Phyllocontin (aminophylline). Pharmaceutical drugs are no longer "banned" when they cause patient harm; they are "discontinued"!

When a pharmaceutical drug has been prescribed for years/decades but then found to be dangerous they were once "banned"; or at least "withdrawn. There have been a very long history of such harmful pharmaceutical drugs ending up in this way, in the dustbin of history. Now, Phyllocontin, a drug routinely used for the treatment of bronchospasm in Asthma and COPD, can be added to this long and ever-growing list. 

Perhaps the most frightening aspect of this new ban is that Phyllocontin (aminophylline) has been around since at least 1974, so has presumably been harming patients for some 50 years now. Seemingly it takes this long for conventional medicine to understand the dangers. They are slow learners!

The drug is also known as Euphyllin, Truphylline, and Minomal so these are dangerous too. And although the drug is now banned in the UK it will still be considered 'safe', or safe enough to be prescribed, in other parts of the world. So patient, beware.

Yet the "banning" of a drug is never good publicity for pharmaceutical drug companies, so the first 'progression' in how these drugs were removed from the market was to "withdraw" them before the regulator moved to ban it. Withdrawal could be done without the level of publicity a ban entailed; that is, without patients, some of whom will have been seriously harmed, getting to know there was a problem. Now, the latest banned drug is not withdrawn, it is "discontinued". Drug companies are masters at obfuscation!

This is how MIMS describes this latest pharmaceutical drugs to be (effectively) banned (15 February 2021). The drug might be dangerous but the ban, or withdrawal, will not be imposed until 'remaining supplies' are exhausted. A few more months of patient harm is apparently acceptable. But no new prescription should be made, and in this sentence is some glimmer of the seriousness of the problem with this drug.

        "Patients currently prescribed Phyllocontin will need to be contacted promptly to allow time to plan for treatment reviews and switching. Prescribers should seek support from specialists for patients with unstable asthma, and children should be referred to secondary or tertiary care to decide on further management."

So, what harm does Phyllocontin (aminophylline) do? This is not a secret. The adverse affects are listed here, and no doubt some of them are listed in the Patient Information Leaflet, which probably have gone mostly unread and disposed of in the bin for 50+ years. They include chest pain, irregular heartbeat, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, seizures, disorientation, confusion (dementia?), and much more. Presumably so much more the drug companies could no longer protect the drug from being banned. So it has been quietly 'discontinued'.

But never fear. Doctors will now be expected to 'review' all their patients on this drug in order to ensure there is "an up-to-date plan" in place, and an alternative drug has been suggested. This is theophylline, Uniphyllin or Continus. So presumably these are safer drugs that do less harm to patients. Well, sadly not. The adverse affects of theophylline are listed here. And if you want to spend more time than I have in trying to spot any difference between the side effects of theophylline and phyllocontin, please do so?

It would seem that, as far as the patient is concerned

 it is out of the frying pan right into the fire!

Asthma. Why do doctors not follow official guidelines on treating this condition?

Some time ago NICE (the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) recommended that doctors stepped down the use of asthma drugs in what they described as 'stable patients'. This was sensible advice given. They said, quite clearly, that there was no benefit in giving more drugs, more inhalers, as they could cause serious adverse effects; and reducing them would save the NHS money.

However, MIMS has now reported (July 2020) on new research that has shown this is not happening in practice - despite all the benefits of greater patient safety, and cost.

Instead, patients with asthma are increasingly being prescribed 'higher-level' treatment, often without clear clinical need, and a large proportion never have their medication stepped down - despite the clinical and cost benefits of doing so. These are the findings of UK research undertaken between 2001 and 2017. As MIMS reports:

               "They found that prescriptions of higher-level medication, such as medium- or high-dose inhaled corticosteroids, or inhaled corticosteroids with add-on medication such as long-acting ß2-agonists (LABAs), increased from 49.8% in 2001 to 68.3% in 2017. Among patients prescribed their first preventer, one third were prescribed a higher-level medication. Half of these had no reliever prescription or asthma exacerbation in the preceding year, suggesting the prescribers were not following clinical guidelines. Of the patients first prescribed inhaled corticosteroids with one add-on treatment, the majority (70.4%) remained on the same medication during a mean follow-up of 6.6 years."

What is worse the research found that 1 in 8 patients (13%) who were prescribed medium or high dose inhalers already had conditions that could be worsened by corticosteroids, such as diabetes, glaucoma or osteoporosis. So is this gross negligence by doctors?

Conventional medicine is allowed to peddle pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines that have serious adverse effects, that can cause serious patient harm, chronic disease, and death. And it might be expected, this being so, that doctors would take great care to follow the official guidelines on their prescription.

Yet unfortunately for patients (those who continue to place their trust in pharmaceutical medicine) this is often not the case. And it is so not just in this case of these asthma guidelines. In the same edition of MIMS, they reported that doctors should not prescribe analgesics for chronic pain.

