ASTHMA: link to electric meter and appliance exposures
SUBJECT: ASTHMA.... Health forum online discussion between MD with asthma
and Joanne C. Mueller (Guinea Pigs "R" Us) September 2007 re electric meter
and appliance exposures and more......
US News & World Report - Health Community (online....see link below....)
Thursday, February 14, 2008
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As an MD with Asthma
Posted by cbDayton in Allergy And Asthma Tuesday September 4, 2007 at 08:12
AM
As an MD with asthma, I have tried various remedies for my chronic and acute
asthma episodes.
The best "alternative" combination that works for both acute and chronic
asthma for me is:
pycnogenol + quercetin
pycnogenol 100 mg; quercetin 500-1000 mg taken at the end of the evening
meal .
They have anti-inflammatory and anti-bronchospasm mediator activities.
For pycnogenol the following randomized trial is pertinent:
Pycnogentol Randomized Trial:
J Asthma. 2004;41(8):825-32
Pycnogenol as an adjunct in the management of childhood asthma.
Lau BH, Riesen SK, Truong KP, Lau EW, Rohdewald P, Barreta RA.
Division of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Department of Biochemistry
and Microbiology, School of Medicine, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda,
California 92350, USA. bLau@som.llu.edu
A randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study involving 60 subjects,
aged 6-18 years old, was conducted over a period of 3 months to determine the
effect of Pycnogenol (a proprietary mixture of water-soluble bioflavonoids
extracted from French maritime pine) on mild-to-moderate asthma. After
baseline evaluation, subjects were randomized into two groups to receive either
Pycnogenol or placebo. Subjects were instructed to record their peak expiratory
flow with an Assess Peak Flow Meter each evening. At the same time, symptoms,
daily use of rescue inhalers (albuterol), and any changes in oral medications
were also recorded. Urine samples were obtained from the subjects at the end
of the run-in period, and at 1-, 2-, and 3-month visits. Urinary leukotriene
C4/D4/E4 was measured by an enzyme immunoassay. Compared with subjects
taking placebo, the group who took Pycnogenol had significantly more improvement
in pulmonary functions and asthma symptoms. The Pycnogenol group was able to
reduce or discontinue their use of rescue inhalers more often than the placebo
group. There was also a significant reduction of urinary leukotrienes in the
Pycnogenol group. The results of this study demonstrate the efficacy of
Pycnogenol as an adjunct in the management of mild-to-moderate childhood asthma.
As far as I am aware, quercetin has not been evaluated in a randomized
controlled trial but if one puts "quercetin" in Pubmed, one comes up with over
5000 references documenting its chemical potential to be anti-inflammatory; and
various individuals have proposed doing a randomized control trial for
quercetin as an rx of allergic sinusitis (related pathophysiologically to asthma).
It is interesting that in a letter to the British Medical Journal in Jan
2006, an Italian scientist argues that quercetin could have some properties that
make it a better agent than Tamiflu for the treatment of Bird Flu (that has a
"cytokine storm" inflammatory mediators as its mechanism for causing death).
pycnogenol has some anti-thrombotic properties that could theoretically
potentiate its side effects. The Natural Medicine Database (subscribed to by the
VA Hospital System) notes that there is the theoretical side effect of
potentiating autoimmune disease in women by pycnogenol. So, there is the
theoretical contraindication of SLE and similar disorders for pycnogenol.
quercetin is a flavinoid from red wine. It should not be combined with
Monoamine Oxidase inhibitors because of the risk of increased blood pressure with
the combination.
A very adequate supply of both pycnogenol and quercetin can be obtained at a
reasonable cost from http://www.iherb.com.
I have absolutely no financial interest in the above. If you do this without
consulting your personal physician, you could be assuming a risk in taking
these agents. It is also possible you could develop a complication by taking
these agents that has never been reported. While taking quercetin and taking
Bioperin (the agent in black pepper that blocks glucuronidation and helps
absorption of some nutraceuticals, e.g., curcumin) at a dose of 10 mg my blood
pressure went from ~130 systolic to 190 systolic. That occurred because
Bioperin has monoamine oxidase A and B inhibitory activity and interacted with an
agent (quercetin) that is a red wine extract. It is known that MAO inhibitors
can elevate blood pressure when taken with red wine but it has not been
reported, to my knowledge, that quercetin could be the responsible chemical in red
wine for that interaction. The morale to this story is there is no free lunch
and you could have an unforeseen interaction / complication by taking
pycnogenol and quercetin. It is also theoretically possible and not unlikely that
someone, sometime has consumed a large amount of black pepper (Bioperin is
~5-6% of black pepper), drank a quantity of wine, greatly elevated their blood
pressure and had a stroke as a result.
