Allergy

“ Making it even more difficult for an individual to discover their optimum diet is the existence of genetic-based allergies and worse, developed allergies. Later in this chapter I will explain how a body can develop an allergy to a food that is probably irreversible. A weakened organ can also prevent digestion of a food or food group.
One more thing about adaptation to dietaries. Pre-industrial humans could only be extraordinarily healthy on the dietary they were adapted to if and only if that dietary also was extraordinarily high in nutrients. Few places on earth have naturally rich soil. ”

“ CCP reactions, nonreacting persons (those without a history of allergy or irritative reactions) can handle CCP without risk. Jeansson et al. 1983, 1984. During patient followup visits, the authors investigated patients who had complaints related to any type of paper and who had been referred to an occupational dermatitis clinic in Sweden from January 1974 to December 1980. Their complaints included irritation of the eyes, nose, throat, arms, face, and scalp; cold symptoms; hoarseness; sores; itching, dryness, redness, or eczema of the hands; unpleasant odor or taste; fatigue; headache ”

“ The disturbance of the digestive organs is revealed by the dryness of the mouth and occasional excoriation of the tongue, which may be reddened or covered with white fur and silvery in appearance; [Pg 277] salivation may be present instead of dryness of the mouth; there may also be irritation of the throat; symptoms of gastro-enteritis, e.g. nausea and vomiting, anorexia, diarrhœa, or alternating diarrhœa and constipation.
(d) The skin eruptions are of various kinds, and comprise eczema, herpes, urticaria, erythema, keratosis, marked pigmentation and exfoliation. ”

“ Often those inheriting weak adrenals manifest semi-failure in childhood. The consequence is that ordinary, irritating substances begin causing severe irritation. The person becomes allergic to pollen, dust, foods, animal danders, etc. We see asthma, hay fever, sinusitis, etc. Though one can then discover specific allergens and try to remove them from the environment or diet, often this case can be solved far more easily by complete withdrawal from all salt. ”

“ The disease usually begins with digestive derangement which shows itself in more or less severe gastric and intestinal catarrh (loss of appetite, vomiting and diarrhœa) ; sometimes there [190] are severe affections of the respiratory tract,—pharyngeal and bronchial catarrhs; often the illness is accompanied by skin affections of various kinds, rashes, pustular eczema, loosening of the nails, abscesses, dark pigmentation of particular parts of the skin, and other symptoms. The nervous symptoms vary much according to the severity of the disease ”

“ Such children walk late, talk late, learn late to feed themselves, to bite, and to chew effectively. Watery and fat, they carry with them into later childhood the infantile susceptibility to catarrhal infections of the lung, bowel, skin, etc., and they are apt to suffer, in consequence, from a succession of pyrexial attacks. Nasal catarrh, bronchitis, otitis media, enteritis, eczema, urticaria papulata, are apt to follow each other in turn, giving rise in many cases to a persistent enlargement Page 147 of the corresponding lymphatic glands. ”

“ Causes.—Gout, diabetes, rheumatism, Bright's disease, dyspepsia, constipation, nervous trouble, heat, cold, strong soaps, acids, alkalies, rubbing, scratching, etc.
MOTHERS' REMEDIES. 1. Eczema, Lemon or Vinegar for.—"Rub the spots with sliced lemon. This will sometimes relieve the itching. Bathing with vinegar water is better for some as it destroys the germs." The bowels should be kept open, and then constitutional faults removed as the eruption of the skin is but a local manifestation of a functional fault. ”

“ Disease germs from the nose and throat.—If a person is sick with a fever, many of the germs are likely to be found in his nose and throat. Thousands of them are driven out with every drop of saliva and phlegm when he blows his nose, or spits, coughs, or sneezes, or talks. If he puts anything into his mouth, it will be covered with germs. More diseases are spread from the nose and mouth than in any other way, for we are always doing something to spread bits of saliva and phlegm. ”

