Tree pollens, grass pollens, and weed pollens cause allergic nasal symptoms in millions of people. Pollen is that part of plants that contains the male genetic material. The units in which this material is held are called pollen grains. Two walls surround the genetic material in each grain. The innermost wall, the intine, is very thin and fragile. The outer protective wall, the exine, is relatively thick and highly resistant to destruction. Pollen grains from different plants look as different from one another as do the plants from which they come, a fact which is best appreciated when the grains are stained with special chemicals and viewed under a microscope. This is, in fact, what is done when a pollen count is made. Stained pollen grains are beautiful, intricate structures. For example, ragweed pollen resembles a golf ball, oak pollen an intergalactic star-fighter, and cypress pollen, Рас Man.
Pollination is the term used to describe the transfer of pollen grains from the anther, the male organ of plants, to the stigma, the female organ of plants. Once transfer is completed, fertilization can take place. Surprisingly, only a small percentage of the thousands of plant pollens that exist are released into the air under circumstances sufficient to allow them to cause nasal allergy symptoms.
For a pollen to cause nasal allergies, it must meet four requirements:
- It must be produced in massive quantities.
- Its primary process of pollination must be via wind, not insects.
- It must be able to stimulate our immune system to produce an allergic response.
- We humans must be sufficiently exposed to the pollen to develop an allergy.

In order to be successfully wind pollinated, a plant and its pollen must have the following characteristics:
- A large number of pollen grains must be produced.
- The pollen must be aerodynamically sound, i.e., it must be of the right size, structure, and weight to be carried by the wind.
- The structure of the plant and its geographic location must favor the release of pollen into the wind.
- Pollen release during the season and during the day must be timed to optimize capture by the female organ.
- Like plants should be closely spaced to one another.
*11/322/5*

Charles Lakerman was a 78-year-old retired businessman who had had rhinitis for the past thirty years and mild intermittent arthritis of the hands for almost a decade. In the fall of 1967, he had developed acute arthritis of the hands, followed by involvement of the right elbow, shoulders, knees, and right hip. Aspirin was the only medication he had received.

At the time of his hospitalization for environmental testing, his hands were red, swollen, and inflamed, with very little motion in the joints. He was barely able to eat and refused to shake hands.

Under the program of comprehensive environmental control, Lakerman’s arthritis became progressively better, without his suffering any withdrawal effects. All of his joints were comfortable at the end of five days of fasting, although some residual swelling of the hands persisted.

Individual food ingestion tests resulted in the following reactions:

Corn: 3 hours, nausea and abdominal distress followed by spontaneous diarrhea; 6 hours, recurrence of arthritic pains of hands and left shoulder

Wheat: 31/2 hours, watery eyes and running nose; 12 hours, painful right knee upon awakening

Beets and beet sugar: 13 hours, slight aching of ankle upon awakening: a

new joint involvement

All other commonly eaten foods were test-negative, nor did he react to the commercial forms of such foods.

Mr. Lakerman remained symptom-free at the time of his hospital discharge and experienced no evidence of reaction upon returning home to follow his new diet. After eight months of freedom from arthritis, he tolerated wheat when it was returned to his diet once in five days for several months. However, he experienced a gradual recurrence of mild arthritis of the knees and hands as he increased his intake of wheat to twice daily, corn to three times per week, and began the regular use of beet sugar. All symptoms subsided when he returned to his former diet restrictions, and he has remained free of arthritic pains ever since then.

Many cases of rheumatoid arthritis also have a coexisting muscle involvement referred to as allergic myalgia. This may start either before or following the onset of joint involvement. Allergic myalgia may be acute or chronic, localized or generalized. It tends to be characterized by painful, tender muscles and sometimes presents as cramps or muscle spasms. I first described this condition in 1951.4 Myalgia of ecologic origin also occurs frequently in the absence of arthritis, in association with headache and fatigue. The postural muscles of the nape, back, chest, and legs are most commonly involved.

Although the causative roles of foods in individually studied cases of rheumatoid arthritis and myalgia have been documented for thirty years, there has been practically no recognition of these findings as taught by rheumatologists in most medical centers. The record shows clearly that of 1,000 cases of rheumatoid arthritis studied during the past three decades, specific foods have been demonstrated in most of them and environmental chemicals in many of them.

