Tavis Smiley talking about asthma and inner city pollution....

how simple much of this could be addressed if the truth were told just one in the mainstream media.... perhaps a whole frigging week of it. There are 34 pages of 20 articles each for asthma antioxidants on PUBMED...., for pennies a day, millions of dollars and untold suffering could be done away with. Imagine that.


1: J Asthma. 2004;41(8):825-32. Related Articles, Links

Pycnogenol as an adjunct in the management of childhood asthma.

Lau BH, Riesen SK, Truong KP, Lau EW, Rohdewald P, Barreta RA.

Division of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, School of Medicine, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California 92350, USA. bLau@som.llu.edu

A randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study involving 60 subjects, aged 6-18 years old, was conducted over a period of 3 months to determine the effect of Pycnogenol (a proprietary mixture of water-soluble bioflavonoids extracted from French maritime pine) on mild-to-moderate asthma. After baseline evaluation, subjects were randomized into two groups to receive either Pycnogenol or placebo. Subjects were instructed to record their peak expiratory flow with an Assess Peak Flow Meter each evening. At the same time, symptoms, daily use of rescue inhalers (albuterol), and any changes in oral medications were also recorded. Urine samples were obtained from the subjects at the end of the run-in period, and at 1-, 2-, and 3-month visits. Urinary leukotriene C4/D4/E4 was measured by an enzyme immunoassay. Compared with subjects taking placebo, the group who took Pycnogenol had significantly more improvement in pulmonary functions and asthma symptoms. The Pycnogenol group was able to reduce or discontinue their use of rescue inhalers more often than the placebo group. There was also a significant reduction of urinary leukotrienes in the Pycnogenol group. The results of this study demonstrate the efficacy of Pycnogenol as an adjunct in the management of mild-to-moderate childhood asthma.

Publication Types:

* Clinical Trial
* Randomized Controlled Trial


PMID: 15641632


1: Am J Clin Nutr. 2005 Jan;81(1 Suppl):317S-325S. Related Articles, Links
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Polyphenols and disease risk in epidemiologic studies.

Arts IC, Hollman PC.

RIKILT-Institute of Food Safety, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen, The Netherlands. ilja.arts@wur.nl

Plant polyphenols, a large group of natural antioxidants, are serious candidates in explanations of the protective effects of vegetables and fruits against cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Epidemiologic studies are useful for evaluation of the human health effects of long-term exposure to physiologic concentrations of polyphenols, but reliable data on polyphenol contents of foods are still scarce. The aim of this review is to summarize available epidemiologic data on the health effects of polyphenols, focusing on the flavonoid subclasses of flavonols, flavones, and catechins and on lignans. Data obtained to date suggest beneficial effects of both flavonoids and lignans on cardiovascular diseases but not on cancer, with the possible exception of lung cancer. There is a need for more research on stroke and lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Most studies to date have included only flavonols and flavones. With data becoming available for other polyphenols, these compounds should be included in future studies. Careful design of prospective studies is important to offset some of the major drawbacks of epidemiologic studies, including residual confounding (by smoking and other dietary factors) and exposure assessment.

Publication Types:

* Review


PMID: 15640497

1: Eur J Clin Nutr. 2005 Jan;59(1):8-15. Related Articles, Links
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Dietary intake of fatty acids, antioxidants and selected food groups and asthma in adults.

Nagel G, Linseisen J.