“ If the lungs be specially influenced, then, in addition to the ordinary hepatic symptoms, there may be a dry cough, asthma, hurried respiration, bronchitis, hoarseness, and pain in the chest. If the stomach be the sympathizing organ, the tongue is coated white or brown, there is nausea, loss of appetite, flatulency, acidity, dyspepsia, fullness, and oppression, amounting, sometimes, to pain in the stomach after taking food; the food ferments and gives rise to eructations and various other manifestations of disorder. ”

“ Apply no stinking medicine to a disease in the nose, for such offend not only the nose, but also the brain; neither administer medicines of any ill taste to a disease in the mouth, for that subverts the stomach, because the tunicle of the mouth and of the stomach is the same: and because both mouth and nostrils are ways by which the brain is cleansed, therefore are they infected with such vices as need almost continual cleansing, and let the medicines you apply to them be either pleasant, or at least, not ingrateful. ”

“ There is no part of the body which is not at last affected by inaction; for the blood being vitiated, all the parts, which it washes, catch the infection sooner or later; the lungs are overwhelm’d with a mucous substance, this gives rise to a cough, a shortness of breath, an asthma, an imposthume. ”

“ Kinds of colds.—A person takes most of the germs of colds through his nose and mouth. If they grow only in his nose, we say that he has a cold in his head. If they grow in his throat, he has a sore throat, or tonsillitis. If they reach as far as the upper part of his windpipe, he is hoarse, or has a cough, or the croup. If the germs are planted in his lungs, he may have bronchitis or pneumonia. All these kinds of sickness often spread from one person to another. If one person in a family has a cold, others in the family often catch cold from him. ”

“ Effects of Suspended Matters.—The inhalation of dust is followed by deleterious effects. We may divide the solid substances inhaled as dust into three kinds:—dead substances, living substances, and the contagia (microbes or germs) of various diseases.
1. Dead Substances inhaled for a prolonged period in various occupations are a common cause of premature death. The potter draws into his lungs a fine silicious dust, which irritates his lungs, and finally produces a fatal disease, known as potter’s asthma. ”

“ For inflammation of the mouth a similar combination is used as a mouth wash, in the throat as a gargle, and in the nose as a wash and sometimes as an ointment or spray, the ointment possessing the advantage of protecting the delicate nasal mucous membrane from irritation by stopping the entrance of irritant dust into the nasal cavities. In the stomach we aid the vomiting by which microbes or the products of decomposition of food are usually eliminated by giving to the patient repeated draughts of hot water so as to wash the stomach clean. ”

“ Frequently, allergic reactions are so low grade as to be unnoticeable and may not produce an observable condition until many years of their grinding down the vital force has passed. When the condition finally appears it is hard to associate it with some food that has been consumed for years, apparently with impunity. ”

“ The diseases to which children are liable, are sore eyes, sore ears, sore head, scald head, sickness and vomiting, thrush, red [221] gum, yellow gum, pain in the bowels, diarrhea, dentition, chilblains, rickets, worms, scrofula, catarrh, cough, measles, &c.
841. Sore Eyes frequently occur on the second or third day after the birth, occasioned by too early an exposure of the child to a cold atmosphere: the eyelids swell, become closed, and discharge a purulent matter. It may be relieved by fomenting the eyelids with equal parts of lime water and elder-flower water. ”

“ Diarrhea. Stop regular food. Give infants barley water, older children only special dietary. Give prompt laxative. Keep in bed. Call doctor promptly and save stools for his inspection.
Earache. Symptoms in infant include crying, and turning head from side to side. Apply counter-irritant [Pg 347] behind and below ears. Place few drops of lukewarm phenol and olive oil mixture in ear, on sterilized cotton. Apply hot flannel, hot-water bag, or other dry heat.
Eczema. Apply salve or lotion, according to doctor’s direction. Avoid water or vaseline on affected places, as these are irritating. ”

“ Irritant Poison.—Symptoms of violent irritation in one or more portions of the alimentary canal. Pricking and burning of the tongue and mouth, and intense thirst, frequently accompanied with great constriction in the throat. Great abdominal pain and tenderness. Vomiting and purging are also usually present. The skin is hot and cold at intervals; the pulse small, frequent, and irregular. In the last stage the skin may become icy cold. An acrid, metallic, or burning taste in the mouth precedes the vomiting. ”

