Peter had been an asthmatic all his life but his condition bothered him very little. He took a few puffs of his bronchodilator when he felt he needed it, which was only a couple of times each week. Peter took great care of his lawn and loved gardening, which he did almost every weekend. When he turned fifty-six he decided to semi-retire.
Unfortunately Peter also had some digestive problems: stomach aches, some loose bowel movements and a gnawing feeling just above his navel which persisted in spite of antacids he took from time to time. Eventually his doctor diagnosed an ulcer, prescribed cimetidine (in the form of a drug called Tagamet) and told him to relax. This was in 1990 and in those days doctors believed ulcers were caused by stress and acidity.
Now Peter enjoyed a few drinks every day. By no means a heavy drinker, he could nevertheless hold his liquor quite well on the odd occasions when he drank more than usual. Then, about a month after starting his anti-ulcer medication, something strange happened. He went to the local club to celebrate a friend’s birthday and drank a little more than usual; and he got thoroughly drunk after about six beers. Then for no apparent reason, he found he had to use his puffer more frequently, every day in fact. Within another month he found that even a few glasses of beer made him feel unwell and his use of puffers increased to several times each day. Luckily for him his daughter was studying naturopathy and she discouraged him from taking stronger medication before consulting an alternative doctor.
Peter came to see me. After hearing his story I asked him to stop gardening for a week while I ran some tests. I explained to him that the pesticides he was using with gay abandon may aggravate matters for him. I knew something Peter didn’t, and his doctor had obviously not even thought of: that the great majority of ulcers are caused by an infectious organism and that the drug he was taking for the ulcers placed a great strain on the detoxification machinery of his liver, the so-called ‘cytochrome P-450′ group of enzymes. The liver also has to clear alcohol from the system and is in charge of the detox mechanism that takes care of organochlorine pesticides.
By the time I saw Peter again I had the results of his liver detox and intestinal infection tests. They showed that his liver’s capacity to clear chemicals was grossly overloaded and that he was indeed afflicted with a massive infection by helicobacter pylori which, as we now know, is often responsible for ulcers. Peter told me that a few days after stopping all alcohol and gardening he felt much better and he only needed to use his puffer once a day, if that.
His stomach was bothering him constantly though. I first recommended that he stop gardening, or at least using pesticides, altogether and told him to continue avoiding alcohol for the time being. I placed him on a special detoxification regimen of a diet and antioxidants while I arranged for further tests to assess the damage to his stomach. These confirmed the helicobacter problem and he was then successfully treated for that infection. His ulcer no longer needed medications. What surprised him most was the fact that his asthma ceased to bother him and he no longer needed to use his puffer regularly. He was wondering about the connection.
I explained to him that, because his liver detox system was overworking, it produced a cascade of particles called ‘free radicals’. These are highly toxic and can affect almost every part of a living organism. The antioxidants I prescribed counter-acted their effect to some extent and, when his liver no longer had to cope with the drug, the alcohol and the pesticides, his whole system was once again balanced. As a result of that his asthma improved.
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