Well it was reported
in the Telegraph this week that doctors, by way of Dr Dinesh Saralaya, who runs
a specialist clinic in Bradford, are saying that 1,000 Asthma deaths a year
could be prevented if patients, even those with only mild asthma, would
regularly use "their ‘preventer’ inhaler - which contains a low-dose
steroid" rather than relying "solely on the ‘reliever’ inhaler when
undergoing an attack. " The evidence for this claim appears to be "a
poll of 333 people with severe asthma, conducted by Ipsos MORI and funded by
drugs firm Novartis". Personally, I would never give much credence to
research funded by companies with a financial interest in the results, and in
particular to research funded by drug companies hoping to increase the sales and
use of their drugs and consequently their company profits. - Would
you?
But I have even stronger reasons to regard this report with
scepticism. The newspaper report is illustrated with a photo of a child using an
inhaler, so I'll consider in particular child sufferers from asthma. - Now I am
not a doctor and I have no medical qualifications whatsoever, so if you are
wanting a medical opinion you would be better looking elsewhere than on my blog.
But like you I do have a brain and I can read. My personal opinion is
that the best way to prevent asthma, and to prevent deaths from asthma, is to
protect children from a high intake of salt/sodium. My opinion is based on the
following research evidence:
In this Telegraph article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2137775/Too-much-television-is-an-asthma-risk.html,
about research in Rome, Italy, led by Dr Giuseppe Corbo, despite its misleading
title, the crucial finding is, "The study of 20,000 six and seven-year-olds,
published in the medical journal Epidemiology, confirmed a strong link with
asthma and obesity, but found that salt was the biggest
risk. Those with the highest intake of salt
were two and a half times more likely to develop asthma." (My
emphasis.) I'll bet your brain comes to the same conclusion as mine does,
doesn't it? - Protecting children from a high salt diet is the simplest, safest
and most effective way to reduce their risk of developing asthma and also from any
necessity to take steroid meds as treatment for asthma. (I'm not a big fan of steroid meds,
especially if they can be avoided.)
This article, too, supports the wisdom of a low salt intake for
children. "According to a new study published by the American Dietetic
Association, high-salt foods and snacks are linked to lung changes that trigger
asthma symptoms.," and that researchers in Greece found, using questionnaires,
"Kids who ate high-salt foods more than three times a week saw their risk of
asthma symptoms go up almost five times."
Another drug-free and very important measure to protect
children from developing asthma is to avoid dosing children with
paracetamol/acetaminophen (aka Tylenol and Calpol). A wealth of statistical data
on this webpage http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/health/evidence-mounts-linking-acetaminophen-and-asthma.html?_r=1 suggests
a link between acetaminophen and childhood asthma. Also have a read of
this article from the Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/3233550/Delaying-baby-vaccine-could-cut-asthma.html for
another simple measure that "could halve the likelihood of a child
developing asthma by the age of seven."
As well as reducing the suffering of many thousands, even
of millions, of people, these simple measures could also save about £1 billion a
year - nearly one per cent of the NHS entire NHS budget - that is spent on
asthma. - What it would not do, of course, is boost the profits of the drug
company, Novartis...
var sc_project=1725605;
var sc_invisible=0;
var sc_partition=16;
var sc_security="acf71b9a";