Doctors will also ignore this guidance. How do I know? Doctors have nothing else to prescribe! They may be aware that paracetamol, ibuprofen, other NSAID painkillers, benzodiazepines and opioids should not be offered to people with chronic primary pain "because there is little evidence that they made any different to people's quality of life, pain, or psychological distress"; but when they are faced with a patient in chronic pain they will almost certainly continue to prescribe them. They will find it hard to tell a patient in pain that there is nothing they can do, nothing they can offer. So take the painkillers, and when they don't work, when they make the pain worse, come back and see me again. At least it gives the doctor a few week's grace. They have done something!

This is where conventional medicine now finds itself. The drug cupboard is bare. Doctors can prescribe few drugs (if any) that are safe. Or few drugs that make any significant difference to patients who are sick. And this applies to all illnesses. We are witnessing the failure of conventional medicine.

So rather than admit failure, doctors continue to prescribe the same old failed and harmful pharmaceutical drugs.

NICE will continue to provide guidelines for doctors about the drugs they cannot prescribe, albeit belatedly for the patients who have already been harmed by them. But they cannot tell doctors what they should be doing instead - because they have no alternative.

Steroid Inhalers. Not as good as we were told, and more harmful to our health

Many people use inhalers, and have done for decades. Now it has been discovered they are not as good as we have been told, and they are more harmful to our health too. New NICE guidelines have been issued, asking doctors to start reviewing all COPD patients, and consider taking those using inhaled steroids off their inhalers. It is thought that this could involve at least 500,000 patients.

               "It comes amid mounting evidence that steroids are less effective in COPD than previously thought and also more harmful – in particular by increasing the risk of pneumonia, as well as other side-effects such as worsening diabetes and reduced bone density."

The GP's magazine in Britain, Pulse, from which this quote is taken, say that new international guidelines are advising greater caution with the use of steroid inhalers following publication of "a raft of new studies". Experts in respiratory medicine are calling for an overhaul of the management of patients with COPD in primary care.

Yet this is a process to which the conventional medical establishment has subjected us too now for a very long time.

• New treatments are introduced, heralded as wonder cures for this or that ailment, with its benefits greatly exaggerated, and its side effects greatly underestimated.
• Millions of people are placed on the treatment in the belief that it is helpful, and that they are safe taking it.
• The Pharmaceutical Industry makes enormous profits.
• Decades later 'medical science' discovers that it got it wrong, the treatment is not a wonder cure, and the harm it does was far greater than they had previously thought.
• There is a grudging, but partial recognition that patients have  been, and are being harmed, that the health of many may have been compromised.

Doctors are already overworked. The NHS is already in crisis because of the demands made upon it by sick patients. Many more of these demands, it would seem, are the result of inhalers! One recent study (Price D, et al. First maintenance therapy for COPD in the UK between 2009 and 2012: a retrospective database analysis. NPJ Prim Care Respir Med 2016; online 3 Nov. tinyurl.com/hagdzev) has apparently showed more than half of patients with COPD were started on an ICS inhaler and, as many more will have therapy stepped up. Now most of them could probably be taken off steroid therapy completely. The medication they have been taking, sometimes for decades, are no longer considered to be safe!

So how many patients have suffered pneumonia, worsening diabetes, and reduced bone density because of the inhalers prescribed to them as effective and safe?

Pulse does not say. Perhaps no-one knows. Perhaps no-one want us to know! Yet Pulse states that a recent study highlighted that large numbers of patients, with mild or moderate COPD, end up on triple therapy - with two long-acting bronchodilators and an ICS. This, the new guidelines state, is treatment that should be reserved for those with the most severe disease.

Consider this for a moment, and then ask what sort of medical system it is that has dominating health care for the last 100 years!

• Patients with mild or moderate COPD have been over-drugged with inhalers that are less effective and more harmful than previously realised, and as a result many patients have suffered from pneumonia, worsening diabetes, and reduced bone density as a direct result.
• In future, it will only be the sickest patients who will have this level of treatment because it is no known that it has too many harmful side effects, it is just too dangerous for anyone else! In other words, the sickest are getting the most dangerous treatment!

No wonder the NHS is in crisis. As I have said many times before pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines are not making us better, they are the cause of increased levels of sickness and disease.

Yet there is a further problem for the conventional medical establishment. Their medicine cupboard has just become a little bit barer!

• Antibiotics are failing, coming to the end of their useful life.
• Painkillers have so many serious side effects they should only be used with the greatest caution
• Psychiatric drugs are so dangerous to our health that doctors have to use 'talking therapies' instead.

Now doctors are losing their inhalers. So what do they have to replace them? The Pulse article provides us with the answer

               "One barrier to stepping down therapy is that it is often started because of a lack of alternatives. Dr Gruffydd-Jones adds: ‘Pulmonary rehabilitation has not been freely available in a timely manner. Waiting lists can be several months, so as a GP what are you going to do? You feel you have got to try something and end up escalating the treatment.’"

So this is yet another very serious problem for the conventional medical establishment. They have been prescribing dangerous and ineffective drugs for a long time. As a nation they have made us sicker. They are running out of money. They are running out of drugs. And they are running out of time!

References given in the Pulse article.

