This was an interview with David Getoff , Naturopath, Board Certified Clinical Nutritionist, Vice President of Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation.
This interview was conducted by Joan Grinzi, RN, President of Elite Alternatives, Inc.
Q. Joan Grinzi: What causes asthma?
A. David Getoff: Asthma probably has a great many causes and I’m certain that we do not even know most of them. One of the causes that’s been looked at by many practitioners and some scientists has to do with vaccines. It’s very possible that the childhood asthma rate has gone up tremendously because of the increased number of vaccines kids are getting today. I don’t doubt that this is a possibility because asthma has to do with an immune response and vaccines have an adverse affect on the immune system. In addition, the number of vaccines that children receive today is far greater than when you and I were children and there was a great deal less asthma then. I cannot remember a single kid in my elementary school, junior high, or high school ever using an inhaler. Today you see them being used by many children.
Lots of people are eating foods that are knocking their immune systems for a loop and they don’t know it because the foods do not give them the accepted or recognized allergic response. If somebody eats a certain food and it doesn’t stuff their nose up so they can’t breathe, or make their eyes or nose run, they don’t realize their body didn’t like it and therefore they don’t think they’re allergic or sensitive to it. People are eating all sorts of foods that are depressing their immune system and therefore their asthma gets worse. Sugars of all types, flour of most types, potatoes, all sodas, all fruit juices, artificial sweeteners, added food colors and flavoring chemicals are all suspect for many asthma sufferers.
If most people with asthma would take one month, just a simple 30 days, and eat no grains (including all flour products), no dairy, no potatoes, and nothing that tastes sweet, most would notice such an improvement with their asthma that they would be amazed. Then they would understand that their diet DOES have something to do with their asthma. Now they need to find a good naturopath, nutritionist, or other good healthcare professional to work with, to find out what other things they need to do. There are all sorts of different nutrients they might need and which ones vary from person to person. In addition, some of the foods can be added back into their diet as soon as the actual offending foods get identified.
People frequently look for the cause of their asthma problem in their mattresses, and dust and pollen particles, mold or pet dander. When holistic practitioners look for dust or mold, they are just looking for some of the triggers that are triggering the asthma. That’s a good idea, but this is not addressing the causes of the asthma. Many think the trigger is the cause. The way you can determine the difference between a trigger and a cause is simple: If the cause goes away, then the trigger won’t trigger asthma anymore and neither will any of the person’s other asthma triggers. If only the trigger goes away but the real cause is still there, then every other trigger still causes a problem. With the use of drugs, we have a different scenario entirely. With the drug, you are generally suppressing the body’s reaction to the triggers. The problem is still there but the body is prevented, by the drug, from reacting the way it wants to. It is similar to when you are driving down the road and your overheat light comes on. A drugs reaction would be similar to taking a hammer and breaking the light. The car is still overheating but the reaction, the indicator light (like your symptoms), has been prevented from occurring. Not a supportive beneficial way to deal with your problem. In the case of your car, the engine is still overeating and you will shortly be stuck on the side of the road, possibly with a cracked engine block. In the case of taking drugs, the body is still trying to produce the chemical reaction that should give you a symptom, but it has been prevented (suppressed) by the drug. You are increasing your risks of other diseases by preventing a protective bodily function that is designed to give you a warning symptom. Remember, a symptom is simply the body indicating that something is wrong and needs to be addressed. It is not caused by a deficiency of a drug and neither God nor mother nature intended the symptom for the purpose of having a physician drug it away. Humans have been on this planet for tens of thousands of years. Drug based medicine is not even 200 years old!
Let me give you another example. Many people with asthma always have attacks whenever somebody vacuums their house (because it stirs up a lot of extremely fine dust particles). If I waved my magic wand over them and made their asthma go away, then whenever they’re in a room being vacuumed, they wouldn’t have their asthma attack anymore because I just healed their asthma. If you simply stopped the vacuuming you wouldn’t be addressing the asthma at all. The second you start vacuuming again, the person is going to have another asthma attack, so the trigger (the vacuuming) triggers the problem (the asthma). If you make the problem (asthma) better, the trigger (vacuuming) will become less of a problem. Now if I instead waved my wand so that vacuuming no longer caused the attack, I have now only addressed one trigger. The asthma is still there. As soon as the person is exposed to one of their other triggers (remember I only waved my wand for vacuuming) their symptoms will return.
Ideally, you would like to eventually make the asthma go away completely, but that is often times difficult to do. You may or may not be able to completely heal the body of asthma, but you can help support it enough so that the triggers cause a lot less of a reaction. If somebody improves their diet a lot and they take out the foods that are depressing their immune system and making their asthma worse, and then if they bring in the nutrients which they are deficient in, the triggers won’t affect them as much. There is a good possibility at least two of the nutrients they are deficient in are magnesium and Vitamin A (not beta-carotene as there is no Vitamin A in beta-carotene.) They might also need some specific herbs for asthma, depending on the person, but a high potency multiple with all the vitamins and minerals is the best way to start and then add in the other nutrients that are found to be needed.
Some people spend thousands of dollars on their home trying to get rid of all the triggers for their asthma (like buying a new mattress for $2,000, putting special covers over everything, and installing all sorts of specials air filters around the house). As soon as they walk out their door, all that money they just spent is left behind and doesn’t help them at all. Now they have the triggers of the big, bad world to deal with. All those triggers will continue to affect them until they get to the root cause of their asthma. For people who want an air-purifyer, the best one that I have found on the market is by Aranizer. To find out more about Aranizers, click here.)
Q. What else can people with asthma do to be pro-active in getting to the root cause of their asthma? What other foods should and shouldn’t they be eating?
A. Follow my one month diet or they can purchase my instructional and very informative video called, Attaining Optimal Health in the 21st Century.
Next, they may need to find a health practitioner who truly understands asthma. They will probably want to run an allergy test to identify as many delayed food allergy triggers as possible. Many labs are not very accurate in doing this. My recommendations would be Immuno labs in Florida.
Good luck.
For products that support your immune system recommended by David Getoff, CLICK HERE:
