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Earlier this month I had the great please of meeting and interviewing physician Dr Mary Vernon who was speaking at the same dietary conference in the US, where I met Dr William Davis.

Dr Vernon is one of the leading clinicians, authors and educators in reduced carbohydrate nutrition. She is a past president of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians.

Dr Vernon has co-written a ground-breaking book called The Atkins Diabetes Revolution, which focused on a therapeutic dietary approach to the treatment of diabetes.You can see Dr Vernon being interview on Youtube.

She has also contributed to the creation of an online resource for physicians wishing to gain additional education in the use of nutrition in the treatment of many chronic conditions. See Innovative Metabolic Solutions.

In my interview we explore the role of nutrition in the management of asthma.

I look forward to your comments about the interview.

Eat well – breath well.

Jamie

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The post Diet, Inflammation and Asthma – Dr Mary Vernon appeared first on Asthma Nutrition.

Earlier this month I had the great please of meeting and interviewing cardiologist Dr William Davis who was speaking at a dietary conference in the US.

Dr Davis has written a fabulous book called Wheat Belly, which has become a New York Times best seller. Although the book argues for the elimination of wheat for both weight loss and cardiac health, he also observes how many patients had improvement in their asthma. I guarantee that if you read it, you will want to share it and recommend it to many friends who are seeking better health.

I was lucky to be able to interview Dr Davis during the conference. He details how wheat has changed over the decades and its inflammatory effects. He argues that there is good reasons for an asthmatic to do a 4 week wheat-free trial and no reason (other than inconvenience) not to.

His book Wheat Belly is highly recommended. It is available in hardcover, Kindle and audio CD. Here’s the Amazon link.

His web site www.wheatbellyblog.com is a great resource.

I look forward to your comments about the interview or the book.

Eat well – breath well.

Jamie

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Right Click Here and ‘Save Link As’ to Download the MP3 file

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This week I had the great pleasures of interview one of America’s leading nutritionists Darlene Kvist from Nutritional Weight and Wellness in St. Paul Minesota. She was joined by nutritionist Lea Wetzell who has overcome her Asthma using new thinking in nutritional science.

The interview is jam-packed with great recommendations.

Listeners may ask “Where is the evidence?” This question raises a discussion about the appropriate levels of evidence when the risks (of eating one food or dietary supplement and excluding another food) is low. However a higher level of evidence is needed for drugs where the risks of side effects is high.

Darlene and I both recommend the concept of N=1 where each person finds there own conclusive evidence by conducts their own study on their own body by making simple dietary changes and monitoring what (if any) difference (positive or negative) it makes to them. The result becomes self evident.

Darlene kindly agreed to let me record the interview and make it available online or to be downloaded. We welcome you comments.

I recommend you to visit her site www.weightandwellness.com as it has some very helpful articles and very informative interviews. I also suggest that you subscribe to her weekly podcast on iTunes called Dishing Up Nutrition. It’s all free!

Eat well – breath well.

Jamie

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Dietitians Darlene Kvist and Lea Interview – Diet and Asthma

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Other population groups exhibit gluten sensitivity which can impact the development of asthma, allergies and neurological difficulties. This survey intends to provide a comprehensive description of both the positive and negative externalities associated with grain consumption and the resulting impact on human health.

What is celiac disease? A recipe for recovery beyond gluten free.

Read what Dr Cate Shanahan says about gluten and disease states like asthma.

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My mother June Hayes has been awarded an Order of Australia for her contribution to The Asthma Foundation of NSW.

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By Jamie Hayes – 30 veteran of the fitness industry, asthma sufferer for his first 20 years – brother of Matthew Hayes who died of Asthma at 22. Jamie is not a doctor, dietitian or scientist and the views expressed are opinion only and not the views of the Asthma Foundation.

If you or any of your family are living with Asthma, it is likely that your doctor has discussed what not to eat – potential dietary triggers (allergens) but its unlikely that your doctor has ever discussed diet what to eat and drink as well as the role of nutritional supplementation to maximise your health. Why not? The Asthma Management Plan simply does not make reference to diet. Also there is little evidence for the positive or negative effects of diet on asthma. There is some evidence, but you have to go looking for it.

Scientists will rightly be sceptical about the quality of any research. They will apply many measures like: Was it published in peer-reviewed literature? Was the research reproduced? Was the sample group a large group where ‘n’ (the number of study participants) = many thousands.

But the suffering asthmatic is mainly interested in one study where n=1 (themselves). Does the change in dietary choices worsen or relieve their own asthma?

The main reason there is not much research in diet and asthma is that without the ability to make profit, there are few funding mechanisms.  Also, much research has a reductionist approach to look for the micro: the gene, the protein, the one inner element that makes the difference. I recommend looking at the macro: what are the big things that may effect your asthma?

Most asthmatics are aware of things in their diet that create an acute response – an allergic response. Peanuts are very common. As a child I suffered acute responses to milk, eggs and lamb. Strangely, I still get an acute respiratory response to spearmint – even if someone next to me is chewing spearmint gum!

There is another type of response that A\asthmatics should be aware of – long-term inflammation from common foods. Eating these foods may not make you feel unwell, but they may decrease your body’s ability to defend itself against a predisposition for asthma.

Here’s a funny way to start the journey of discovery.

