Asthma & Allergies

Beta-Glucans and Polyphenols Fight Allergies
Dr. Paul Clayton’s Health Newsletter March 2014 Spring is not yet sprung …… but it’s coming, and so are the allergies, and so are new ‘solutions’ for those allergies. One of the latest is Allergease, a lozenge developed and launched by the American company Medicus Research. AllergEase contains a hodge-podge of herbal ingredients, including eyebright, nettle, and elderflower. ‘I started thinking, said company director Jay Udani, ‘what could we do besides the standard therapies? I started doing concoctions in my kitchen. Then we took it to the next level and... Read more...
Lutein and Vitamins C and E Give Relief
Chronic breathing difficulties make life hard for many, unbearable for those who are severely affected, and culminate in increasing disability and death. In fact, decreased lung function predicts the risk of death; and here again, as in all the other degenerative diseases, drugs have little to offer. But supplements do … The lungs and airways are particularly susceptible to oxidative damage due to the oxygen in the air we breath; but to that we have increasingly to add the free radical damage caused by exposure to cigarettes and other smokes,... Read more...
Asthma: Barking up the Right Tree with Flavonoids
Asthma is characterised by a chronic inflammation of the airways. For this reason, much recent research has concentrated on finding anti-inflammatory agents that might be used to treat the condition. New drugs are in the pipeline, but there have been worrying reports of toxicity. So what can nature offer? The best naturally occurring anti-inflammatory agents are the flavonoids (yet again!), and a recent study has shown that an extract of flavonoids from the bark of the Maritime Pine (known as pycnogenol) is surprisingly effective in reducing the severity of asthma(1).... Read more...
Asthma – Antioxidants Reduce Risk in Children
Higher levels of the antioxidants beta-carotene and Vitamin C, along with the antioxidant trace mineral selenium, have been linked with a lower risk of asthma in a large study of 6000 American children under the age of 17, published in February 2004. The antioxidants showed even stronger protection against asthma in children exposed to passive smoke, said the researchers from Cornell University, New York. Vitamin E had little or no association with asthma. However, an increased beta-carotene intake was associated with a 10 to 20 per cent reduction in asthma... Read more...