This kind of advice should, pro forma, be checked out with one's personal
physician who has probably never heard of either pycnogenol and quercetin. That
is not a critique of the physician; it is just a fact that physicians are,
in general, very skeptical of "alternative treatments" and do not have the
time to keep up with the literature as the above randomized controlled trial.
I do believe we overlook agents such as these because of their "alternative
medicine" origin and no drug company (other than the one that patented
pycnogenol) can claim a monopoly
One way to assess efficacy is to look at stuffy nose symptomatology,
especially if it happens overnight. That is likely due to some of the same kind of
inflammatory mediators as mediates asthma. If one gets significant relief of
symptoms in 3 days of the stuffy nose symptoms while taking these agents QHS
(at bedtime) then one will likely, in my opinion, benefit by taking these
agents for asthma. AND, if one benefits by taking them for stuffy nose symptoms
then it is likely, in my opinion, that these agents (plus others) could be very
efficacious for the acute treament of Bird Flu influenza (see cytokine storm
above and December 7, 2002 issue of The Lancet medical journal and comment
by Hong Kong physicians about the pathology of H5N1 influenza).
We should be sponsoring randomized controlled trials of pycnogenol and
quercetin - again, I have no dog in that hunt but very much would like that hunt
to be pursued by multiple groups for multiple reasons above and otherwise with
regard to clinical observations about the efficacious effects of these
nutraceuticals.
Charles Beauchamp MD, PhD
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Comments
POSSIBLE ASTHMA PREVENTION
Posted by Guineapig Thursday November 15, 2007 at 07:03 PM EST
This is comment #1506.
Dr. Beauchamp: You have provided some valuable information and "food for
thought" for many asthma sufferers.
"Asthma prevention" is a topic that is inter-related with the work I do
every day as an EMF/EMR researcher (electromagnetic field/electromagnetic
radiation). While I am "non-accredited," I do have about 18 years' experience as
grandparent of two innocent toddlers who were diagnosed with rare immune
deficiencies, guinea pig studies conducted in my own home, interacting with
scientists from around-the-world and currently working on a book titled "Inflammation
and EMF/EMR.
Our grandsons were diagnosed with low IgG subclasses 1 and 3. This signified
"AGING!!!"
Both boys had chronic asthma -- often intractable asthma that required
serial nebulizer treatments around-the-clock.
I discovered they were each sleeping next to "powerwalls" -- walls opposite
the electric meter. The boys (cousins living in different cities) were moved
away from the location of the electric meter. They both "got well...!!!"
Asthma improved rapidly in both boys, they soon exhibited improved appetites and
one boy never saw a doctor again for over two years when he went for his
preschool physical.
Re my guinea pig studies: the first symptom observed in my guinea pigs after
exposure to "powerwall" (my home) was "little coughs." Coughs were soon
diagnosed by three separate veterinarians as "ASTHMA....!!!!"
Persons need to make sure they do not have electric appliances and/or some
telephone equipment close to beds. Items as seemingly innocuous as an electric
clock, noise machine, cordless phone transformer box and much more can
potentially cause every health problem from poor quality sleep to cancer.
Be sure and check my website for additional concerns. I learn about new
items every day but my webmaster can't keep up with all the changes. Feel free to
phone or email with questions.
WEBSITE: WWW.GUINEAPIGSRUS.ORG
Best wishes and take care - Joanne
Joanne C. Mueller, Guinea Pigs "R" Us, 731 - 123rd Avenue N.W., Minneapolis,
MN 55448...phone: 763-755-6114 ..... email: jcmpelican@aol.com
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Re: POSSIBLE ASTHMA PREVENTION
Posted by cbDayton Saturday November 17, 2007 at 08:17 AM EST
This is comment #1513. It was posted in reply to comment #1506.
This is SPECULATION on my part to explain what could be causing asthma in
individuals exposed to strong electromagnetic waves. It is based on my
awareness of a Japanese physiologist's studies on the effects of pulse
electromagnetic waves on nerves causing induction of a "cholinergic phenotype" PLUS the
model of eosinophils (type of cell that increases in active asthma in some
individuals) inducing a "cholinergic phenotype":
Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2006 Jun;34(6):775-86. Epub 2006 Feb 2
Eosinophil-mediated cholinergic nerve remodeling.