*77\110\2*

Kelly Johnson was a nine-year-old schoolgirl when she developed arthritis of the right ankle in the spring of 1970. This was followed by migration of the arthritis to both knees and ankles. Aspirin was the only treatment given until an operation (called a synovectomy) was performed on the right knee, in order to allow it to move more freely.

Four months later, the partially crippled child was hospitalized for food and chemical testing. Examination revealed swelling and limitation of motion in both knees, as well as a scar from the previous operation. Upon beginning the period of fasting, Kelly experienced nausea and headache as withdrawal effects. Progressive improvement occurred, however, so that after four days of fasting her joints were more mobile and less painful than they had been in many months.

Severe recurrences of arthritic pain, swelling, and other symptoms was associated with the ingestion of the following chemically less contaminated (organic) foods:

Rice: 2 hours, stomachache; 9 hours, itching

Chicken: 21/2 hours, pains in elbows and hands

Pork: 3 hours, stomachache; 14 hours, joint stiffness

Beef: 3 hours, chest pain and residual stiffness

Potato: 3 hours, right-shoulder pain

Wheat: 31/2 hours, itching

Corn: 5 hours, itching; 10 hours, swollen extremities

Milk: 91/2 hours, mild itching of skin only

Beet: 14 hours, swollen, stiff hands and feet

In contrast to some of the earlier cases, Kelly’s symptoms generally came on hours after the food ingestion test. Since another meal may have intervened between the ingestion of corn, milk, or beet and the development of symptoms, it was often necessary to repeat tests in order to make sure that a given food resulted in a given symptom. This is the kind of test which is extremely difficult to do outside a specialized hospital setting.

Other commonly eaten foods were all test-negative. Kelly went home in good condition and remained well on the diet we devised for her until the gas-fired furnace was turned on that fall. This was followed by a flare-up in her arthritis. She was therefore moved to an all-electric house. Since then, Kelly has remained symptom-free, adhering well to her dietary program. Other than some physiotherapy for pain in the operated knee, she needs no therapy— not even aspirin—at the present time.

*75\110\2*

Patrick Wells, an architect, had a long history of medical problems, including running nose (rhinitis), coughing, headache, fatigue, mental confusion, and intermittent bouts of depression. Like many people in Chicago, he worked in the Loop and commuted by rail to a suburb west of the city. Under my care, he had already controlled various aspects of indoor air pollution in his home, yet many of his symptoms persisted. Suspecting that there was a relationship between the weather and his problems, he kept a log of all of his symptoms for each day, and of the weather conditions prevailing on that day. He carefully monitored this for a year, without missing a day. He also obtained data from the United States Weather Bureau concerning wind velocity and visibility on these days.

Wells found that he was, in effect, a “human barometer.” At both home and work, he remained symptom-free on those days when the wind blew from the west, northwest, and north (there is little industry in these regions). Invariably, however, his depression and other symptoms returned when the wind blew from the east, and particularly from the southeast. This, of course, is where the heavy industry is located, especially the refineries and largest industrial plants. Winds from the south and even the southwest were also troublesome.

It was particularly interesting that Wells had no trouble from any wind with a velocity of fifteen or more miles per hour. The pollution, apparently, had to drift slowly over the area at a leisurely three to seven miles per hour in order to affect him.

Wells’ observations were later confirmed by other chemically susceptible patients in Chicago. It was always the slow, southern winds that brought with them symptom-causing pollution. In particular, as Wells found, the severity of such effects could be correlated with the visibility factor (visibility being defined as the distance one is able to see spaced lights). The lesser the visibility, the greater the chance of chronic symptoms on any particular day.

Further incidents revealed the remarkable carrying power of these slowly drifting winds, and how they could bring pollution to the doorstep of unsuspecting people many miles away.

One day, in the Chicago area, a number of my chemically susceptible patients became acutely ill at the same time. Several of them claimed to smell refinery odors in the air, although they did not live near refineries. Plotting their homes on a map and studying weather patterns for that day, 1 concluded that these people were reacting to chemical “fallout” from the Joliet refineries, although they all lived in the northern suburbs of Chicago, forty to seventy-five miles away.

