You can find out your inflammatory status, if your doctor will cooperate, by being tested for CRP (C-reactive protein), TNF-alpha, IL-6 and possibly an ESR (a bit old-fashioned but definitely important if positive).

Even without a blood test, you can tell if you are inflamed: pains, aches, stiffness, redness and heat are sure signs of inflammation. And of course some conditions speak loudly of inflammation: diabetes, arthritis, skin rashes, blood pressure, heart disease… even cancer and Alzheimer’s are all basically inflammations.

Inflammation doesn’t just “happen”, it is caused. To help you all live longer, I have identified the 7 most common and most important inflammations. Here we go…

1. Food Allergy and Intolerance

This is MUCH bigger than just casein and gluten, touted by the wannabe “health researchers” who keep popping up on the web. The Scott-Mumby rule is that ANY FOOD OR DRINK CAN DO IT. There are NO “safe” foods; there are NO “superfoods”. I have had people made sick nearly unto death with lettuce, beans, tomatoes, apples, carrots, onions,

True, some intolerance foods are commoner than others: wheat and grains are bad news, nightshades (potato, tomato, peppers, eggplant, etc.), dairy produce, eggs (can be severe), almonds, and of course all manufactured foods, including GMO crops.

But we are all different and you won’t know your own “bandit” foods till you take the trouble to test and track them down (guessing hardly ever works). I wrote a book years ago to help you do that. It’s called Diet Wise and has lately been re-released under the title One Diet for Life. (www.DietWiseBook.com)

It’s a self-help book and if you do this right, you’ll only need to make the journey once. But nothing else in life or health is going to work if you are, effectively, poisoning yourself with what you eat. Duh!

2. Chemical Sensitivity

Decades ago, I introduced the term “human canaries”. These are the unlucky individuals who react to even small traces of ambient chemicals. Like canaries down the coal mines of old, these people are a warning to all of us. We are living in what I call a “chemical blizzard” and we are ALL going to be ill one day. Science and the medical profession let these people down very badly. They claim the average person is not harmed by typical exposures (not at all true, by the way). But it’s hardly the point is it, if these people can NOT tolerate the same exposure as an average person?

Look at this curve; it’s called a bell curve and is a classic in medicine and biology.

It can apply to many measurements, such as height and weight. But it also applies to chemical tolerance. What it shows is that some people have a very high tolerance; they wouldn’t suffer much. Some people are very intolerant and can’t endure what others might. The vast majority of people fall somewhere in between!

Is it fair to say “The majority are symptom-free at this concentration, therefore it is safe?” Isn’t that just unethical and casting those on the left end of the curve into purgatory? Is that what The Almighty would want? No, it’s what greedy irresponsible corporations want: profits at any cost, including human cost.

A naturally chemically sensitive person will be severely inflamed by our modern world.

3. Obesity

This may not be obvious but there is a very strong, direct connection: obesity causes systemic (body-wide) inflammation but inflammation makes you gain weight. It’s a double-whammy.

Part of the problem is that belly fat contains a LOT of inflammatory chemicals. That’s what makes belly fat much more dangerous than fat around your heart  kidneys. Many organic chemicals (solvents, degreasers, detergents, cosmetics, etc.) are fat-soluble, as opposed to water-soluble.

Consequently, we can none of us afford to be overweight. If you are, you need to treat it as a medical emergency, not just an inconvenience. Get that weight off, starting now. Keto, low-carb and intermittent fasting are all good. But I urge you to start with tracking down allergy and intolerance foods first (section1.) It works MAGIC against inflammation.

4. Sleep Deprivation

Another “medical emergency” if you suffer from it. Lack of sleep is a wrecking ball that will soon demolish your health and vitality. It leads to inflammation, which may seem surprising, but this is well-established scientifically.

I wrote a little book about it. I also offer a Sleep Defender formula, with valerian, 5-HT, L-theanine and melatonin. It works like a charm. Try it here.

5. EMFs

No surprise here. We are all becoming increasingly aware of the immense biological toll of electric power cables, dirty electricity, WiFi, microwaves, cellphones, x-rays, scans, and Bluetooth, etc. We even generate EMFs from our own teeth, when metal fillings interact with salty saliva in the mouth (the very first batteries were just metal plates separated by layers of damp, salt-soaked fabric).

The problem with this burden is that it is very unnatural. We are now at millions of times the intensity of the natural background radiation in which we evolved. There are definite biological changes taking place in our bodies. The shills and phoney corporations all say “It’s not a problem. We have tested it and there are no biological effects.” 

But that’s an outrageous lie. They measure only heating in the tissues, say there is none and so dismiss the whole thing. It’s like they invent their own rules and then use them to cheat. THE THERMAL OR HEATING EFFECT IS A FALSE STANDARD. Cooking your flesh is something that would only be meaningful if we lived in a microwave oven. We don’t.