GOLD, 2017. Global Strategy for the Diagnosis, Management and Prevention of COPD. tinyurl.com/gu85rmb

NICE CG101. COPD in over-16s: diagnosis and management, 2010. tinyurl.com/NICE-CG101

Price D et al. First maintenance therapy for COPD in the UK between 2009 and 2012: a retrospective database analysis. NPJ Prim Care Respir Med 2016; online 3 Nov. tinyurl.com/hagdzev

Haughney J et al. The distribution of COPD in UK general practice using the new GOLD classification. Eur Respir J 2014;43:993–1002. tinyurl.com/zfg2eou

Royal College of Physicians, 2016. National COPD Audit Programme: primary care work stream. tinyurl.com/haqml5z

White P et al. Overtreatment of COPD with inhaled corticosteroids. Implications for safety and costs: cross-sectional observational study. PLoS ONE 8: e75221. tinyurl.com/z4rcrbk

Mak V and D’Ancona G. Avoiding inappropriate prescribing of high dose inhaled corticosteroid combination inhalers – is the message getting through? Thorax 2016;71 (Suppl 3):A118-A119. tinyurl.com/Thorax-ICS

Asthma. Is it caused by urban pollution? Or antibiotics?

Urban pollution is becoming a problem. No, more accurately it has been a problem for a very long time (I remember as a child hearing about the smogs in London in the 1950's). Rather, the mainstream media are beginning to highlight it as a problem. Why? I will leave them to explain!

On the BBC Today programme this morning (6th June 2016) they featured the story of a young girl who had died of Asthma. The mother is prosecuting the government as she believes her condition was caused by urban pollution, and the government has not taken sufficient steps to combat it.

I have every sympathy for that position, as far as it goes. But I suspect, from the evidence given during the feature, this is not the whole story. This is what listeners were told.

• The young girl developed a cough, caused by a virus.
• She visited her doctor, who gave her antibiotics.
• Note, antibiotics for a viral complaint!
• Perhaps not surprisingly, the drugs did not work for her cough.
• She returned to the doctor, who gave her stronger antibiotics.
• She then quickly developed asthma, in very severe form.
• She was hospitalised several times before she died.

Now, urban pollution has been around where she lived for a long time. The only new factor in the situation was the antibiotic drugs. And it is now known that antibiotic drugs can cause Asthma!

The BBC interviewer failed to ask questions about the logic of the prescription. Antibiotics are indiscriminate killers of bacteria, not viruses. Yet what antibiotics do is to upset the balance of our gut bacteria, which is of central to importance to our immune system. 

Did the 'stronger antibiotics' transform the cough into asthma? Did it do such damage to the young girls gut bacteria she was no longer able to fight her asthma attacks?

Anyway, it was urban pollution that got the blame. Perhaps it needed to be pointed out that urban pollution is not a new problem, it had been there, where she lived, all her life. So it is unlikely to have caused  this sudden, fatal asthma problem. It may have contributed to her cough. In future it might have led to progressive breathing and lung problems. But was it really the trigger that led to asthma attacks that killed her?

So were antibiotic drugs the trigger? I suspect we will never know, and that no-one in the conventional medical establishment will ever bother to investigate as they might not want to know. Nor, it would seem, does BBC News!

So is this sudden media interest in urban pollution going to be used to explain away the epidemic levels of asthma, as a killer disease?

Asthma and the drug Prednisolone (Prednisone). Is this really the best treatment conventional medicine can come up with?

Earlier today (15th June 2015) I received an email advertising the drug, Prednisolone, which was directed at GP's. Drug companies cannot advertise prescription drugs to the general public in Britain, but they can advertise their wares to doctors, and they certainly do this.

The advert, quite unremarkably, began with outlining the reasons for prescribing this asthma drug.

     "Despite a plateau in the prevalence of asthma since the late 1990s, the UK still has some of the highest rates in Europe; Asthma UK reports that there are around 5.4 million people in the UK presently receiving treatment for asthma. Out-of-hours services and walk-in centres are increasingly the first port of call for people experiencing an exacerbation.

     "Even though it has been estimated that around 90% of deaths from asthma in the UK are preventable, asthma still kills. Over the last decade, the number of deaths from asthma in the UK has not significantly reduced from year to year, remaining at around 1000 deaths per year.

     "A confidential report published in 2014, reviewing the circumstances surrounding nearly 200 deaths from asthma for a 12-month period between 2012 and 2013, found that almost half of the deaths occurred before admission to hospital. 

     "Many of these deaths occur in patients who have received inadequate steroid treatment.

     "Given these facts, national guidelines recommend that all patients over the age of five years who present to healthcare professionals with severe or life-threatening exacerbations of asthma should be treated with oral or intravenous steroids within one hour of the presentation of symptoms.

     "Recommended treatments include a dose of 20mg prednisolone...." and continues to inform doctors what they should be prescribing.

     "The early use of steroids in asthma emergencies, whether presenting in primary care, out of hours or the hospital emergency department, may reduce the need for hospital admission, prevent relapse in symptoms, lessen the need for β2 agonist therapy, and more importantly reduce the mortality caused by severe asthma exacerbations.

All this is quite unremarkable, really. So what is the problem with this information. 