Division of Clinical Epidemiology, DKFZ German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany. g.nagel@dkfz-heidelberg.de

OBJECTIVE: Within a prospective study, we explored the associations between dietary intake of fatty acids, antioxidants and relevant food sources of these nutrients on the clinical manifestation of asthma in adulthood. METHOD: A total of 105 newly physician-diagnosed cases of asthma from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Heidelberg cohort were identified during follow-up and matched with 420 controls. Baseline dietary intake was obtained by means of validated food frequency questionnaires. The association of dietary intake variables and asthma risk was explored by unconditional logistic regression models. RESULTS: A high intake of oleic acid (C18:1 n-9) was positively associated with asthma (P-value for trend 0.035), while no significant associations were found for the other dietary fatty acids. Most prominently, a high margarine intake increased the risk of onset of asthma in adulthood (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 3rd tertile: 1.73 (95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.05-2.87), P for trend=0.050), the effect being stronger in men (2nd tertile: OR=1.66, 3rd tertile: OR=2.51) than in women (2nd tertile: OR=0.91; 3rd tertile: OR=1.47). The dietary intake of antioxidants and their main food sources had no effect on asthma risk. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, the present results provide evidence that even in adulthood a high margarine intake increases the risk of clinical onset of asthma. Whether oleic acid may serve as a proxy for margarine-derived trans-fatty acids (C18:1 t9) remains to be clarified.

PMID: 15329676

1: J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2004 Aug;114(2):429-35. Related Articles, Links
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alpha-Lipoic acid inhibits airway inflammation and hyperresponsiveness in a mouse model of asthma.

Cho YS, Lee J, Lee TH, Lee EY, Lee KU, Park JY, Moon HB.

Division of Allergy, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, South Korea.

BACKGROUND: Oxidative stress may play an important role in the pathogenesis of bronchial asthma. OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the therapeutic effect of alpha-lipoic acid, a nonenzymatic antioxidant, in a mouse model of asthma. METHODS: BALB/c mice were immunized intraperitoneally with ovalbumin (OVA) on days 1 and 14 and challenged with inhaled OVA on days 28, 29, and 30. Mice were fed OVA-free standard mouse chow with 0%, 0.125%, 0.25%, 0.5%, and 1% (wt/wt) alpha-lipoic acid during the immunization and challenge periods. On day 31, mice were challenged with inhaled methacholine, and enhanced pause was measured as an index of airway hyperresponsiveness. Severity of airway inflammation was determined by means of differential cell count of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid and by means of histopathologic lung analysis. Levels of OVA-specific IgE in serum, IL-4 and IL-5 in BAL fluid, and intracellular reactive oxygen species in alveolar macrophages and lymphocytes obtained from regional perihilar lymph nodes were measured. Nuclear factor kappaB DNA-binding activity in lung tissues was analyzed by means of electrophoretic gel mobility shift assay. RESULTS: Compared with untreated asthmatic mice, mice treated with alpha-lipoic acid had significantly reduced airway hyperresponsiveness, a lower proportion of eosinophils among BAL cells, and significantly improved pathologic lesion scores of the lungs. alpha-Lipoic acid also significantly reduced serum OVA-specific IgE concentrations, IL-4 and IL-5 concentrations in BAL fluid, and intracellular reactive oxygen species and nuclear factor kappaB DNA-binding activity. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that oxidative stress plays an important role in asthmatic airway inflammation and that alpha-lipoic acid may be useful as adjuvant therapy for bronchial asthma.

PMID: 15316528

1: Am J Epidemiol. 2004 Feb 15;159(4):351-7. Related Articles, Links
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Serum vitamin levels and the risk of asthma in children.

Harik-Khan RI, Muller DC, Wise RA.

Clinical Research Branch, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Dietary intake, especially of antioxidant vitamins A, C, E, and the carotenoids, has been linked with the presence and severity of asthma. From the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), conducted in the United States between 1988 and 1994, the authors selected 4,093 children (aged 6-17 years) for whom relevant medical, socioeconomic, and anthropometric data were complete. The children were 50.6% female, and 9.7% reported a diagnosis of asthma. Bivariate analyses showed that asthma diagnosis was associated with lower levels of serum vitamin C, alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, and beta-cryptoxanthin. However, antioxidant levels may be surrogate markers for socioeconomic variables such as race, poverty, tobacco exposure, or general nutritional status. In logistic models that included age, body mass index, socioeconomic variables, antioxidant levels, parental asthma, and household smoking, the only antioxidants significantly associated with asthma were vitamin C (odds ratio = 0.72 per mg/dl, 95% confidence interval = 0.55, 0.95) and alpha-carotene (odds ratio = 0.95 per micro g/dl, 95% confidence interval = 0.90, 0.99). The odds ratio for asthma in the highest quintile of serum vitamin C relative to the lowest was 0.65 (p < 0.05), whereas it was 0.74 for alpha-carotene (p = 0.066). The authors concluded that low vitamin C and alpha-carotene intakes are associated with asthma risk in children.

