ASTHMA IN CHILDREN (April 25, 1970)

Sir: With due respect to Dr. Munro Ford's sincerity in his devotion to the widely accepted, abstract, scholastic and hypothetical belief in asthma as an allergic disease (“Asthma in Children”, Journal, March 28, 1970), I cannot agree with this premise when I have clearly proved (see my letter “Management of Asthma”, Journal, June 14, 1969) the real cause of asthma as a physical, mechanical condition in which the lungs are deprived of room for expansion by the inadequate mobility of the chest cage. Only one factor, defective breathing, is significant in creating asthma conditions. Shallow breathing through the mouth brings infection and causes bronchitis. As a further consequence, the chest cage becomes partly or completely immobilized, and the lungs, already congested by bronchitis, and the bronchi, filled with mucous secretion, are physically “squeezed” by the immobilized chest, leaving no room for the expansion of the lungs. Actual strangulation of the lungs occurs in this condition of the chest cavity - result, asthma conditions.

I have found in almost 100% of cases treated by my system of breathing exercises and mechanical vibratory stimulation that immediately movement or expansion of the chest is made possible, asthma conditions disappear, and allergies, emotional, climatic, hereditary, etc., factors have no influence because they are not, and never were, asthmogenic factors! These findings are firmly substantiated by the excellent practical results achieved by the application of my natural physical drug-free system of methods of asthma treatment entirely based on the above-mentioned premises. In other words, and contrary to orthodox medical opinion, I do not consider asthma as a disease, but as a condition of the lungs, showing symptoms of dyspnoea, with defective breathing as the initial cause of this condition.

What is the use of concentrating on hypothetical allergies when asthma and its cause remain a mystery? Why persist in pursuing abstract ideas while failing to perceive the obvious - that asthma conditions are the result of “squeezed “lungs, constricted and incarcerated by the immobilized chest cage? Why ignore the reality of these facts, which I would not dare to propound without abundant practical evidence to substantiate my findings? Why do asthmatic patients examined by followers of the orthodox medical tradition and registered as allergic to many substances fail to react in any way whatsoever to these so-called allergens immediately the lungs are freed from strangulation and are able to expand normally? By logical consideration, then, these allergenic substances cannot be the cause of asthma conditions and should be discounted in the management of asthma.

Why persist in regarding allergens as bronchoconstrictors, and in using useless bronchodilatory drug therapy, when in actual fact the bronchi are constricted by external pressure exerted on the lungs by the walls of the immobilized chest?

Again I repeat, through shallow breathing the chest cage is unused and becomes rigid. Inadequate activity of the breathing centres results in oxygen deficiency with consequential lack of carbon dioxide, the only stimulant to the breathing centre in the brain; and a vicious circle is established which can only be broken by correcting the initial cause - that is, the restoration of defective breathing to normal.

So let all allergists keep their hands off medical asthma problems, stop the treatment of asthma, by a never-ending succession of palliative drugs poisoning the asthmatic and shortening his life. (In the years 1964-1965-1966, the asthma mortality rate for males of all ages increased by nearly 40% !). 1 Nothing can justify the continuance of useless palliative drug therapy; as Dr Munro Ford himself emphasizes , “the importance of preventive therapy rather than just treating the symptoms as they arise” (Journal, June 23, 1966).

I cannot see any reason for Dr Munro Ford's jubilant agreement with the leading article in March 7, 1970, issue of the Journal, concerning asthma in children. Considering asthma as “allergic” in children or in adults has little effect on the asthmatic if the method of asthma treatment remains the same, futile drug therapy (the only method of treatment commonly practiced in the orthodox medical management of asthma) with all its negative qualities and harmful consequences!

7 Bourke Street, A. James.

Wollongong, N.S.W. 2500

1 Gandevia, B. (1968), “The Changing Pattern of Mortality from Asthma in

Australia”, Med. J. Aust., 1: 747