Email
PrintChanging the Paradigm of Medicine
A recent article in the New York Times about asthma on the A.D.A.M. Health Information website discussed the issue of prevention. It was well written and well researched: “You can reduce asthma symptoms by avoiding known triggers and substances that irritate the airways… The goal of treatment is to avoid the substances that trigger your symptoms and control airway inflammation.”
The article mentioned unscented detergents and cleaning materials, but made no mention of cosmetics, perfumes or insecticides, nor did it discuss chemicals in our foods (red dye No. 40, yellow tartrazine, BHA, BHT and polysorbate 80) or genetically modified foods (GMO). There was very little mention of food allergens at all—only a brief mention of those foods that make us wheeze, following several paragraphs about pharmaceutical medications used for control of symptoms.
You have an illness, the job of the physician is to make the correct diagnosis and find the appropriate drug to deal with the symptoms. This is called disease management. In the new paradigm of health maintenance, treatment starts with eliminating food allergens. Asthma in childhood is generally preceded by a period of frequent earaches, trips to the doctor or emergency room and frequent use of antibiotics. If we get rid of the cause of the earaches—usually food sensitivity—then the earaches go away, inflammation is reduced and asthma may never develop.
The most common allergens are wheat (gluten), dairy (cow’s milk products including cheese and yogurt), soy (in almost everything), corn (in everything else), citrus (morning orange juice) and eggs (in most baked goods). There are other food triggers, but these are the most common in the United States. If these are eliminated, then in most cases, there is no more asthma.
The concept of prevention of disease appears to be an unfamiliar one in allopathic medicine. We talk about prevention as though it meant the same thing as early diagnosis. We also presume to use mammogram and prevention of breast cancer in the same sentence.
In the case of asthma, there are other triggers besides food—pollens, strong smells, emotions, chemicals, air pollution, exhaust fumes—many things over which the individual has very little control. So, in the old paradigm of medicine, we invent or discover expensive pharmaceutical medication that relieves symptoms, but does nothing to deal with the original trigger. The companies that produce the triggers continue to make their profits, the pharmaceutical companies make their substantial profits and we, the people who suffer from asthma, are left holding the bag.
We do, in fact, have many options. We can vote with our pocketbooks. We can choose the foods that we eat. We can choose to eat chemicals or we can choose food that grows in the earth, swims in the water, flies through the air and walks on the ground. We can choose how we respond to emotional triggers: to be victims or to take action in a different direction. We can choose the products we use in our house: scented chemicals like Formula 409, or non-volatile, unscented cleaning products like soap and vinegar. We can choose our building and decorating materials; treated with toxic chemicals or not. We can choose the clothing we buy; synthetics, treated with flame-retardants like antimony, or natural fibers like wool, cotton, linen and hemp.
As physicians, we also have choices. This is the new paradigm of medicine: We can help our patients to look for the source of the problem and make the choices necessary to eliminate the triggers. We can use pharmaceutical medication as a last resort, not a first resort. We can do everything possible to support the body’s natural function. We can look at the body’s information systems and learn to work with them, so that the body may function the way it was intended to function. It’s a new world. We can all take advantage of the opportunity. We have the choice.
Martha M Grout, MD, MD(H) is Medical Director for the Arizona Center for Advanced Medicine in Scottsdale. The Center is dedicated to the treatment of chronic illness by means which support the body’s own functions of repair and regeneration. For more information, visit ArizonaAdvancedMedicine.com or phone 480-240-2600.