The truth is that there are serious and damaging biological effects at today’s ambient levels of exposure. Cancers are only part of this. Our neurological systems run on vanishingly small EMFs, in the region of a few millivolts or microamps. Any EMF exposure will negatively impact that. It’s a process called induction. EMF fields round about will stir up the same fields in our bodies; it’s a sort of sympathy/resonance thing.

You need to minimize your exposure. In practice that means, first and foremost, that you do everything you can to stay away from your cellphone. Don’t think that being in a poor reception area protects you somewhat; it’s the opposite. When the signal is low, the phone will ramp up its power a million-fold, to try and get a connection.

Keep it where you can hear it, if you must. Only connect if it rings. Even then, use speakerphone or hold it at arms length. Some people use remote phones but beware: EMFs can travel up the wires and get straight into your head, via your ears! Choose your equipment carefully.

6. Sugar.

Without doubt, the single most inflammatory substance we put in our bodies is sugar. Period.

It’s impossible to overstate how dangerous this substance is. In centuries past, heart disease, diabetes, etc. were unknown. In 1700, the average Briton consumed 4 lbs of sugar per year! By 1800, Americans ate an average of 18 lbs of sugar per year. Today that has risen 10-fold to 180 lbs a year. Remember, that is the average, so some people will eat far less than that, some will eat FAR MORE.

As a result, diabetes, atherosclerosis, dementia, obesity, even cancer, are far more prevalent than they once were. Professor John Rudkin wrote a great book called Pure White and Deadly. They crucified him for it (literally), we have all the documentation showing the evil plot of the sugar manufacturers to destroy this poor man and his work.

They also set out to destroy the human race (you, me, everyone) by burying the truth as deep as they could. They KNOW that sugar kills mercilessly; yet they still go on manufacturing and selling it.

It’s in EVERYTHING: bread, hams, breakfast cereal, yoghurt, salad dressing,   sauces and spreads. As well as, obviously, in cakes, muffins and cookies, plus fruits and some vegetables. The average American consumes 22 spoons of sugar daily, according to the American Heart Association. 

AND, don’t forget milk is mainly a sugar food (more so than fat). Skimmed milk is WORSE, because without the fat, it’s basically just water and lactose.

Sugar KILLS. Inflammation is the mechanism.

7. Insulin Resistance

In a way, this is directly related to #6. However, not quite! The key point to grasp is that insulin is highly inflammatory in its own right. It’s the WORST thing on this list in that respect.

When you eat too much sugar, your body produces insulin, to try to sequester it away into body fat. After a while your body stops listening and blood sugar soars. That’s called diabetes! The insulin climbs and climbs and climbs, still struggling to cope with the excess sugar in the blood (mainly glucose, of course).

But insulin is inflammatory, damaging heart, kidneys, liver, brain, blood vessels. It becomes a vicious cycle because, as in #3, inflammation promotes weight gain and weight gain promotes more inflammation. Insulin is in there, making it all worse.

It’s a mess. The result? You die! Literally: diabetic patients die early, NO MATTER HOW CAREFULLY THEY CONTROL BLOOD SUGAR WITH DRUGS, ETC.

Bet your doctor never told you that.

The Way Out

“The best way out is the way through…” Robert Frost, poet.

The ONLY way out is to cut back on carbs a lot and cut out sugar completely. That means your blood sugar starts to fall; you start losing weight; which means you need less insulin; which means inflammation starts to die down; which means you lose weight quicker; which means you are soon healthier and—if you keep it up—eventually inflammation is conquered and you live well.

It will take a little time. But hey! Who is in a hurry to die?

This one action (cutting out carbs and sugar) is the key to living longer. All your numbers—weight, inflammatory markers, blood sugar, fasting insulin—all start trending to normal.

Do a good job and you should live an above average lifespan and certainly a much better health span!

Just do it!

To your good health,

Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Official Alternative Doctor

A man called Alan Titchmarsh is a pretty big cheese on English TV. He started out as a TV celebrity gardener and was very good. Eventually he got an amusing gig called Ground Force, in which he revealed his incredible sense of humor.

Alan Titchmarsh is these days rightly considered a UK “national treasure”!

That was no doubt a factor in him getting to become a TV presenter. I followed his career, because I love gardening, and eventually Alan got to head up a major BBC lunchtime non-gardening initiative called “Pebble Mill At One” (Pebble Mill was the BBC headquarters in Birmingham but shown nationally across Britain).

So I was quite impressed when I was invited on to his show, to explain about food allergies. We had a feature case, a delightful lass called Josie, who had been the center of media attention that week, because I had found and proven that she got drunk (yes, intoxicated) eating potatoes.

Not so weird, I had plenty of cases like that; different foods, of course. As I explained to Alan on air, a food allergen will act like a toxin and if it poisons certain parts of the brain, like alcohol does, a person will be first stimulated (like somebody inebriated or silly) and then pass out (drunk under the table, as we say), as it gets worse.

We did nearly an hour of live TV on this theme.

With me so far?

