June 10, 2010 THE RADIO SHOW THIS WEEK: More new information about the important benefits of omega33 fats. We’ll hear the latest from a conference of world experts in Holland.
READER FEEDBACK
Reader Comments : In response to an earlier Health e-Note about magnesium and Vitamin D for asthma, I received an email from Janie who described herself as a “mother of four, who are now in their 20’s and 30’s.” With only minor edits for space, these are her comments: “This is a subject I have been on a soapbox about for years after frequenting a doctor’s office and spending a lot of money to no avail. Other vitamins that help Asthma and various airborne Allergies are Beta Carotene and Vitamin C . I have not done a double blind study … after all when a child (or adult) is in misery, there has been enough suffering. The reason these work: Beta Carotene promotes healthy mucus membranes. Vitamin C assists the body in disposal of the allergens. How much is required depends on the individual, but both are non-toxic. For adults, 75,000 IU of Beta Carotene two to three times a day for a day or two bring my problems under control. After that, the quantity is reduced. A maintenance dosage for me is 15,000 to 25,000 daily. For children: 15,000 to 25,000 IU once or twice a day has corrected my children’s problems. Again, the quantity is reduced when the problem is brought under control. The same amount of Beta Carotene daily will also stop the runny nose (and sore ears) when a baby is teething. If you stop the sore ears, you stop the medical tests…which stops the medications that don’t work…which stops the surgery to put tubes in the ears.
At an annual physical for the children, the doctor mentioned how fortunate I was to have such healthy children—he never saw them except once a year for their school physical. He asked what I did to keep them well. When I told him that I gave them vitamins …his immediate (and somewhat hostile) response was “VITAMINS DON’T WORK!” He rejected [the idea], even though he had the proof standing in front of him.” Incidentally, Janie included this website in her note: http://backlabornomore.com/
MY 2 CENTS: Thank you, Janie. Observation of repeated cause and effect is valid. (I don’t think there is even one double-blind placebo-controlled intervention study testing the pros and cons of wearing a parachute when jumping from an airplane.) Too many physicians simply rely on pharmaceutical marketing talk. (Blue Cross has just sued a major drug company for allegedly bribing doctors and misleading them into using drugs for purposes other than ones approved by the FDA.) We can only change the docs that will listen. So, please keep trying and meanwhile support the caring doctors who have done their homework on the 10’s of thousands of studies showing that nutrients DO WORK. Look here for resources.
Vitamin C – Doctors of environmental medicine keep intravenous Vitamin C handy to use as an antihistamine in case a patient has a bad reaction during allergy testing. Of course, textbooks tell us Vitamin C helps the immune system and supports various detoxification channels. 500 mg seems to be a minimum daily dose, but depending on the person’s chemistry and diet, the optimum dose might be 10 times that or even more—especially during illness. If you experience a loose stool, back off.
Beta Carotene has benefits of its own but the body also converts it to Vitamin A. Vitamin A is important for healthy mucous membranes which also line the lungs. Not everyone converts Beta Carotene into Vitamin A efficiently, so it’s important to get some pre-formed A (e.g. 5,000 per day) especially when supplementing Vitamin D (there is a little competition between them). Research shows it is safer (especially for smokers) to take the natural type Carotene rather than synthetic and a Complex of many carotene types because these antioxidants all work as a team. A recent study showed that one of the carotene family, Lycopene, is apparently helpful for asthma. 1 The study used animals and therefore provides important clues but not proof. Not only is it cheaper and quicker to test on animals, but, since most research is done using the narrow drug model (one molecule/one effect), animal studies allow scientists to start with the same genetic pool and be in control of all the variables. In contrast, humans are genetically different, eat stuff they fail to report, take various medicines, get sunshine or don’t, drink beer or don’t, get more toxins, etc.
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1 J Nutr Biochem. 2010 Apr 12. [Epub ahead of print] Dietary lycopene supplementation suppresses Th2 responses and lung eosinophilia in a mouse model of allergic asthma. Hazlewood LC, Wood LG, Hansbro PM, Foster PS.
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