More and more children suffer from allergies nowadays, particularly eczema and asthma life. These two allergies are linked genetically-a condition called atopy, which also includes hay fever. You can see the link clearly if you look at an embryo: the bronchial tract, where the asthma life and hay fever manifest themselves, and the skin are derived from the external layer, which is called the ectoderm.
The body is vulnerable o invasion by two kinds of alien environmental panicles. Living invaders include bacteria viruses and fungi. Non living ones, called allergens, because they set up an allergic reaction, include pollutant chemicals, dust particles, pollens and various foodstuffs.
The body’s immune system detects these invaders as alien because they have different chemical or protein structures. It fights living particles by producing antibodies, which destroy them by clinging on to their membranes so that they can’t reproduce or function (the principle used in vaccination).
Non-living particles can only be neutralized and thrown out of the body through an allergic reaction, such as a skin rash, sneezing watering eyes or nose, mucus discharge or diarrhoea.
During an asthma life attack deep breathing in is easy but deep breathing out is difficult. When allergens invade the bronchial tract, it engulfs them in mucus so they can be expelled and also constricts to prevent more allergens entering – so the airways become blocked. The body responds by violent coughing and exhaling causes wheezing.
The pituitary gland is the main controller of the immune system. When it functions well, the alien particles are neutralised by an immunological response. But when it’s not working effectively, the body becomes over-sensitised, throwing out the unwanted allergens.
The reaction is caused by a cell hormone called histamine, so chemicals that stop it, being produced; or neutralize it are called antihistamines. Steroid inhalers are prescribed for asthma life tics to prevent the bronchial tubes constricting so that deep breathing is smooth. The problem can start early if the immune system does not get a good start. This might happen because of birth injuries to the delicate cranium or neck during labour. This can impair the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid, which flows from the brain to the body and back among other things, this fluid carries oxygen and essential nutrients to the pituitary gland.
If it doesn’t get them, it begins to be sluggish and this affects the functioning of the immune system. The most common birth problems are rapid delivery through a tight birth canal, forceps or ventouse delivery and cord around the neck. It’s also vital to breastfeed, if possible, so that the baby doesn’t get ‘alien’ food. But if the baby’s immune system is weak it will react to even tiny impurities in the mother’s milk due to her diet.
This is what I suggest:
- Give him the best possible diet, comprising fresh home-cooked ingredients (preferably organic), such as porridge, cereals with soya milk or cow’s milk (if he can tolerate it), soft-boiled eggs (if he’s not allergic to them), grilled fish, minced beef/chicken, turkey, mashed potatoes, mushy rice, lentils, pasta and vegetables, with non-citrus fruits as snacks.
- Make a marrow-bone stock for soup or for cooking lentils and rice. (Boil a marrow bone for two hours with bay leaves). This boost the immune system and provides calcium.
- Every other day, give him freshly made carrot and apple juice.
- Exclude yeast (bred, pizza, Marmite, etc), chocolates and sweets, crisps, citrus fruits, fizzy drinks, cheese, chips, fast food, or ready-meals.
- Give him Vitasorb Multivitamins: eight drops daily for two months.
- Give him Vitasorb CoQl0: five drops daily for two months.
- For mucus in the nose or sinuses, put one drop of Sinus Oil in each of his nostrils at bedtime for a month.
- Teach him this deep breathing exercise: pull the abdomen in and force the air out of the nostrils, with a whoosh-whoosh sound. Do this strong exhalation ten to 15 times at a stretch, twice a day for two to three months.
- Cranial osteopathy would be helpful for both the three-year-old and the baby.
- Parents can treat the baby with regular neck, back and body massage for ten minutes a day at bedtime.
How to live well with Asthma for Pregnant Women
Researchers studying the relationship between pregnant women who eat peanuts and their children believe that these women should lay off the peanuts. Why? They believe that the eating of the peanuts or peanut butter increases the odds that the child, when born, will develop asthma life.
The study did not focus on pregnant women who ate peanuts occasionally. Rather, it concentrated on those who ate peanuts every day, or most days. The study was done by the Dutch government and focused on nearly four thousand pregnant women.
When contrasted with women who never ate peanuts or rarely ate peanuts during pregnancy, the children born to the peanut consumers had a roughly fifty percent greater chance of having breathing problems or asthma life than the children of non-peanut eaters.
Another interesting aspect of the study was that eating fruit seemed to mitigate the odds of the woman’s child developing wheezing – although it had no effect on the number of children who develop asthma life. But, since the study was not originally built around studying the relationship of eating fruit on asthma life, no concrete conclusion can be made about its effect.
Other interesting and unexplained results from the study were that the percentage of boys that eventually developed asthma life was greater than the number of girls to develop the disease. Nearly 4 out of every one hundred children in the U.S. have one or more food allergies.
Of the children that have peanut allergies, about 1 in 5 will eventually outgrow their allergy to peanuts. But most will retain their allergy through adulthood. Because of time limitation, this particular study, however, only followed the children up to age 8.
The diets of the children after birth were studied also. And the children’s diet seems to have no relationship as to whether they developed asthma life, or not. This reinforces the idea that the development of asthma life in the children was primarily due to the ingestion of peanuts by the mother while the child was still in the womb.
It has long been long known that heredity affects the odds of a child developing asthma life. One thing left undetermined by this particular study is how much a family history of asthma life contributed to the child’s asthma life and how much is due to the consumption of peanuts. The study is so interesting because of the constant battle in science about how much heredity affects the odds of developing specific diseases in the future and how much is dependent on nurture.
Although, the study has yet to be repeated by another research group, some cautious physicians are asking that their women patients be careful about eating peanuts during their pregnancy. In the meantime, the Dutch researchers have expanded their study to focus how to prevent the development of asthma life in children.
But even though this study was limited in its scope, medical professionals are excited by it because it helps to guide them in the nutritional advice they can give to expectant mothers in helping them to give birth to healthier children.