Well, Alan has a great new TV series called “Love Your Weekend”, on Sunday mornings. And it so happens I can get the program on my French TV. Once again, it’s a magazine format and his guests are many, varied and interesting.

BUT—and a big BUT (no sniggering at the back)—I am dismayed to find the chief sponsor for his program is Jeyes Fluid, the chemical firm.*

Not just that but their ad slogan is “clean space, clear mind”. THAT I strongly object to; it’s a lie (and now we’ve arrived at our destination):

Chemicals do NOT and never will = clear mind. I have had thousands of patients knocked silly by ambient chemicals in the environment, to the point of not being able to think straight. I’m going to stand up for them.

I was one of the first pioneers among doctors finding and treating patients with environmental chemical sensitivity (ECS). In time it became obvious that some individuals were sensitive to environmental chemicals. It is hard to describe this as an allergy; probably the term ‘low-grade poisoning’ would be better since many of these chemicals would make anyone exposed to them in sufficient concentration feel ill.

The problem is just that certain individuals react to smaller doses. We are all subject to a barrage of alien chemicals in our bodies (Greek word: xenobiotics, meaning alien to life). We have chemical pathways in our bodies designed to remove toxic substances: a process called detoxication or more correctly biotransformation. The trouble is these new man-made chemicals have no equivalent in nature and so we do not have the right systems in our body to fully eliminate the toxicity. In fact, in its attempts to deal with the problem the body sometimes, by mistake, actually coverts these xenobiotics into something even more toxic¹

It’s a self-perpetuating problem, since the alien chemicals can poison the enzyme pathways that are there to remove them. The result is that sick and sensitive people get sicker and sicker. Pioneer UK psychiatrist Richard Mackarness christened these patients “chemical victims.”²

The media used extreme phrases like “allergic to the twentieth century” and there is no doubt that for these sufferers, our modern techno-chemical society is a nightmare. Increasing numbers of people simply cannot accommodate the everyday load of ambient chemicals and it begins to undermine their health in many unsuspected ways.

In my radical 1986 book Allergies: What Everyone Should Know (London, Unwins) I introduced the term “human canaries”. The phrase seems to have caught on. This likens chemically sensitive people to the canaries taken down mines in olden days. If the bird fell dead it meant that the air was dangerous and a warning to humans to get out fast. It seems to me that we have many human canaries today but few people are heeding the warnings.

Let me give just one case example: a very pleasant lady who simply could not  cope with fabric treatment chemicals. She would go in to a clothing shop and before she had walked 10 paces, she would forget why she was there! So she would pick a pair of cheap panties, pay and leave, thoroughly humiliated.

She probably had more pairs of knickers than Imelda Marcos had shoes!

Overload

The phenomenon of chemical overload and the chemically-sensitive patient is one that we have created for ourselves with our advanced lifestyle. Toxic volatile chemicals, such as benzene, formaldehyde, methacrylate, tetrachloroethylene, toluene, xylene, naphthalene, phthalates and styrene, can come from many sources in the home (this particular list of substances are all given off by new carpets).

Then there are more chemicals at work; some are recognized occupational hazards and strictly controlled, but the majority are not considered “occupational”: photocopy fluid, glues, plastics, paper treatments, inks, dyes, fabric treatments, flame-proofing, and so on.

I particularly object to the concept of spoofily-named “air fresheners”, when all they do is add more chemicals to the air, in an attempt to disguise existing contaminants. It is rather like taking dirty trench water to wash away stains — “Not logical”, as Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy, not Dr. Spock the pediatrician) would have said.

In my view it is unarguable that we will all go under if we don’t soon start to reduce the total chemical load in our environment. This is not merely green politics but an out and out survival issue. There is dirty work afoot and that, of course, means Big Business dollars getting in on the act and perverting truth. We are told we need most of this chemical junk, that pesticides “save lives” and “help grow more crops”, which we need to feed the planet, and so on.

I am not in the agribusiness, I’m a doctor. My take on this is very simple and very blunt: the word “pesticide” is a con trick. Plant and animal physiology does not recognize human value judgements, such as “useful” and “nuisance” life forms. The correct word is biocide, which means that it kills any life (including us), not just pests.

And there’s another con trick the spin merchants work on us: the idea of “responsible” or “controlled use” of toxic substances and talk of “reducing” usage levels is meaningless and dishonest: chemicals in the environment persist. Last year’s output is added to that of the year before, to this year’s, next year’s and so on. It’s cumulative.

There are already enough xenobiotic substances in our environment, working their way through the water table and eco-system, to keep us all sick for decades, even if output was curtailed tomorrow, which you will agree is a pretty unlikely event in any case.

Sorry Alan, for this outpouring. I love you and your sense of humor. I listen in rapt awe when you talk about plants. But pick your backers more carefully, please! They are trying to piggy-back you to get the “green” ticket!

