Getting ready for the worst week of the year

By Peter Wood and Kiem Schutter

As summer winds down and autumn creeps in, asthma sufferers are bracing for another challenging season. A 2006 study found that the 38th week of the year (Sept. 17 to 24 in 2010) regularly registers the highest number of Canadian hospital visits due to asthma attacks.

The research, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, suggested that returning to school following summer holidays was the main culprit. Children and young adults are suddenly re-exposed to densely populated classroom settings: a veritable cesspool of viruses and bacteria.

It’s not hard to extrapolate other possible causes for this September surge in asthma incidents. Diets invariably change as students return to school, often becoming less healthy, more fatty and processed. The stresses of being back in class will be another factor, decreasing the immune system’s natural ability to ward off harmful invaders. Environmental factors of cooling temperatures and the fall bloom of allergic pollens will drive asthma sufferers back to their antihistamine medications and tissue boxes. Then, fresh out of the Petri dish of the classroom, they return home ready to spread the love.

For generations we have been socialized to view September as the time to ‘get back at it,’ whether that means school, a new job or a change of career. We all feel a familiar sense of anxiety as August runs out of days. Many athletes choose the fall to step up their training regimen in fall league soccer, the new hockey season or making a push to improve that personal best time in a half-marathon. And we find exercise-induced asthma incidents will increase with the cooler training weather and the fall bloom.

Many will turn to drug treatments offered by the conventional medical system to treat these asthma attacks. Although effective in controlling most acute attacks and in reducing airway inflammation to prevent future attacks, the potential side-effects of many of these drugs should have us seeking alternatives.

Traditional Chinese herbal medicine offers an effective alternative. In 2009, research presented to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology’s annual meeting in Washington suggested that Chinese herbs can be extremely helpful treating asthma and allergy.

A combination of three Chinese herbs (Ling Zhi, Ku Shen, and Gan Cao) had almost the same anti-inflammatory effect on the bronchioles of the lungs as Prednisolone, without any of the drug’s known harmful side-effects.

A second finding was even more rewarding. The imbalance in the immune system’s T-Helper cells, believed responsible for the allergic hyper-response of the immune system that cause allergic reactions and asthmatic attacks, was found to regain balance over the time the patient received treatment. This immune system re-balancing effect seemed to last several months without any sign of a return to imbalance.

It seems science is reaffirming 3000 years of ancient healing wisdom!

Anecdotal evidence in clinic of the results of this study has seen patients coming off their pharmaceutical drugs. Some become more resistant to their asthma triggers, able to exercise longer and harder without asthma attacks. They are also catching fewer colds and the flu.

With the autumn season and its inherent exacerbation of asthma symptoms upon us, it’s a good opportunity to ensure we have a handle on our triggers. It’s also an opportune time to consider alternatives to our pharmaceutical based Band-Aid control to asthma treatment.

Peter Wood is a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine who focuses on asthma treatment with herbal formulas. Kiem Schutter is a registered acupuncturist in Vancouver who uses holistic healing in his treatment of sports-related injuries, soft tissue damage and fatigue.