Durcan N, Costello RW, McLean WG, Blusztajn J, Madziar B, Fenech AG, Hall
IP, Gleich GJ, McGarvey L, Walsh MT.
Department of Medicine, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Beaumont
Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.
Eosinophils are observed to localize to cholinergic nerves in a variety of
inflammatory conditions such as asthma, rhinitis, eosinophilic
gastroenteritis, and inflammatory bowel disease, where they are also responsible for the
induction of cell signaling. We hypothesized that a consequence of eosinophil
localization to cholinergic nerves would involve a neural remodeling process.
Eosinophil co-culture with cholinergic IMR32 cells led to increased expression
of the M2 muscarinic receptor, with this induction being mediated via an
adhesion-dependent release of eosinophil proteins, including major basic protein
and nerve growth factor. Studies on the promoter sequence of the M2 receptor
indicated that this induction was initiated at a transcription start site
145 kb upstream of the gene-coding region. This promoter site contains binding
sites for a variety of transcription factors including SP1, AP1, and AP2.
Eosinophils also induced the expression of several cholinergic genes involved in
the synthesis, storage, and metabolism of acetylcholine, including the
enzymes choline acetyltransferase, vesicular acetylcholine transferase, and
acetylcholinesterase. The observed eosinophil-induced changes in enzyme content
were associated with a reduction in intracellular neural acetylcholine but an
increase in choline content, suggesting increased acetylcholine turnover and a
reduction in acetylcholinesterase activity, in turn suggesting reduced
catabolism of acetylcholine. Together these data suggest that eosinophil
localization to cholinergic nerves induces neural remodeling, promoting a cholinergic
phenotype.
PMID: 16456188
A "cholinergic phenotype" of nerves means that the nerves are more likely to
potentiate an asthmatic state. STRONG magnetic field OR eosinophil increase
due to allergy ---> cholinergic phenotype of nerves --> increased risk of
asthma. (A PROPOSED mechanism)
The is an HYPOTHESIS, NOT a FACT. It is speculation on my part and I could
well be wrong in my attempted explanation. I am just trying to rationally
explain your observations.
BUT, realize that even if the above is correct, one must ask how often
electromagnetic fields cause clinical asthma? My answer: Probably not very often.
The electromagnetic radiation we are talking about is much different than the
magnetic fields around a magnet that are constant (not pulsating) and weaker
in intensity.
Thanks for sharing your observations.
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Re: POSSIBLE ASTHMA PREVENTION
Posted by cbDayton Saturday November 17, 2007 at 08:51 AM EST
This is comment #1515. It was posted in reply to comment #1506.
Another possible explanation for your observations is "immunomodulation"
related to strong electromagnetic radiation:
The following is an article abstract from Pubmed that links electromagnetic
radiation with immune system modulation:
J Basic Clin Physiol Pharmacol. 2006;17(4):269-78
Changes in autoimmune markers of the anti-cardiolipin syndrome on days of
extreme geomamagnetic activity.
Stoupel E, Monselise Y, Lahav J.
Division of Cardiology, Rabin Medical Center, Beilinson Campus, Petah Tiqwa,
Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
stoupel@inter.net.il
The possible relation between various biological or medical phenomena and
changes in environmental physical activity, such as Solar, Geomagnetic Activity
(GMA); Cosmic Ray; Proton, and other particle flux, have been reported.
These phenomena seem to be reflected, among others, in the immune system,
resulting in changes in immunoglobulin (Ig) levels or outbursts of epidemics. AIM:
to examine a possible association of GMA with another aspect of the immune
system--autoimmunity. Fluctuations of levels of anticardiolipin (IgG; IgM, IgA
subtypes) and lupus anticoagulant (Kaulin clotting time and Dilute Russell's
viper venom time) autoantibodies, serving as anticardiolipin syndrome (ACLS)
markers, were monitored during days of severe GMA storms and compared with
those of lowest/quiet GMA days. Cosmophysical data were obtained from the NOAA
National Space Service Center and the National Geophysical Data Center, USA.
RESULTS: A significant rise in the levels of anti beta2Gp1-IgA (p = 0.0001);
and KCT (p = 0.019) was observed on days of the GMA storms. CONCLUSION: On
days of major GMA storms, significant changes in the autoimmune marker levels of
ACLS were observed compared with quiet days. An involvement of those changes
in clinical events related to GMA storms is possible.
