyzed for markers of allergic inflammation. Far more endotoxins were found in the farm children’s bedding, but higher endotoxin levels correlated with decreased blood markers of allergic inflammation. The likelihood of asthma, hay fever, and atopy (allergic skin irritations) was approximately 50 percent lower in farm children, and their immune systems did not respond dramatically to the endotoxins. In other words, their immune systems were better at discerning what was actually a threat.

  Children don’t need a spic-and-span environment, and their attraction to dirt and grime may be Mother Nature finding a way to expose them to endotoxins that help their immune systems develop properly. Unfortunately, if a child has already developed allergies, exposing him or her to potential allergens may do more harm than good. Later in the chapter, we’ll explain how to keep an allergic or asthmatic person’s environment as clear of allergens as possible.

  When bacteria cause an infection, it appears that allowing children’s bodies to fight it off without antibiotics may protect against future allergies and asthma. When researchers from British Columbia combined the results of seven studies involving about 12,000 children, they found that when a child receives a course of antibiotics before his or her first birthday, that child is twice as likely to end up developing asthma than a child who receives no antibiotics during that time. Multiple courses in early childhood were found to bump risk higher, with an increase in risk of 16 percent with each course of antibiotics taken before the age of 1.

  One approach to treating existing allergies is to allow colds, flus, and other acute infectious illnesses
to run their course whenever possible, without using medications to suppress symptoms. This can be a delicate balance to strike with children, and it requires careful attention and lots of tender loving care, including staying warm, getting plenty of liquids, and using herbal, homeopathic, and nutritional remedies that support the immune system rather than suppress it. We’ll give you specifics later in this chapter.

  Once our immune system decides that a particular allergen is a hostile invader, it becomes “sensitized” to it and begins to react by creating allergy symptoms caused by the release of histamines. In the process of attacking the invaders, the histamines cause inflammation and even damage tissues. Allergic sinus congestion can cause headaches and mental fogginess. Irritated sinuses bring on fits of sneezing, mucus running down the back of the throat causes sore throat, and an overload of irritants and mucus can trigger bronchial spasms, also known as asthma. If the body tries to rid itself of the invaders via the skin, rashes, eczema, and hives may result.

  Allergy drugs work to suppress symptoms rather than treat the cause of the allergy. The consequences of this type of treatment are generally unpleasant side effects and often a rebound effect where the symptom is worse if the medication starts to wear off or treatment is stopped.

  Treating Asthma

  More than 16 million American adults and more than 6 million American children have asthma, which constricts the bronchial tubes leading to the lungs, reducing airflow. Wheezing, coughing, labored breathing, and coughing up mucus from the lungs are the classic symptoms of asthma. If an attack is allowed to progress untreated for long enough, it can kill as the airways constrict and fill with mucus. Left untreated, even less severe asthma symptoms can cause chronic inflammation that damages and scars the lungs. While most asthma attacks are precipitated by an allergen, they can also be caused by emotional stress, exercise, and infections.