Many similar incidents have occurred over the years. Even the northernmost suburbs of Chicago, near the Wisconsin border, occasionally receive some of the air pollution from Chicago’s south side. In fact, there is no residential area within a fifty- to seventy-five-mile radius of the center of Chicago which is consistently free of air pollution from the city or its industrial locales. The same is true of many American cities.

*47\110\2*

Few studies of public places have been as complete as this parents’ report from Wauconda. Similar findings would undoubtedly be made, however, at other schools, universities, laboratories, offices, and hospitals.

Each public place has its own potential dangers. Offices, for example, often contain a variety of possible irritants, including carbon paper, ink, mimeographing and duplicating devices, rubber cement, typewriters, typewriter pads, plastic lamps and fixtures, and perfumes and scents. The new type o? carbonless carbon paper is particularly troublesome to many patients. If the office is new, the odor of freshly chemicalized carpet is often strong. Some offices are adjacent to factories, warehouses, shops, and garages, and share a common heating and ventilation system with them. Many people who are susceptible to chemicals are also affected by tobacco smoke, which can reach heavy concentration in some offices.

Hospitals, on the other hand, have their own peculiar smells: deodorants, disinfectants, and cleansers; ether fumes and other anesthetics from the operating room; odors of drugs and rubbing alcohol; and the smell of rubber draw-sheets and plastic bedding material.

As I have pointed out, the air of supermarkets is often fouled by the odors of insecticides, disinfectants, deodorants, and the like. A peculiar odor often emanates from the freezer sections, sometimes as the result of leaking refrigerants. Ammonia is frequently used in cleaning refrigerators, often while customers are still in the store.

Even churches provide no sanctuary for the chemically susceptible. Gas is often detectable, coming from a well-hidden kitchen. There is also the odor of burning candles (in recent years, mainly petroleum-based rather than made of bees’ wax), incense, perfumes, and the mothball-like smell of furs and outer garments.

Finally, a word should be said about pollution inside factories, although this enormous topic falls outside the scope of this book. In factories, many of the already-mentioned pollutants are mixed with the special odors which arise from manufacturing and processing. The worst offenders tend to be solvents and their combustion products: rubber, plastic, resins, detergents, cutting and lubricating oils, sulfur, chlorine, and similar agents. Large-scale outbreaks of illness have already taken place in electronic plants and other plants where such materials are handled. While traditionalists have ascribed this to “mass psychogenic illness,” some environmental health experts have interpreted it as a sign of chemical susceptibility on the part of large numbers of workers.

*45\110\2*

Anyone who has suffered from eczema as a child would be well advised to avoid exposure to irritants in later life, even if their eczema appears to have cleared up. Surveys have shown that such people are far more likely to suffer from irritation to the skin on their hands. Occupational dermatitis – a common complaint of cleaners, beauticians, hairdressers, motor mechanics, nurses and laundry-workers – is roughly ten times more likely among those who once suffered from eczema. Such jobs should be avoided, and so should the use of cosmetics – sparing use and a regular change of brands is the best policy. ‘Hypoallergenic’ cosmetics are useful, in that they lack perfumes and other potential irritants, but the name is somewhat misleading, because they too can provoke allergies if used often enough.

Housework, of course, is a necessary evil, which only the lucky few can avoid. The obvious way to prevent trouble is to wear rubber gloves. Unfortunately, rubber itself can be an irritant, especially in the warm, humid conditions that prevail within such gloves. Wear cotton gloves inside the rubber ones to prevent direct contact with the skin, and avoid using very hot water because the cooler the hands are within the gloves the better.

*70\180\8*

One particular set of symptoms calls for a special mention here. In the case of nasal polyps, especially if accompanied by urticaria (nettle-rash), sensitivity to aspirin should be a prime suspect. How aspirin might produce this cluster of symptoms is unknown: the aspirin may be acting as an allergen, but it is more likely to be having some direct pharmacological (‘drug-like’) effect on the nasal membranes and skin.

Avoiding aspirin and aspirin-containing painkillers is simple enough as long as you remember that the following synonyms may be used: salicylate, salicylic acid and acetylsalicylic acid. Most brand-name painkillers contain some aspirin, and it is important to read the contents list carefully. Plain paracetamol tablets are aspirin-free.

For most people, simply avoiding aspirin drugs should be sufficient. However, some people also react to related drugs.