To your good health,

Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Official Alternative Doctor

References:

1. Casarett and Doull’s Toxicology. Basic Science of Poisons. Third Edition, Editors: Klaasen CD, Amdur MO, Doull J, Macmillan, New York 1986.

2. Mackarness R. Chemical Victims, Pan Books, London, 1980.

*Footnote: Jeyes Fluid is a brand of disinfectant, patented by John Jeyes in 1877, and granted a Royal Warrant to the British Royal Family in 1896. While no longer used for this purpose, Jeyes Fluid has been used in historical medical treatments: patients were once bathed in water with Jeyes Fluid added, as an antiseptic treatment. It contains chlorocresol (ugh!), tars, phenols and iso-propyl alcohol (batty Hulda Clark would turn over in her grave!)

1) Wheat

2) Gluten – a protein commonly found in wheat, but also in barley, rye, and some grains.

3) Soy

4) Eggs

5) Peanuts

6) Tree nuts (walnuts, almonds, cashews, pecans, etc.)

7) Shellfish (lobster, shrimp, crab, and mussels

8) Dairy

Hans Selye, a Viennese by birth who moved to Canada and practiced medicine in his adopted country, began with the observation that many people ill from different causes had similar symptoms. These were general symptoms, which seemed common to all afflictions, such as pallor, fatigue, loss of appetite, vague pains and a coated tongue. Selye, still a medical student, likened this to the ‘syndrome of being ill’ and he couldn’t’ understand why his teachers didn’t pay more attention to these symptoms: they were obviously important, since everybody got them, no matter the illness.

Selye eventually pursued his interest to the point of describing a mechanism of stress and adaptation that seems to be universal. It is not just applicable to humans but to all life: any organism, any stress – from an amoeba crawling into tainted water to a busy executive having a tough time at board meetings. The stages of ‘adaptation’ to outside stress he called the General Adaptation Syndrome, or GAS for short.

Briefly, stage one is the first encounter, when the body reacts and alarm signals herald the onset of some adversity (a stressor). These signals we know as symptoms: These signals we know as symptoms: pain, discomfort, etc,; some unpleasant response that entails a desire to limit the exposure by escaping from whatever is causing the symptoms.

Avoidance brings the reaction to an end and the symptoms go away. But if the individual does not desist and instead keeps on, eventually he or she might learn to tolerate the stressor and find it doesn’t worry him or her too much. For example, someone moving to a much hotter climate might feel very unwell at first, but with persistence learns to tolerate heat at a level that would have been dangerous to him or her on first arrival. We call this adaptation process stage two.

It might be possible to go on coping with a stressor to which we are adapted for a long time, perhaps indefinitely. But circumstances may come about where there is too much load at one time, or something might cause resistance to run down (a virus infection, too many late nights, intemperate drinking or even the gradual process of ageing). The adaptation is then lost and the stressor begins to produce symptoms once again. This is stage three.

But this time, the consequences are more serious. The individual concerned no longer has any powers of resistance. His or her body has run out of fight and the stress can become overwhelming. This is the stuff of coronary heart disease, perforated ulcers, cancer and strokes. When the effect is less threatening to life, increased allergies can certainly be a possible outcome. If stage two is ‘adaptation’, this stage could be termed maladaptation.

We can illustrate this with an example from an allergy doctors’ experience: If an individual, as a child, is allergic to milk, he or she will experience unpleasant symptoms when ingesting it, such as mood changes, rashes, hyperactivity or whatever (stage one).

If the parents insist that the child must continue to drink milk ‘because it is good for you’, not knowing that is the cause of the condition affecting the youngster, the child may get used it and learn to tolerate it. The rash or other symptoms may even clear up. Doctors often say that a patient can ‘outgrow’ an allergy this way. He or she is now adapted to the milk allergen (stage two).

As the years go by, little of note may be observed; perhaps just the occasional bout of illness or digestive disorder, probably made worse at examination times and other periods of stress. But gradually the clock is running down. That individual’s intolerance of milk is slowly wearing out the body’s resistance. Trouble will inevitably follow.

Either because of ageing or at a specific trigger, the milk allergy will return and symptoms start up all over again. This time it could be asthma, migraine, arthritis or any one of dozens of conditions. The patient may be quite unwell and yet never suspect milk – because he or she has always drunk it and has never had any previous trouble.

In fact patients often become addicted to their allergy food and may find that avoiding it for any period results in unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. This encourages further ingestion of the food; the patient may even feel it ‘does me good’ since it tends to relieve the symptoms. At this stage eating the food ‘masks’ unwanted symptoms; it keeps them at bay. Providing he or she eats the food regularly, ill effects are kept at a minimum. This is what we mean by a masked allergy.

You probably know that milk is often said to soothe stomach ulcers; patients who suffer this complaint are encouraged by their surgeon to drink it in great quantities. It does sometimes appear to work – you now know why!