Well, the adverts seems to suggest that there is a drug that can cope with the problems of asthma. Yet Prednisolone (Prednisone) has been around since the 1950's, nearly 70 years! So it is hardly new, and if it was going to tackle the serious epidemic levels of asthma we face today (suggesting a 'plateau is rather optimistic) it would surely have done so by now.

Moreover, taking this awful drug means putting yourself in serious danger! I was going to look them up for the purpose of this blog, but then discovered they were listed at the bottom of the advert. I suppose drug companies have to do this by law. I also suppose that doctors should tell their patients about the dangerous side effects of this drug, but they usually don't do son, not the full enormity of the harm they can cause!

GP's would barely have the time to read them all.

I reproduce them all here, just as they appear on the advert. Please don't read them all, unless you need to do so, if you are taking the drug, or someone close to you is taking it! It is a veritable horror story. The point of reproducing it is to ask two simple questions.

1. Have drug companies really got nothing better to offer us? Is there nothing safer? Is there nothing more effective, after 60 years?
2. Do doctors know about the serious side effects, and yet still prescribe such a drug to us? Are they prepared to harm us in this way?

Contraindications:

Hypersensitivity to the active substance or any excipient. System infections. Live virus immunization. Tuberculosis, peptic ulcer, psychosis, ocular herpes simplex.

Special warnings and precautions for use: 

Suppression of the inflammatory response and immune function increases susceptibility to infections and their severity. Masking of serious infections (septicaemia and tuberculosis) and minor illnesses (chicken pox or herpes zoster) which can become fatal in immunocompromised patients. Avoid exposure to measles and live vaccines, due to diminished antibody response. Caution is advised with renal insufficiency, hypertension or congestive heart failure due to possible fluid retention. Worsening of diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis, hypertension, glaucoma and epilepsy may occur. Severe psychiatric adverse reactions can occur within days or weeks of starting treatment. Caution is advised in individuals with history of severe affective disorders. Closely monitor patients with steroid myopathy, peptic ulceration, hypothyroidism, recent myocardial infarction, liver failure or tuberculosis. Irreversible, dose related growth retardation may occur in children. Prolonged therapy can result in adrenal cortical atrophy and suppression of the HPA axis. Withdrawal following prolonged treatment should occur gradually and doses should be tapered over days or weeks.

Drug Interactions: 

Rifampicin, rifabutin, carbamazepine, phenobarbitone, phenytoin, primidone, ephedrine, aminoglutethimide, mifeprostone, erythromycin and ketoconazole inhibit the metabolism and reduce the therapeutic effects of corticosteroids. Ciclosporin, oestrogens and oral contraceptives potentiate the effects of glucocorticoids. Corticosteroids inhibits the effects of hypoglycaemic agents, anti-hypertensives, diuretics, anticholinesterases, cholecystographic x-ray media and growth homone somatotropin. Corticosteroids enhance the efffects of coumarin anticoagulants, warfarin, acetazolamide, loop diuretics, thiazide diuretics, carbenoxolone and cardiac glycosides. Increased risk of GI bleeding and ulceration occur with aspirin and NSAIDs. Risk of hypokalaemia increased with theophylline, amphotericin, bamuterol, fenoterol, formoterol, ritodrine, salbutamol, salmeterol and terbutaline. Increased risk of haematological toxicity with methotrexate.

Fertility, pregnancy and lactation: 

Only prescribe if benefits outweigh the risks. Animal studies and prolonged use have shown increased risk of foetal abnormalities. Corticosteroids are excreted in small amounts in breast milk.

Undesirable effects: 

Dizziness, headache, vertigo, malaise, dyspepsia, nausea, vomiting, abdominal distension, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, oesophageal ulcer, peptic ulcer haemorrhage, peptic ulcer perforation and acute pancreatitis. Glaucoma, cataracts, papiloedema, chorioretinopathy, corneal thinning. Skin atrophy, acne, skin striae, urticaria, hyperhidrosis and hirsutism. Fluid retention, hypokalaemia, electrolyte imbalance, hypertension, congestive heart failure, myocardial rupture, weight gain Impaired healing and increased susceptibility to opportunistic and latent infections. Leucocytosis, hypersensitivity reactions, hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal suppression, cushingoid, carbohydrate intolerance, exacerbation of diabetes, increased appetite, weight gain and total protein abnormal. A wide range of psychiatric disorders, affective disorder, abnormal behaviour, anxiety, sleep disorder, confusion, amnesia. Irregular menstruation and amenorrhoea. Myopathy, myalgia, tendon rupture, osteoporosis, spinal fractures and osteonecrosis. 

Paediatric Population: 

Psychiatric reactions, increased intracranial pressure with papiloedema and growth retardation. 

Withdrawal: 

Rapid reduction of corticosteroid dosage following prolonged treatment can lead to acute adrenal insufficiency, hypotenstion and death. Effects may resemble relapse of the disease being treated. Other effects include benign intracranial hypertension with headache and vomiting and papilloema due to cerebral oedema.

Why Homeopathy is best for treating Asthma

This article was first published in the "Why Homeopathy?" website.