If avoiding aspirin and related drugs proves ineffective, then some doctors suggest that restricting the diet may be worthwhile. Aspirin-like compounds (salicylates) occur in various plants, the drug originally being extracted from the bark of willow trees. Certain fruits, nuts, vegetables and spices are rich in salicylates: a complete list is given on p292. If you are sure aspirin aggravates your symptoms, but are still not well despite avoiding aspirin drugs, then you could consider trying a low-salicylate diet to see if you improve.

There are unconfirmed reports that sensitivity to aspirin is linked with an inability to tolerate benzoate preservatives, azodyes and metabisulphites, used to preserve wines and some foods.

*68\180\8*

Experiments performed by Giorgio Piccardi, Director of the Institute of Physical Chemistry in Florence, suggests that even cosmic forces can cause chemical reactions to be idiosyncratic and go off in the wrong direction or refuse to take place at all. Piccardi’s interest in the possibility of outside forces affecting chemical reactions was aroused by the fact that an experimental method he devised for the removal of encrustations from industrial boilers worked well sometimes but not others.

To explore his theory he chose a simple reaction, the speed with which bismuth oxychloride (a colloid) forms a cloudy precipitate when poured into distilled water. He and his assistants carried out this simple test three times a day, until they had 200 000 separate results. These were analysed and compared with the results of a parallel series of tests made at Brussels University.

Several kinds of change in the speed of precipitation showed up during the ten year experiment. There were frequent short-term, sudden changes, lasting a day or two. All of these were connected with the sun. Solar eruptions, giving rise to measurable changes in the earth’s magnetic field, accelerated the speed at which the reaction took place. There were long-term changes as well and when these were plotted on a graph, they formed a curve exactly parallel to that for sunspot frequency in the eleven year cycle.

Piccardi’s control experiment was to do the same experiment under the protection of a copper screen. When shielded from outside influences in this way the precipitation always took place at the normal speed.

Piccardi’s experiment demonstrated clearly that chemical reactions taking place in water are susceptible to electromagnetic radiation which means either the chemical or the water was affected. All available evidence points to the water.

*232\18\9*

An understanding of the ‘brick effect’ is central to an understanding of how and why our health breaks down. The brick effect holds that a given disease syndrome results from the cumulative effects of a number of less potent factors rather than one principal factor and that where a principal factor does exist it lacks potency when not augmented by the sum total of the lesser factors.

To explain: If you were to place a brick on someone’s head it would more than likely cause little discomfort. A second brick would probably give a sensation of significant weight and a third would cause some pressure and discomfort. A fourth brick may well cause a headache and the removal of the fourth brick may be all that’s needed to reduce it completely. To blame the fourth brick only for causing the headache is to deny the role played by the other bricks in contributing to the overall weight and pressure needed to produce a headache.

So it is with all other disease processes in the body. Seldom, if ever, is there one cause for one disease. If there was everyone would catch the ‘flu during a ‘flu epidemic. Even injury from motor car accidents which are clearly the result of physical impact-principal cause—can have many lesser contributing factors. A driver may lose concentration behind the wheel and hit another car because he has: (1) been working long hours lately; (2) been skipping meals; (3) not been taking vitamin supplements; (4) been suffering from the ‘flu and is still working; (5) had one or two drinks after work to relax; and (6) missed lunch that day. Any one of these factors alone would not be enough to induce significant lapses in concentration. Added together they can.

Most allergies have their genesis in a genetic predisposition to allergy combined with lowered immune vitality. Lowered immune vitality can result from any of a number of factors—malnutrition being a significant one. Malnutrition itself can result from a number of things—poor diet, skipping meals, crash diets, poor digestion and absorption, to name a few. Poor digestion and absorption can result from a lack of hydrochloric acid in the stomach. Hydrochloric acid deficiency can result from vitamin and mineral deficiency; eating on the go (adrenalin); being tired due lo over-work and/or over-exercising; over-eating and eating too quickly. Over-eating can be a result of malabsorption-induced hunger. Eating too quickly can result from over-commitment, which can result from dire approval seeking (inappropriate attitude). And so it goes clown the line, each contributing factor being a brick which is singularly not enough, to reduce immune vitality.