Watch the movie “Cast Away” in which actor Tom Hanks is cast away on an island for a few years. There is nothing to eat and drink except fish, coconuts, local fruits and vegetables (but only in season), water, birds and eggs that birds laid – all in unlimited quantities. There are no processed foods: bread, cereal, cake, rice, legumes, soy, biscuits, cooking oils, juice, soft drinks, wine, beer, milk, cheese, yoghurt – no food labels – nothing in a packet or processed by another human!

Now ask yourself two questions:

1. If you were on this island would you and/or your asthmatic family member live or die?
2. If you would live – would you end up slimmer, healthier and possibly suffering less asthma?

This is similar to an elimination diet except that some people are allergic to eggs and fish. Its 100% gluten free, grain free, dairy free, hormone free and even GMO free. It’s low GI with the only carbohydrates coming from fruits and vegetables – probably low in carbohydrate. Much of the kilojoules would come from the saturated fat in the coconut and eggs.

If you are inclined to do some personal research, I would suggest two steps:

1. Speak to your doctor or dietitian and simply ask them “If I were to just try this fresh food diet for 4 weeks, would it be likely to do me any harm?”
2. Decide in advance how you would measure if it made any difference. You might use multiple measures like: Ease of breathing. Lung function test. Medication use. (Do NOT stop taking your preventive medication without talking to your doctor.) Bloating. Sleep quality. Energy. Weight. Waist. Blood profile.

Some might say that this Cast Away Diet is too extreme and unsustainable. My response” “But what if it made a big difference to your asthma and you learnt some lifelong and life-saving personal diet lessons?”  If you can’t do the whole island thing, try 4 weeks without any source of grains, or at least wheat and wheat products, and no beer, wine, juice or soft drinks. You may wish to add red meats and chicken but not processed deli meats. Butter, olive or coconut oil are fine but not margarine and processed cooking oils. It’s not a weight loss plan, but don’t be surprised if you actually lose a few kilos and lose any bloating.

Why 4 weeks? We’re not looking for acute responses but to determine whether if we stop eating certain foods and drinks for a while, do we feel better in any way?

I am not suggesting that you might be coeliac with a severe gut reaction to gluten. It’s more likely that you are not – but that does not mean that you might not experience asthma-relieving benefits from a grain free or at least gluten free diet. Beware that there is gluten in many processed foods and even some drinks and some cosmetics.

If you can, ask your grandmother what foods and drinks her mother served her for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It could well be that her diet was similar.

A low fat diet that we have all been told is healthy is, by default, a high carbohydrate diet. Regardless of the source of carbohydrate, a low fat diet is a high (blood) sugar diet – which I believe is inflammatory for many people. Most people would be horrified to calculate the sugar equivalent of their habitual daily food and drink choices.

Also, there is increasing discussion about whether the new modified high-crop-yield strains of wheat used today are inflammatory.

There’s also a new field of science called epigenetics, which is all about how your genes express themselves in a given environment or diet – compared to someone else’s genes that may not express themselves in the same way. For some people, some foods like bread and cereals that are regarded ‘healthy’, may be ‘anti-nutrients’ for them.

Finally, what about supplementation – things that you may benefit from adding to your diet? I would suggest trying the diet for the first 4 weeks to make initial observations. Then I would suggest you consider:

• Fish oil – 4,000 mg a day
• GLA – 800 mg a day
• Vitamin D – 4,000 IU per day

Again, speak to your doctor or dietitian and ask them if it would do any harm trying these for 4 weeks. They may ask “Where is the solid peer-reviewed evidence for any effect on asthma from avoiding wheat?” If you were a vegan vegetarian (for any reason), it is unlikely that they would question your desire to avoid animal products (meat, eggs, poultry, fish and dairy), despite increasing discussion that avoiding meat and fish may not optimise health and wellbeing. You could reply “I am only interested to see if avoiding wheat (for a month or so) makes any difference to my health, not the health of others.” Where the evidence for the effect on asthma eating, or not eating a food (say apples) may be low or non-existent – equally the risk of eating or not eating apples for a while is also low.

It could be argued that diet should be the primary prevention and that an integrated “healthy” Asthma Management Plan should include a proactive and personal approach to diet if it is to maximise health outcomes. At the very least, a doctor might simply get into the habit of asking “What food and drinks did you have for breakfast today?”. Breakfast is the meal that tends not to vary and is a barometer of their food choices. Through asking this question over the years, some doctors may start observing positive and negative associations between common food choices and their patient’s health and wellbeing.

I welcome your comments, questions or criticism. Good health!

Jamie Hayes

jamiehayes@healthyinspirations.com.au

Further reading:

Causes and Cures for Asthma Flare Ups During the Holidays  – Cassie Weness, LD, RD http://dishingupnutrition.podbean.com/feed/  or go to iTunes podcast directory and search for “Foods Bad for Asthma, Foods Good for Asthma”

http://www.weightandwellness.com/holiday_asthma.html

http://www.allergy-details.com/asthma/wheat-gluten-and-asthma/

http://paleozonenutrition.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/dr-jean-seignalet-ancestral-diet-and-auto-immune-disease-trials/

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/575775/?sc=dwhp

http://drpescatore.ipower.com/allergy-and-asthma-cure

Possible search terms:

Asthma, diet, paleo, gluten, wheat, LCHF (Low carb High Fat)

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