Asthma has become a common condition in recent decades. It can cause a cough, tightness of the chest, wheezing and breathlessness. It is caused by the inflammation of the airways, or the bronchi, which carry air to, and from the lungs. This inflammation is known to be triggered by a variety of factors which tightens of muscles around the bronchi.

Conventional Medical Treatment

This information is taken from the NHS Choices website

NHS Choices says that “the aim of treatment is to get your asthma under control and keep it that way. Everyone with asthma should be able to lead a full and unrestricted life. The treatments available for asthma are effective in most people and should enable you to be free from symptoms”.

This indicates clearly that conventional medicine seeks to manage rather than to cure asthma.

The main treatment offered by conventional medicine is inhalers, that deliver a drug directly into the airways. Sometime a ‘spacer’ is used to increased the amount of medication reaching the lungs, and reduce the ‘side-effects’ of the drug.

Reliever inhalers, such as Salbutamol and Terbutaline, which aim to relieve asthma symptoms quickly, and contain a ‘short-acting beta2-agonist’ which ‘works by relaxing the muscles surrounding the narrowed airways’. NHS Choces claim that these are “generally safe”.

Preventer inhalers, such as Beclometasone, Budesonide, Fluticasone and Mormetasone, aim “to reduce the amount of inflammation and ‘twitchiness’ in the airways and prevent asthma attacks occurring”. These inhalers contain corticosteroid drugs. NHS Choices say that these “Inhaled corticosteroids can occasionally cause a mild fungal infection (oral thrush) in the mouth and throat”, 

Long-acting reliever inhalers, such as Formoterol and Salmeterol, are used when this treatment fails to work. “These work in the same way as short-acting relievers, but they take longer to work and can last up to 12 hours”. 

Preventer medicines. If this treatment does not work the following drugs are then used:

    Leukotriene receptor antagonists (Montelukast): a drug that “blocks part of the chemical reaction involved in inflammation of the airways”.

    Theophyllines: “a drug that helps widen the airways by relaxing the muscles around them”.

    Oral Steroids: NHS Choices say that these drugs ”are usually monitored by a respiratory specialist” as the “long-term use of oral steroids has possible serious side effects, so they are only used once other treatment options have been tried”. 

Omalizumab (Xolair). This is given as an injection every 2 to 4 weeks, at a specialist asthma centre. NHS Choices says that this drug “binds to one of the proteins involved in the immune response and reduces its level in the blood. This reduces the chance of an immune reaction happening”. NHS Choices say that the National Institute for Heath and Clinical Excellence (NICE) “recommends that omalizumab can be used in people with frequent severe asthma attacks which require visits to A&E or hospital admission”.

Bronchial thermoplasty. NHS Choices say that this is used “to treat severe asthma by reducing airway narrowing” and is a treatment “carried out either with sedation or under a general anaesthetic” where a hollow tube, or bronchoscope containing a probe “is inserted through the mouth or nose into the airway and expanded so it touches the airway wall, it then heats up”. It goes on to say that “the long-term risks and benefits are not yet fully understood”.

NHS Choices then goes on to discuss some of the ‘side-effects’ of these treatments, but as usual, their coverage seems to downplay what is known about these treatments, particularly some of the more worrying research. These concerns apply particularly to the ‘long-acting reliever inhalers’, and the subsequent treatment offered by Conventional Medicine.

Therefore, before accepting conventional treatment for Asthma I would recommend that some research is done into the more serious adverse reactions.

This website, whilst saying that these treatments are “usually well tolerated”, it does at least seem to cover most of the more serious dangers of this treatment. This includes evidence about a link between this treatment and Cataracts and Glaucoma, poor physical growth. 

The Homeopathic Treatment of Asthma

Please click here to see the evidence basis for Homeopathy

Homeopaths have been treating people with Asthma successfully for a long time, not just in managing the condition, but curing it. However, it is important to remember that in Homeopathy any illness or disease, including Asthma, requires individualised attention. 

As usual, there are many remedies used by Homeopaths in the treatment of Asthma. These remedy descriptions have been taken from Robert Medhurst’s article on the Hpathy website.

Antimonium Tart

Commonly indicated in children, asthma appears suddenly at night with a suffocating cough and palpitations and the sufferer feels the need to sit upright. Worse from warm weather or being warm, better for motion, belching or lying on the right side

Arsenicum Alb

The sufferer has periodic attacks of asthma with a burning sensation in the chest, restlessness, anxiety, extreme fatigue and cold sweats. Attacks may be associated with hayfever or emphysema. Symptoms are worse immediately on lying down, from walking or exertion and better for warmth and warm food.

Arsenicum Iod

Occasional bouts of asthma that force the sufferer to sit up to breathe, with exhaustion and a burning in the chest. Worse for dry, cold weather or exertion, better for open air.

Bromine

Asthma with a sensation of exhaustion and weakness in the chest with difficulty getting air into the lungs. Worse at or near the seashore, warmth or drafts, better for motion or exercise.

Carbo Veg

Frequently useful in the elderly, this remedy may be indicated where there is an association with gas in the stomach. The sufferer experiences cyanosis, a coldness to the skin and extreme dyspnoea. Worse for sitting or lying down, better for eructation and walking.

