According to the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), and a recent warning by the American Public Health Association, not only is Asthma at epidemic levels among children living in our urban environment, it is getting worse with no end in sight.

Asthma is an allergic disease that is complex and serious, characterized by lung inflammation and shortness of breath, or wheezing. It commonly begins in childhood, and frequently requires medications, emergency visits or hospitalizations. Allergic diseases are the 6th leading cause of chronic illness in the U.S.

The HSPH claims that the epidemic is caused by higher levels of pollen and changes in the types of molds spurred by global warming, along with unhealthy urban air caused by the burning of fossil fuel by cars, trucks and buses. This is a wake up call, because the side effects of global warming are already here, and it’s starting to kill our children. In the absence of action from Washington, it is incumbent on local government to educate on how to reduce fossil fuel consumption and become more energy efficient in both the industrial and public sectors.

Many medicines help control the frightening symptoms of Asthma, only NAET eliminates the allergic component of the disease. NAET is non-invasive, free of long term side effects, inexpensive, and painless. NAET’s developer, Dr. Devi Nambudripad has written a book entitled Say Goodbye to Asthma which is available at www.naet.com.

As a child I had a severe disease called rheumatic fever that could have compromised my immune system for the rest of my life. Afterward, I experienced at least three severe colds a year through my school years and into early adulthood. However, in the last twenty years I have only had one mild cold. If I can do it, you can do it too, and this is how.

First, I take Preventics Vitamin C-1000 every day. This is the most important thing you can do to measurably reduce the number of colds you get and also reduce the severity of the ones you do get. The formula I recommend for C intake is one gram (1000 mg) per day for each fifty pounds of weight. Therefore, a one hundred pound person would take two grams of C per day.

Vitamin C alone will greatly reduce the number and severity of colds. However, it doesn’t completely eliminate colds. There are times when you get chilled, spend time with someone with a particularly virulent cold, or just get “that feeling” that a cold is coming on. For me, “that feeling” is a feeling of being a little cold and chilled.

It is a particular feeling I associate with the onset of a cold, and I have found that virtually everyone I question can also identify a special “feeling” just before they start to come down with a cold. This is the time to take extra action. If you wait, it will be too late.

Again, I take the Preventics Vitamin C-1000. I like it because it is a 1000mg tablet so I have to take fewer of them. Many of my patients keep a few extra vitamin C tablets at the office, and so do I, so I have some at hand if I get “that feeling” while I’m at the office. If you do this, it is important to remember that vitamin C loses half its potency in six months. I make sure my office stash of vitamin C is not more than three months old so I’m assured of full potency.

I start taking extra vitamin C immediately after I get “that feeling.” I begin by taking two or three grams every twenty or thirty minutes. I continue taking C at that level until I feel that the symptoms have subsided, or until I feel gassy, as if I will get diarrhea if I take any more. At that point I’m done taking vitamin C for that day. The next day I stay on that same dosage. I split the amount into four doses and take them with my meals and before bed. After a day or two I begin reducing dosage until I get back to my regular dose. This usually takes about ten days. If you reduce dosage too quickly, symptoms can return and a cold can ensue. During this time I also take Preventics Zinc Lozenges. Zinc really aids the immune system, and evidence suggests that bacteria and viruses don’t like it. I usually take three or four of the lozenges a day unless I'm having some throat symptoms, and then I will allow a lozenge to dissolve in my mouth every hour or two until the soreness is gone. I continue the Zinc Lozenges at a dosage of at least three a day until I am able to return my vitamin C levels back to normal.

Lastly, I always keep a bottle of Preventics Colloidal Silver in the pantry for occasions like this because it is such a good anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal agent. As soon as possible I take a tablespoon; thereafter, a teaspoon in the morning and one in the evening for a week. As you may recall from past newsletters, Colloidal silver is useful against most infections and can even be used topically.

Many patients who are very susceptible to colds have told me that this program has helped them reduce colds from three or four a year to one every three or four years. That’s a lot of avoided misery.