One other example might serve, and that is smoking. Those who smoke will doubtless remember that their first attempt was accompanied by unpleasant consequences: headache, dizziness and nauseas are not uncommon (stage one). But by persisting, the would-be smoker gets used to tobacco and the symptoms are no longer experienced (stage two). Finally, as the addiction takes hold, the individual will find that unpleasant symptoms come on with a vengeance when going too long without a ‘fix’ for the nicotine craving. This is stage three and one of the hardest of all addictions to break.

Signs of Danger

Selye published a list of warning signs that patients should look for when they are under stress and about to become maladapted to foods and other stressors. It is remarkably similar to the lists that allergy doctors have arrived at, traveling via a different route.

I reproduce them here without any comment:

Hypersensitivity (a heightened state of extreme sensitivity) is another word you will hear applied to allergy. There are four distinct types of hypersensitivity: Types I to IV. These divisions are useful for discussion but may not necessarily occur as single entities in an individual.

There is good evidence that Types I and III hypersensitivity can cause food-allergic symptoms, and some evidence that Type III mechanisms can be associated with gut disorders such as colitis. However, it is vital for doctors to appreciate that reactions to food and environmental substances may occur, proven empirically, without any of these mechanisms appearing to be invoked.

Type I Hypersensitivity

Type I reactions are basically antigen-antibody reactions. This is what is usually meant by a classic allergic reaction. Mast cells release chemical mediators such as histamine, bradykinin, anaphylotxin, slow-reacting substance-S and others. This gives rise to severe local inflammation, which may cause bronchospasm (asthma), sneezing (rhinitis), urticaria (or other skin rashes) or diarrhoea and vomiting if the gut is the target organ.

The occurrence of Type I reactions to foods is undisputed. Typical offenders are milk, eggs, fish and nuts, though any food can do it. Reactions normally occur shortly after food ingestion and are usually associated with positive skin prick tests and generally a positive radio allergosorbent test (RAST) to the relevant food (see conventional allergy tests).

Type I reactions are more common in children and have a tendency to disappear as the patient gets older.

Reactions to insect bites and stings are Type I in nature and can be fatal, if severe, though this is rare.

Type II Hypersensitivity (Cytotoxic)

This type of reaction occurs when an antibody is directed against a cell-surface or tissue antigen. Complement activation leads to the generation of inflammatory mediators, with resulting tissue damage. Cytotoxic tests probably rely on this process.

Diseases caused by Type II hypersensitivity include certain haemolytic (cell-destroying) anaemias, purpura (bruising) and systemic lupus erythematosus; it is also usually to blame in incompatible blood transfusions. The infamous Minamata disease (mercury poisoning) was of this type.

Diagnosis is done by detecting serum antibodies. Raised levels of circulating serum anti-bodies are seen in many cases of bowel disorder thought to be due to food sensitivities but, unfortunately, they are also seen in healthy individuals and their role in food allergy seems confusing and unclear.

Type III Hypersensitivity

Type III reactions result from the deposition of antigen/antibody complexes in the tissues. These complexes are commonly produced after eating, and indeed would be expected. Normally they are removed by the reticulo-endothelial system. But if the formation of immune complexes is excessive, the quality of the complex is abnormal or the reticulo-endothelial function is impaired, then this normal process is unworkable and disease results.

Tissue damage occurs as a result of the inflammation surrounding these abnormal deposits. Rheumatoid arthritis is an example deposits. Rheumatoid arthritis is an example of a Type III process, systemic lupus another. These are all types of auto-immune (self-damaging) diseases.

Type IV Hypersensitivity

This is often called the delayed hyper-sensitivity reaction, so-named because of the fact that in skin testing the reaction may not show up for 12 to 48 hours. Antibodies are not involved. Contact dermatitis is one clinical condition caused by this process.

Conventional allergists say this reaction has little to do with food allergy. Clinical ecologists disagree: it quite commonly causes food allergy. Many patients react late after challenge testing. The reason the patients’ reactions are considered irrelevant is that most doctors do not see them (the patients have gone home) and, since some doctors are not in the habit of listening to information from their patients, they miss it!

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Learning something about the functioning of the immune system is essential to understanding the classic view of allergy. For those of you who want to know a little about this fascinating defense mechanism, take a deep breath and here goes!

First of all, immunity is the ability to fight off unwanted pathogens. There is natural (innate) immunity and acquired (adaptive) immunity. The former has been known about for a long time and relies on non-specific processes taking place within the body designed to repel intruders.

For example, in normal circumstances the skin is impenetrable to nearly all microorganisms and is therefore a very good line of defense. The nasal and respiratory passages have minute hairs (cilia) for their defense: these cilia beat constantly to and fro, sweeping out a stream of mucus to the back of the throat, which in turn washes away bacteria. This mucus, along with other secretions such as tears and saliva, contains lysozyme, a chemical substance that inhibits the growth of bacteria and breaks down their protective coating.

pH (acidity) regulation can also be a crucial factor. For example, the vagina contains malic acid, which keeps the pH too low to be suitable for most organisms to flourish or grow comfortably. Caprylic acid seems to serve the same function in the bowel.