Cuprum Metallicum

Characterised by suddenly occurring spasmodic attacks often arising from emotional disturbances or fright, with facial cyanosis. Hiccoughs often occur before asthma attacks. Worse from motion, menses, touch and pressure, better for drinking cold water.

Ipecac

Spasmodic asthma with wheezing, loose cough, a feeling of tightness in the chest, nausea, anxiety, perspiration and restlessness. Worse from motion or warm, humid air, better for open air, rest and pressure.

Kali Carb

May be indicated by the appearance of wheezing asthmatic attacks frequently occurring just after midnight or around 3 a.m. Worse from walking, cold air or change of weather, better for leaning forward, warm weather and motion.

Lachesis

Asthma attacks usually occur on falling asleep or when wrapped too tightly around the throat. Symptoms improve on coughing up phlegm. Worse during and after sleep, hot drinks and during menopause and better for open air and cold drinks.

Lobelia Inflata

Asthma with often brought on by exercise and preceded with a feeling of prickling over the skin, with nausea and profuse salivation. Worse from exertion, warm food, exposure to cold, better for rapid walking.

Natrum Sulph

Asthma that often has a familial basis, and may be associated with a rheumatic complaint and occurs during wet weather. It is accompanied by a loose cough producing thick white or greenish mucus. Diarrhoea often arises during or after each attack. Worse for damp weather and lying on the left side, better for open air and lying on the back.

Nux Vom

Asthma often arises from gastric disturbances, the sufferer is frequently nauseous, flatulent, irritable and constipated and has a yellow-coated tongue. Symptoms are worse after midnight or early morning, and worse for cold or exertion. Better after belching, damp, wet weather, lying on the back, changing sides or sitting up.

Sulphur

Asthma often associated with skin disease, or suppression of skin diseases, it occurs from a recurrent cough and produces an expectoration of thick offensive sputum. Worse for bathing and overheating, better for standing and dry, warm weather.

Like all Homeopathic remedies, these are all safe. But as asthma can be a serious disease, and it is recommended that anyone suffering from asthma should consult with a registered Homeopath to ensure a good match, at the correct potency.

Randomised Controlled Tests (RCTs)

RCTs are the third, and decidedly the least important type of evidence supporting Homeopathy as a medical therapy.

Contrary to what the NHS Choices website says, incorrectly, about evidence proving the value of homeopathic treatment of Asthma, there are several RCTs which have looked into the treatment of Asthma with Homeopathy

“Is Evidence of Homeopathy Reproducible?” 

Reilly, Taylor MA, Beattie NGM, et al, 1994:

Lancet 344: 1601-1606)

“Researchers at the University of Glasgow in the UK, have found that 80% patients who received very small, “homeopathic”, doses of whatever substance they were most allergic to had significant relief of symptoms within the first week of treatment, compared to 38% of patients who received placebo”.

Individualized homeopathy in a group of Egyptian asthmatic children.

Shafei HF, AbdelDayem SM, Mohamed NH.

“This study provides evidence that homeopathic medicines, as prescribed by experienced homeopathic practitioners, improve severity of asthma in children”.

Clinical verification in homeopathy and allergic conditions.

Van Wassenhoven M

This paper looks at the clinical research into allergic conditions treated with homeopathy, including a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCT) for hay fever with positive conclusions, and two positive RCTs in Asthma. It also looks at cohort surveys that have shown improvement in asthma in children, and general allergic conditions and skin diseases. It also looked at some economic surveys that have shown positive results in eczema, allergy, seasonal allergic rhinitis, asthma, food allergy, and chronic allergic rhinitis, outlining some of the homeopathic remedies found to be useful in the treatment of hay fever, asthma, eczema and urticaria.

The Allergy Epidemic. Caused by Pharmaceutical Drugs?

Our immune system defends and protects us from attack from foreign substances, such as viruses and bacteria. It produces antibodies that seek and destroy intruders, and thereafter protects us from future attacks. An allergy occurs when the immune system overreacts to a normally harmless substance, and triggers what, for the healthy human body, is an inappropriate and unnecessary response.

Substances that trigger allergic reactions are called allergens, and these include such things as house dust mites, pollen, cat and dog fur, bee and wasp stings, feathers and a variety of foods.

The antibodies produced by the immune system can cause the release of some irritating substances, such as histamine, which produce redness, heat and swelling, leading to symptoms such as sneezing, wheezing, shortness of breath, a runny or blocked up nose, watery and bloodshot eyes, rash, itchiness, diarrhoea, and vomiting.

Food intolerance is a related but less serious condition than an allergy. The symptoms after eating the food can include headaches, muscle and joint pains, and tiredness, so whilst less serious, it remains an inappropriate response for a healthy body. The body is not responding normally, or as it should do.

Anaphylaxis, or anaphylactic shock, is a severe, potentially fatal, allergic reaction to an allergen, where there can be a sudden drop in blood pressure and the narrowing of the airways. It can be triggered by foods such as peanuts, nuts, sesame seeds, fish, shellfish, dairy products, eggs and strawberries, or by an allergic reaction to wasp or bee stings.