PMID: 17338282
So, (again I AM SPECULATING) strong electromagnetic fields -->
immunomodulation --> increased risk of asthma.
The change in immunoglobulin level you note is a possible indicator of
"immunomodulation". Presumably, with redrawal from exposure from the
electromagnetic field, the "immunomodulation" noted should return to a normal state.
Also if this generalization holds for asthma, one would predict an increase
rate of asthma attacks when there are GMA storms.
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Re: POSSIBLE ASTHMA PREVENTION
Posted by Guineapig Sunday November 18, 2007 at 02:03 PM EST
This is comment #1520. It was posted in reply to comment #1515.
Dr. Beauchamp: Thank you for the studies re electromagnetic radiation and
your comments!
I am having some problems with this site in that I know you included two
separate posts but now that I have a few minutes to respond (briefly -- much
more to say), I am linked to only one of the studies and can't get back to the
other one. I will try and do that later this week but with holiday and
pie-baking, I may be delayed. You definitely have provided valuable studies re
EMF/EMR tho!!!
As to exacerbation of asthma and/or promotion of new cases of asthma due to
heavy geomagnetic activity, it is entirely possible that this does occur. I
would assume this would require a study of gigantic proportions assuming such
an epidemiological study could actually be carried out.
The information in the study re GMA storms can be applied to studies of
persons who are sleeping in beds with electric appliances on nightstands and
headboards.
Society's problem is that scientists are not being paid to come up with
"concousive evidence" re harm from low level, chronic, prolonged EMF/EMR
(electromagnetic field/electromagnetic radiation) exposures AND, if certain studies
do make the connection, publicity is very limited. Government and industry as
well as the cancer societies do not want this information out there.
Dr. Henry Lai, University of Washington, exposed rats to a hairdryer. The
press releases at time of the study depicted DNA moving........
Your post has now resulted in an extremely important, "serendipitous
event!!!"
I just checked for a link the the Lai/Singh hairdryer study and found a
report by USA Today that I didn't know existed.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-02-19-dna-damage_x.htm
I am astonished to read that the above article does, in fact, mention
reasons to avoid electric blankets and even electric clocks!!!
The facts re my grandsons and husband, as well as my guinea pig studies,
"strongly support" that chronic, prolonged exposure to electric meters and
electric appliances IS very hazardous.
Assoc. Prof. Olle Johansson, Karolinska Institute in Sweden (co-author of my
book "Inflammation and EMF/EMR) is willing to fly to the United States for
the purpose of helping to "spread-the-word" about the critical need to move
electric items and telephone equipment away from persons' beds. I sent an
appeal to Dr. Mehmet Oz for help in getting on the Oprah Show. Previously, I have
written to the Oprah Show several times but continue to be ignored. Same re
the Montel Williams Show........ I am desperately trying to obtain funding for
Assoc. Prof. Johansson so he can replicate findings re my grandsons rare
immune deficiencies (involving asthma, chronic sinus infections, ear infections,
gastrointestinal problems and pre-Leukemic blood changes); findings re guinea
pigs (involving asthma, severe subacute epicarditis, osteomyelitis, reactive
renal amyloidosis and pre-Leukemic blood changes); and also findings re my
husband whose Executive Function tests improved after moving his electric
clock radio off his nightstand, starting him on nightly melatonin and stopping
his statin (Lipitor).
My husband's asthma as well as our two grandsons' asthma and even the guinea
pigs' asathma all disappeared after reducing nightly EMF/EMR exposures due
to electric meters and/or electric appliances.
Complete blood counts (CBC's with diffs) on my guinea pigs revealed severe
neutropenia, lymphocytosis and hypersegmented neutrophils (slowed DNA
synthesis). These are pre-Leukemic blood changes and are "markers for irradiation."
The studies you have provided are valuable references that help support
findings re above.
As far as comparisons to geomagnetic storms, it is my opinion that sleeping
close to electric and telephone equipment every night is equivalent to having
a GMA storm in one's bed every night that eventually "wreaks total havoc" on
its victims!!!!
Read the rest of this comment...
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Re: ASTHMA PREVENTION...tried to correct typos
Posted by Guineapig Sunday November 18, 2007 at 02:14 PM EST
This is comment #1521. It was posted in reply to comment #1520.
To All: I attempted to correct several typographical errors in last post. I
noticed an item marked "Edit" BUT nothing allowed me to do so...... Joanne
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