If all these fail there are phagocytes (literally “gobbling cells”) throughout the body to eat up mould spores, dead bacteria, carbon particles and any other rubbish. Phagocytes generate on-board hydrogen peroxide and superoxide anion. These free radicals are lethal to invader cells. But of course they could also damage the phagocyte and high levels of antioxidants must be present to prevent the defender cell from being destroyed by the process (note that this phagocytosis takes place whether or not a fully-fledged immune response is being mounted).

Finally, the inflammatory process itself (reddening, swelling, tissue oedema) has an important function in keeping foreign matter from leaving the site and reaching the rest of the body. Although unpleasant for you, the sufferer, it is nevertheless a very helpful survival process.

All the above processes are common to everyone. They are not dependent upon the exact nature of the invading organism. Hence the term natural or ‘innate’ immunity. Cellular memory is not involved.

Factors Operating in Innate Immunity

• Skin and other physical barriers
• Ciliated epithelium
• Lysozyme in secretion
• PH regulation
• Phagocytosis
• Inflammation containment

The rest of this section concerns itself with responses of the all-important acquired or adaptive type of immunity, since it is disharmony in this mechanism that leads to troublesome allergies and other problems considered in this book. In contrast to innate immunity, acquired immunity is all about cell ‘memory’ – the cells’ ability to recognize an invader that they have net before. In fact there are two aspects to acquired immunity: the cellular response and certain chemical activities that supplement this.

Factors Operating in Acquired Immunity

Humoral

• Antibodies
• Complement cascade
• Opsonins

Cellular

• Macrophages
• Granulocytes
• B-lymphocytes
• T-cells
• Natural killer cells
• Memory cells
• Intercellular messenger chemicals (lymphokines)

Cellular Response

Several groups of cells are involved in a cellular response to ‘invasion’:

1. Phagocytes of various types, that is, cells that eat bacterial and viral particles and other debris. Principal among these are the macrophages – wandering scavengers found in all parts of the body and particularly geared to respond to immune system signals.
2. T-lymphocytes, which have a complex role. Two main types of T-cells are recognized: so-called helper T-cells and suppressor T-cells. Helper cells work with macrophages to generate the immune responses and elicit antibodies that partly paralyze the invader and so help the macrophages lock on to the enemy cells or particles. Suppressor T-cells come into play towards the end of an infection to bring a halt to this process. They effectively terminate the battle with the invaders. Balance between the two types of T-cell helps to keep the reactions orderly and stop them getting too fierce or going on too long.
3. B-lymphocytes, which secrete the anti-bodies
4. Natural killer (NK) cells. As their name implies, they are destroyers – but in a regulated, specific way. They are taught to recognize sick body cells, such as cancerous tissues or cells invaded by viruses, and to puncture and destroy these cells, thus releasing their contents which can then be attacked by antibodies and cleaned up by the macrophages.

Bad allergens, then, are the ones of which even a tiny quantity puts you over the limit. Mild allergies are those which need a big dose of an allergen to come into effect. Probably mild allergies would not arise at all if the allergens were encountered in normal quantities, but several together can add up to trouble. It is even possible to imagine a scale and assign arbitrary numerical values. If your threshold limit is, say 10 points, a 12 allergy would put you straight into symptoms. But one or two 3s taken together would still have no effect; two 4s and a 3 might, so on. This can be represented diagrammatically.

The ‘values’ scale may be a bit artificial but if you get the idea of allergies being cumulative, you will avoid unpleasant consequences more often than not. You will also begin to understand why sometimes you can eat a food without any effect and at other times be ill.

Incidental life events can play havoc with these threshold levels. Virus infections often shift the values markedly, usually to the patient’s disadvantage; so does emotional stress. This is completely in accord with what I said about body load in the previous sections

Individual Biological Variation

By now the reader will have readily grasped one of the key working principles of clinical ecology which is that of individual biological variation. With such a bewildering array of potential responses to stressors and overload, it is virtually impossible to make generalizations. This is where conventional medicine is going badly askew: it seeks to reduce each individual to a common factor in a bigger overall statistical picture and it just won’t work. Clinical ecology, on the other hand, views every case as individual and virtually unique. Working with general principles and specific cases is one of the many aspects of our philosophy in approaching disease which separates us from our determined and, at times, belligerent colleagues. We also believe in the power of Nature to fix things, given a chance. Conventional medicine seems to have gradually taken the point of view that when someone falls ill, Nature is busted and Man needs to take over and put it right.

The late Dr Theron Randloph, one-time doyen of the clinical ecology movement, took the trouble to tabulate the two approaches to medicine, which he called the EXOGENOUS (clinical ecology) view and the ENDOGENOUS (conventional) view.