Because so many component factors make up a disease syndrome, the afflicted person must be viewed as a whole and treated as a whole if a cure is to be achieved. Just as any disease condition has a multiplicity of causes its treatment requires a multiplicity of therapeutic modalities. Giving a drug to suppress the symptoms of a given disease is not the answer. Diet and the drinking, breathing, working, exercising, socialising and resting habits must all be taken into account and modified where necessary.

*214\18\9*

Cholesterol is an essential substance. We can’t live without it. It is a constituent of every cell in the body, particularly the cell membrane. It is needed to make the bile acids (needed for fat digestion) and the steroid hormones, which comprise the sex hormones and the stress hormones of testosterone, adrenalin and cortisone (technical name Cortisol). Around 70 per cent of all the body’s cholesterol is made in the liver and every cell of the body has enzymes that enable it to make its own cholesterol should the levels begin to fall. Only 30 per cent of the body’s cholesterol is obtained from the diet and changes in the diet can bring about moderate falls in cholesterol levels.

There is significant evidence to link high blood cholesterol levels to blood vessel wall deterioration and heart attacks, though heart attacks occur in those with normal cholesterol levels as well.

To date, dietary restriction and drug therapy have been major vehicles of blood cholesterol lowering. However, there is more to it than that. Any textbook of pathology states that blood cholesterol levels rise (1) when there is a deficiency in thyroid hormones in the blood, (2) when the body is under stress and (3) when late onset diabetes is present.

The highest concentrations of cholesterol in the body are to be found in the adrenal glands. Habitually stressed people use vast quantities of stress hormones. The liver has to keep making the cholesterol to satisfy this demand. The high cholesterol reading in stressed people is the measure of cholesterol traveling from the liver to the adrenal glands to make stress hormones.

Stress further aggravates blood cholesterol levels because cortisone breaks down tissue to be burned for energy. The breakdown of body cells releases their cholesterol content into the blood. This is how crash diets and fasting help raise the cholesterol levels. Prolonged stress puts inordinate demands on the thyroid gland as it labours to keep the body’s energy level up. In time it tires and produces less thyroid hormones and the cholesterol levels go still higher. (See any good physiology or pathology text for details of thyroid hormone influence on cholesterol.)

To try and keep the energy levels of an over-stressed body up, the adrenal glands produce more adrenalin, which requires still more cholesterol. The body is now running on false energy. Instead of relying on normal cell respiration for its energy supplies, it’s relying on the stimulation of adrenalin. Many hard-charging, over-achiever types rely on this ‘adrenal buzz’ to get them through every day. They get so used to living on it they consider it normal and cannot understand why they have high cholesterol levels. In extreme cases their cholesterol levels resist dietary measures to lower them which can lead to ever stricter diets to achieve the desired results. If the diets become too restrictive they become a stress in themselves and a vicious downward spiral is born. Seriously restrictive diets are short of the mineral chromium which leads to late onset diabetes and still higher cholesterol levels. Stress-based high cholesterol levels often give way to diabetes-based high cholesterol as the hard-charger reaches mid-life and beyond.

The Metabolism-Balancing Program is designed to maximise body energy levels by providing ample nutrition to all the cells including those of the thyroid gland. Co-related with sensible work loads, exercise loads and socialising loads the body maintains high energy levels and the cholesterol levels normalise. The deep breathing exercises help keep us calm and relaxed as well as vital. This helps prevent anxiety which is also a cholesterol raiser. The mental relaxation exercises are excellent for ‘talking down’ cholesterol levels and have worked wonders with many of my patients. The more you practise the exercises, the more proficient you’ll become at lowering, and keeping low, your cholesterol levels.

Because high cholesterol is essentially a metabolic problem the answer is easy. Balance the metabolism and you balance the cholesterol levels. By following the Metabolism-Balancing Program and doing the breathing and relaxation exercises your cholesterol levels will normalise without recourse to the drastic diets and toxic drugs so often used. Many people become so miserable on these drastic diets they go off them with a vengeance and binge eat on all the high fat foods (cakes, chocolates, desserts) which only sees their cholesterol levels rise again. Drastic diets don’t work for people in the early stages of late onset diabetes. Diabetes can be fully corrected by the Metabolism-Balancing Program only. When the diabetes is corrected the cholesterol levels automatically balance out.

*196\18\9*