“ A great part of the disease we call constitutional, as distinguished from infective, arises from food, either because the food itself is not free from disease, or because, from excess in quantity or error in choice, the food we take sets up the production of poisons in the course of digestion, and by yielding, for instance, lactic or uric acid to the blood causes rheumatism or gout, or by introducing into the stomach matter in a state of incipient decay, favours typhoid and other fevers. ”

“ Symptoms: scurfy patches, general or circumscribed, where little hair is, where harness rubs, depilation of ears, crest, tail, shoulder, back. Diagnosis, from eczema by lack of pruritus, of rapid extension, of thickening of the skin, from acariasis by absence of acarus. Treatment: correct disorder of stomach, liver, or kidneys: green, succulent or nutritive food; alkalies; arsenic; tonics; locally potash soaps, ointments of tar, birch oil, creolin, creosote, naphthalin, lysol, mercury, iodine, salicylic acid, zinc oxide. ”

“ By way of illustration and with reference to atmospheric influence—the grand exciting cause of disease,—every practitioner is familiar with certain conditions which are favourable to the production of certain disorders, such as common catarrh or cold, and its more aggravated form termed influenza,—hooping-cough, bowel affections, gastric fevers, &c. ”

“ Why you should not spit on Floors or Sidewalks.—We used to think that any one well had no germs of sickness in his mouth, but we now know that many well persons have germs in their mouths which can cause long sickness when they get into other persons. If you are sick with diphtheria, scarlet fever, or sore throat, the germs of the disease are likely to remain in your mouth two or three months. Persons with tuberculosis throw out millions of these germs in their spit every day. ”

“ If the inflammation is acute, the mouth is dry and parched, or as is more frequently the case, the flow of saliva is abundant and acrid, and, when swallowed, irritates the stomach and bowels, producing fever, diarrhea, griping pains, and flatulency. The tongue is either coated white or red, and is glossy, and the sense of taste is considerably impaired. Digestion and nutrition are then disturbed, and the patient becomes rapidly emaciated. ”

“ In many cases antipyretics given by the mouth and cold applied to the skin are most useful.
When the irritation which is the cause of fever is a specific one, either in the form of bacteria (living organisms) , as in glanders, tuberculosis, influenza, septicemia, etc., or in the form of a foreign element, as in rheumatism, gout, hemaglobinuria, and other so-called diseases of nutrition, we employ remedies which have been found to have a direct specific action on them. ”

“ They have sometimes a little Sweat or Moisture; though commonly a very dry Skin; they are manifestly weak, and have either little or no Smell or Taste.
§ 232. This Disease, like all other inflammatory ones, is produced by the Causes which thicken the Blood, and increase its Motion; such as excessive Labour, violent Heat, Want of Sleep, the Abuse of Wine or other strong Liquors; the long Continuance of a dry Constitution of the Air, Excess of every kind, and heating inflaming Food. ”

“ In the beginning of intoxication the whole skin becomes florid from the association of the actions of the cutaneous arteries with those of the stomach, because vinous spirit excites the fibres of the stomach into more violent action than the stimulus of common food; and the cutaneous capillaries of the face, from their more frequent exposure to the vicissitudes of cold and heat, possess more mobility or irritability than those of other parts of the skin, as further explained in Sect. ”

“ Among them may sometimes be found the germs of serious diseases such as pneumonia, diphtheria, and blood-poisoning, just waiting, as it were, their opportunity to attack the body. In fact, a dirty, neglected mouth is one of the commonest causes of disease. ”

“ As a general thing, the symptoms are a bad fetor or smell to the breath, frightful dreams, itching about the navel, pain in the belly, and gnawing about the stomach, itching in the nose, frequent dry cough, with tickling in the throat, constant hunger, and yet the system becomes weak, the head generally becomes affected, face pale and of a yellowish cast. ”