I summarize his distinctions here for you:

Enzyme Deficiency

Finally, there is the phenomenon of enzyme deficiency, often called ‘inborn errors of metabolism’. Some people are made ill by their inability to detoxify or metabolize foods, chemicals and drugs. An example is lactase deficiency, which causes people to suffer unpleasant abdominal symptoms when they drink milk. Children with phenylketonuria lack the enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase and are unable to dispose of phenylalanine, which thus accumulates and causes mental retardation and neurological damage.

But deficiencies are not confined to such named disease conditions. There are thousands of enzymes in our bodies, all working in concert. Many of them are dependent on vitamin and mineral “co-factors” to function properly (for example alcohol dehydrogenase, the enzyme which breaks down alcohol, needs zinc and vitamin B1 to work efficiently).

Considering possible variations in inherited endowment of enzymes, complicated by missing nutrient factors, the reader will be readily aware that enzyme deficiency can be a very individual thing. This subject of innate biological variation is something which confuses the picture with respect to allergy and overload. Doctors will insist on foolishly believing that everyone is the same, we are all “average”. In fact only a tiny percent of the population is “average”, no matter what criterion you are measuring, the vast majority are all over the place, some very far indeed from that average figure (taken to its full absurdity this would be like saying the average height for a man in 5 feet 10 inches, therefore people who are under 5 feet or over 6 feet 4 inches simply don’t exist! Can you imagine tailors being as crazy as doctors are in this regard?).

Pharmacological (drug) Effects

Confusion can arise from the fact that there may be pharmacological effects masquerading as an ‘allergy’. For example, the headache, flushing, racing pulse and giddiness that can come on after too much caffeine is really a drug reaction, not an allergic one. Obviously individual variations in trigger thresholds make this one sometimes hard to observe.

Few people understand the incredible range of pharmacological substances that are to be found in plant substances. Most “green-minded” people think of herbs as kind, nurturing and gentle: wouldn’t hurt anyone, right? But, hey, I like to point out that foxglove, hemlock, opium poppy, marijuana, deadly nightshade and countless plants stuffs are dangerous, even poisonous. “Beware the humble carrot” wrote Richard Mackarness; this innocuous looking vegetable contains a neuro-toxin. Not relevant? I had a patient in the 1980s, a young boy, who had epileptic fits every time he ate carrots or anything from the same food family: parsnip, celery, parsley, dill, fennel, coriander etc.

There is no doubt that in the right hands, plants have healing power, but they can also do great harm. Don’t confuse this type of reaction with a true allergy or even intolerance.

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No doctor really cures anything; Nature does that. All the successful physician can do is to reduce body load to allow this process to take place. Unfortunately, modern medicine with its pharmacology arsenal often adds to the biological burden instead of relieving it.

Along with all living creatures we are endowed with a number of key regulatory mechanisms. One can only be amazed that they rarely seem to break down, rather than being surprised and disconcerted when they do. The skin protects us from temperature variation and dehydration, the immune system wards off micro-organisms, the kidneys eliminate poison waste, the liver detoxifies an ever-increasing amount of xenobiotic chemicals and other factors regulate the acid-base balance within the body.

Every day, every minute, trouble is nipped in the bud before it gets started and we remain unaware of what is taking place: we feel OK. It is only when the defenses are overworked that we actually experience any health problems at all. By the time we are aware of a symptom, any symptom, the defenses have already broken down and matters are really quite serious.

Overload

Overloading the system is thus asking for trouble.

The commonly used metaphor image for the overload phenomenon is that of the overflowing barrel. If we imagine the barrel to be the body’s ability to cope with exterior stressors and the moment of overflow to be the onset of symptoms, then it is obvious that anything which adds to the liquid in the barrel will potentially precipitate disease.

The actual overload process isn’t specific. Any one of a number of aetiological factors could cause it to occur, such as an allergy, lack of sleep, poor nutrition, a sudden shock, overwork, stress or an acute viral episode.

It may seem superfluous to point out that several of these factors can work in combination, bringing an almost infinite diversity of symptom and disease possibilities. Mental breakdown, heart disease, ulcers and cancer are just some of the possibilities.

There are many ways to overload – the table below summarizes most of these. A mere glance will tell you that this list is also a summary of clinical ecology to date.

A word of warning: Much confusion can result from the fact that the last overload factor introduced may seem to be the (only) one which causes symptoms. This is very misleading. One stressor alone is unlikely to overwhelm the body’s considerable defense resources.

It is a cumulative thing: so an individual may be living an entirely unhealthy lifestyle, eating and drinking stress foods, not taking adequate rest, feels disoriented and depressed due to brain allergies and then, when made redundant at work, suddenly “flips” as people say and guns down a bunch of innocent people in the neighborhood.

Much may be made in court of this person’s unhappy reaction to the fact that his wife just walked out. But it is not the cause of the violent outburst, it is the last overload factor to operate against this person’s ability to balance and cope with life.

Other factors may have been operative for years: unhappy childhood, financial stresses, poor diet, hypoglycaemia, wheat allergy that makes him feel aggressive, lack of magnesium (which soothes and calms), a smoldering virus which makes him feel ill most days, and toxic chemical overload that spaces him out, like a Mickey Finn. Looked at in this light, mental rage is only one aspect of a much greater situation of compounded overload.