Allergies include a wide range of medical conditions such as Rhinitis, Hay Fever, Ezcema and Asthma. Allergy in the UK has reached epidemic proportions - according to the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology. Its report, published in July 2007, found that: 

          "the prevalence and incidence of allergic disease have markedly increased over the past 50 years", and that evidence presented to the Committee showed that "an increasing prevalence of asthma was first noted in studies of Birmingham school children, starting in the mid 1950s," and that since then "the prevalence of asthma and wheezing appears to have doubled "approximately every 14 years" until the mid 1990s. It added that the trends for other disorders such as hayfever and eczema are similar".

The report estimated that in 2004 the scale of the "allergy epidemic" showed that 39% of children and 30% of adults had been diagnosed with one or more of asthma, eczema and hayfever; and 38% of children and 45% of adults had experienced symptoms of these disorders during the preceding 12 months. The committee commented that the treatment of allergic disorders costs the NHS a considerable amount of money each year.

Clearly, this describes the development of another epidemic that began shortly after Big Pharma drugs became freely available through the NHS. It is known and even admitted that anaphylaxis can be triggered by certain drugs, such as penicillin. And the increase in conditions described as 'auto-immune' disease, suggests that the culpability of pharmaceutical drugs is far greater than is currently recognised.

The link between allergy and drugs is admitted and discussed in many websites, including these:

Drug Reactions and Drug Allergies.

Drug Allergies.

Allergic reactions to drugs - a common problem.

In this webpage, the implicated drugs include: antibiotics, painkillers, including aspirin, anti-inflammatory drugs, such as NSAIDs, and anti-seizure drugs.

So the issue is not whether pharmaceutical drugs cause allergies, they do. The important issues are:

1. To what extent has the Conventional Medical Establishment admitted it culpability?
2. To what extent it is the major cause of the allergy epidemic in recent decades?

Certainly, drugs are known to be causative for two of the main, and most serious allergic disease, Asthma and Ezcema.

This blog was first published as part of the author's e-book, 'Drug-Induced Illness'

Asthma and Homeopathy

Hpathy.com, has recently published an article on Asthma and Homeopathy. I read through it, and thought the selection of remedies, the the descriptions of the remedies and their uses, was good, and having read it,I decided to check who had written it.

The piece was written in 1885! Over 125 years ago!

What this demonstrates is that homeopathy is a very stable form of medicine. It does not change, year in, year out, like ConMed. It does not need to. Homeopathic remedies are safe, and once we know what kind of conditions they treat, they are effective, and remain effective. And if they were safe and effective in 1885, they are safe today.

So I thought that I would reproduce the piece below, for your information. Thanks to Hpathy.com for publishing this historical document - and demonstrating how timeless homeopathy is.

"The remedies for asthma must be considered in regard to their adaptability to the spasm and to the interval. Resort will be had to various methods and substances by the patient himself, in order to relieve the severity of the attack, and if anything has been found by experience to afford any relief in former fits, it is best to acquiesce in its continuance.

Remedies for the Attack

The chief remedies are: Aconite, Arsenicum, Bryonia, Ipecacuanha, Lobelia, Sambucus, Cuprum and Hydrocyanic acid.

Aconite — When the attack has been induced by cold, dry air, or subjection to a foggy atmosphere.

Arsenicum — For nightly paroxysms, with great restlessness and anxiety, and burning pains in the chest. There is perspiration of the whole body, with alternate hot and cold sensations, and prostration.

Bryonia — In addition to the symptoms of the spasm, there is some bronchitis, sharp pains around the chest, much worse by deep inspiration and by motion.

Ipecacuahna — This is the remedy used most frequently, and is recommended by all schools. The dyspnoea is very considerable, there is constriction of the throat and chest. The cough is constant, with rattling of mucus, nausea, and vomiting. The surface is cold and damp, and the face pale. The remedy is given when there is no immediate assignable cause for the attack.

Lobelia — is indicated for a paroxysm induced by gastric trouble. There is immense development of gas in the stomach, and little or no cough. The attack is often preceded by a prickling sensation all over.

Sambucus — Is of service when the degree of dyspnea is beyond that witnessed under Ipecacuanha, and the cough is less. The patient evidences extreme anxiety, the face becomes violet in hue, and asphyxia seems imminent. Loud sibilant rales accompany the dyspnoea. Sambucus is usually employed in the tincture.

Cuprum — Is especially useful in the purely nervous variety of asthma. Its onset is sudden, the respiration is very spasmodic, is complicated with cramps and convulsive twitchings, and terminates suddenly. The attack may occur in conjunction with the menstrual epoch, or in consequence of emotional excitement.

Hydrocyanic acid — Is recommended by Hughes for the class of cases which suggest Cuprum. He uses it in recent and uncomplicated asthma, when there is difficult and spasmodic respiration, with contraction of the throat, and feelings of suffocation.

Remedies for the Interval

Arsenicum, Nuz vomica, Sulphur, Pulsatilla, Antimonium tart, Iodine, and Aurum.