PMID: 14769638

1: Curr Allergy Asthma Rep. 2004 Mar;4(2):116-22. Related Articles, Links

Oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of asthma.

Bowler RP.

National Jewish Medical and Research Center, K736a, 1400 Jackson Street, Denver, CO, 80206, USA. BowlerR@njc.org

Asthma affects 5% to 10% of the population of the United States. In asthmatics, oxidative stress occurs not only as a result of inflammation but also from environmental exposure to air pollution. The specific localization of antioxidants in the lung and the adaptive changes during asthma underscore the importance of oxidative stress, and therapeutic interventions that decrease exposure to environmental reactive oxygen species or augment endogenous antioxidant defenses might be beneficial as adjunctive therapies in asthmatic patients.

Publication Types:

* Review
* Review, Tutorial


PMID: 14769260

or health expert. I just teach in the 'inner city'. And the number of kids with asthma is skyrocketing. It is really scary.

They say that democratic nations don't create terror, have you seen the terror in the eyes of a child who cannot breathe?

Anyway.... just take a look at this paper and tell me if you don't think these measures should be employed for kids who have developed asthma. Such a simple fix for such a serious problem... and no one is talking about it.


1: Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2004 Feb 1;169(3):393-8. Epub 2003 Nov

Relationship of serum antioxidants to asthma prevalence in youth.

Rubin RN, Navon L, Cassano PA.

Division of Nutritional Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.

The relationship of serum vitamin E, beta-carotene, vitamin C, and selenium to asthma was investigated among 7,505 youth (4-16 years old) in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Logistic regression models adjusted for potentially confounding variables, which generally had no effect on the coefficients for the antioxidants. Serum vitamin E had little or no association with asthma.

In separate models, a SD increase in beta-carotene (odds ratio , 0.9; 95% confidence interval , 0.7, 1.0), vitamin C (OR, 0.8; 95% CI, 0.7, 0.9), and selenium (OR, 0.9; 95% CI, 0.7, 1.1) was associated with a 10-20% reduction in asthma prevalence. Serum cotinine was used to identify youth with no cigarette smoke exposure and passive exposure (7%): Active smokers were too few to be studied further. The selenium-asthma association was stronger in youth who were smoke exposed (p = 0.075).

A SD increase in selenium was associated with a 50% reduction in asthma prevalence (OR, 0.5; 95% CI, 0.2, 1.4) in youth with passive smoke exposure compared with a 10% reduction in youth with no smoke exposure. The findings support an association of antioxidants with prevalent asthma, which for some antioxidants is stronger among children exposed to cigarette smoke.

PMID: 14630617

A hospital here did a study and linked the increase locally to rubber particles in the air - from tires.

people with COPD, and others spins off a tremendous amount of free radicals, molecules that need an electron to be "quieted down" and not cause further inflammation/damage. If you go here, and type in asthma antioxidants you can read dozens and dozens of papers that explain this exact process. This is the National Institutes of Health, not some vitamin hawking commercial site.



http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi

If you want to see a well explained/designed regimen for asthmatics that draws on clinical studies and nutritional science, click on asthma in the drop down window here: ----> www.lef.org

We will all be dead from the poisons we put into the environment every day long before terrorists can make a dent....but you wouldn't know that from our govt's policies, would you?

God forbid we have to SPEND some money or some industires might not make as much money so that we could improve the health of EVERY American.

Shortsightedness has become the hallmark of American policy in every way.