Reducing The Load

The opposite side of the equation works just as effectively and can be turned to good use by a physician. Any legitimate means of reducing body load helps, directly or indirectly, with any illness: better nutrition will aid the fight against cancer; clearing up hidden infections such as Candida will reduce PMT; eliminating hairsprays and perfumes may improve catarrh (even though dust may be the main cause); stopping smoking aids fertility and moving away from geopathic stress will help alleviate almost any disease process.

Eating fewer stress foods definitely helps. Stress foods include allergy and intolerance foods, refined carbohydrates and food additives (chemical burden).

I am famous, or perhaps I should say notorious, for saying on the BBC that even a divorce might help your allergy problem!

Now you may understand why you can eat a food you are normally allergic to while on holiday (where your mental stress and, probably, the amount of chemical pollution is far less) with no ill effects but why, when you are upset, all your food cravings return with a vengeance!

If you understand overload and work to avoid it, this very important principle will serve you well. I believe emphatically in Hippocrates’ key holistic health principle: that we must all take responsibility for our own health and strive to maintain balance, avoiding the risk of overload.

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Fixed allergies, as the name implies, never really change. Once acquired, they are with one for life. In general fixed allergies are severe. Allergies to insect stings, strawberries and shellfish tend to be of this type. These are usually immunollogically-induced allergies and, in accordance with our present understanding at any rate, there is no reason to expect them to alter.

Cyclical allergies, on the other hand, vary considerably in the severity of reactions they produce. The more often the allergen is encountered, the worse the reaction becomes. Conversely, if the allergen is avoided for a long period, the reaction tends to dampen down.

The actual period of avoidance varies a great deal. In some cases as little as a few days may result in loss of response to a single mild dose. Other people may have to avoid the allergen for many months. The majority of allergens lie somewhere in between.

The cyclical effect is of great importance when it comes to allergy food challenge testing. The optimum interval between avoidance and testing for a food is five to ten days. Five days are needed for unmasking (see hidden allergy from the mechanisms of allergy page) but, beyond that time, the sooner the tests are carried out the better. After ten days certain allergens may begin to lose their effect and so be missed on a single challenge feed. As a result the patient may consider a food safe, eat it frequently and suffer baffling exacerbation symptoms.

This cyclical nature of allergens means that it is not usually necessary to avoid an allergen for life or, indeed, for more than a few months at a time, before trying it again. However, the patient must understand that returning to a frequent intake of the allergen will not work – it will just make the symptoms start up all over again. A hostile food will always have to be treated with some caution.

Rotation dieting is an attempt to prevent the build-up of cyclical allergies. By eating foods in line with a careful timetable, say every four days, it is usually possible to maintain the safe character of a food. Remember also, a food eaten below its ‘threshold dose’ will appear not to cause a reaction.

Whatever the environmental stressor, whether it is a food, a chemical, a hidden infection or some other insult to the tissues, the symptoms appear at the weak point and are ‘referred’ to this organ, regardless of the actual trigger. Thus you may also hear the term “end-organ failure”. The symptoms experienced will depend largely on the function of this organ and whether it is excited (stirred up) or depressed (slowed down).

Target organs: some examples of symptoms and the relevant organs

Thus, an allergy or intolerance attacking the lungs will cause asthma; one that attacks the bowel will produce abdominal pain, bloating and maybe diarrhea or vomiting; one that attacks the joints will produce aching and stiffness; one that attacks the head will produce headaches, and so on. Incidentally, this tells us why sometimes even just one hand or just one joint is affected.

Undoubtedly the most sensitive organ in the body is the brain. It is the seat of our highest functions; our thoughts can easily become disordered by allergy. The resultant disturbance can be as mild as forgetfulness or as frightening as full-blown dementia. Probably the most common symptom of all is ‘woolly brain syndrome’ which is surprisingly common; so much so that many people consider it ‘normal’ It is only when they try an exclusion diet or a similar unburdening step that they realize it was a pathological condition, because it clears.

No part of the body is spared. Allergies can and do mimic many diverse conditions, such as cystitis, colitis, hormone disorders, schizophrenia, hypertension, peptic ulcer, etc. The list is a long one and the reader is referred to other sections for a full discussion: mechanisms of allergy.

Remember, this effect can also be modified by other important principles in clinical ecology, for example, biological variation and adaptation, in which the body fights constantly to adapt to each new stressor. This can cause the target organ to change. Thus a typical allergic history would include a number of manifestations: perhaps eczema in infancy, hay fever in childhood, migraine in the teenage years and arthritis in later life. Doctors might make the mistake of thinking the patient is suffering from different illnesses, but really these are simply changing reactions to the same disease, which is focusing on a new target organ. The good allergy doctor sees the underlying allergic individual, no matter what the varying manifestations might be.

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