Arsenicum — When this remedy is called into requisition for the paroxysm, it is frequently found to relieve also the habitual, wheezy, dyspnoeic state. The idications are : precordial anxiety, with exacerbations at night ; cough, accompanied by the expectoration of a transparent, frothy, viscid fluid. When chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or cardiac disease complicates the case Arsenic is often of service. It is also to be kept prominently in mind when the asthma is a neurosis, probably alternating with some other nervous disorder, as well as when it depends on a suppressed eruption.

Nux Vomica — For irritable persons who are accustomed to drinking coffee or liquor. After the subsidence of an attack the tongue exhibits a thick yellow coating. There is a feeling of fullness in the stomach, with belching, and constipation. As Dr. Bussell says of it, there remains a sort of physical memory of the struggle, and the patient feels that no liberties must be taken, either of diet or exercise. If the attack began with sneezing and fluent coryza, or if vapors of copper or arsenic started it, or if it is merely spasmodic, in consequence of a hypersensitive pneumogastric, Nux and Strychnia are most useful remedies.

Sulphur — This remedy stands well in the treatment of asthma when skin affections alternate with the dyspnoea, but it is even a more powerful agent in the complication of the asthmatic with the gouty constitution. The attack is marked by sibilant dyspnoea, bluish lips, and it recurs once a week, usually in the night.

Pulsatilla — For a case of asthma ill-defined in its onset; with an abundant catarrhal expectoration, vertigo, vomiting, prostration, and palpitation of the heart . It may have been due to deranged menstruation, hysteria, uremic poisoning, or a suppressed rash.

Antimonium tart — This has great abundance of secretions, with rattling of mucus, and difficult expiration. It is specially recommended for old people and young children.

Iodine — In the form of Potassium iodide (Kali iodatum) this remedy is in much favor among some old school practitioners, and Baehr points out its well-marked homeopathicity by its effects when taken for a protracted period. The attack usually starts about midnight, lasts half an hour, and is succeeded by lassitude and an irresistible desire to sleep. The patient is nervous and restless during the interval, and the asthma appears to be entirely of the spasmodic variety.

Aurum — For morning asthma, with bluish face and great palpitation of the heart ; suffocative attacks, with spasmodic constriction of the chest The accompanying symptoms are of involvement of the heart and pulmonary congestion.

Other useful remedies in the treatment of asthma are :

Belladonna — When the attack comes on in the afternoon or evening, with congestion of the face and head ; worse in hot, damp weather.

Cannabis — Is of use only in massive doses, and after thus using it once, may prove to be entirely ineffective in subsequent attacks. Its action is narcotic, and hence palliative. Given in the first attenuation it is said to be serviceable in humid asthma.

Chamomilla— For children during dentition, and often for hysteric asthma, especially if induced by anger, and accompanied with flatulence.

Carbo veg— For old and feeble people whose attacks come on after midnight, and so severe that they seem to be dying. There is distension with wind and inability to raise it.

Digitaline — For a purely nervous asthma, without accompanying lesions of the lungs, heart, or bronchi. The paroxysms are frequent and ol comparatively short duration. Digitalis is a palliative even when right ventricle dilatation coexists. The attack is preceded by palpitations, and there is marked venous congestion of the head during the spasm, followed by violent headache. It is also useful in men debilitated by sexual excesses.

Kali bichromicum is recommended in humid asthma, when the signs of mucus in the bronchial tubes exceed the amount actually present. The gastric mucous membrane is simultaneously affected.

Moschus — For asthma in people of a nervous, irritable, or hypochondriac disposition. There is a violent feeling of constriction in the throat, without cough.

Opium or Morphine in a low attenuation, will often give great relief without inducing narcotism. The respirations are slow and labored, the face is cyanotic, the sensorium depressed, and cough constant.

Pulmo Vulpis – Von Grauvogl used a first centesimal trituration of this as a remedy in an old subject suffering with asthma humidum, and met with brilliant success.

Sanguinaria is recommended in hay asthma and in post-climacteric asthma.

In the latter instance Dr. Ludlam gives it upon the following indications : severe dyspnoea, teasing, hacking cough, dryness in the throat, and an inclination to take a deep inspiration during the paroxysm.

Spongia has rendered some service in asthma due to phthisis, by mitigating the severity of the attacks. The spasm is marked by complete loss of voice, wheezing respiration, and contraction of the glottis.

Stannum, Plumbum, Zincum, Ferrum, Argentum have all been accorded a place among the remedies for asthma, but their indications are not always well defined, nor are they clinically proved to be reliable.

The following remedies may be consulted, as possibly indicated :

Apis, Asafoetida, Bovista, Bromium, Calcarea carb., Causticum, Cistus, Cocculus, Colchimm,Gelsemium, Graphites, Grindela, Hepar, Hypericum, Kali carb., Lachesis, Lactuca vir., Lycopodium, Mephitis, Natrum sulph, Nitric acid, Nux moschata, Phosphorus, Sabadilla, Salicylic acid, Sepia, Silicea, Staphysagria, Sticta, Thuja, Veratrum.

Article by A. K. Crawford MD – From: A System of Medicine Based Upon the Law of Homeopathy Ed. H. R. Arndt, M.D. Vol 1,1885.