Chapter IX: Catarrh and Asthma

Catarrh is a very common disorder, affecting the mucous membranes in various parts of the body. It varies from a slight, transient, “cold in the head,” to chronic and serious conditions of the nasal passages, throat, lungs, stomach, intestines, etc.


At first one may be subject to the attacks only at certain times of the year, following exposure to unusual weather conditions, usually after being over heated, but afterward it may be present, more or less, all the time.


The milk diet treatment seems to have a direct and invariably beneficial effect on catarrhal conditions of any mucous membrane, the very first result is a strengthening and general building up of the softer tissues of the body, those which are first influenced by a richer blood supply, and the cells of which these mucous membranes are composed, are very quickly influenced. If no serious complications have set in, there is no case of catarrh or hay fever that cannot be permanently cured by a four weeks’ course of milk diet.


Some of the happiest cases I have had were asthmatics, and I can state positively that, if the disease has not progressed to the stage where the air cells of the lungs have broken down into emphysematous cavities, a complete cure may be made.


At first, asthma is only a nervous disorder, but after years of straining, and wheezing, and “doping,” most asthmatics develop emphysema and bronchitis. As with other nervous troubles, here, too, the milk diet is a specific remedy. But patients must throw away their medicine bottles, inhalers, and smokers, and depend entirely on the milk, with complete rest, and warm baths. The cure cannot take place as long as applications of cocaine, or other “deadeners” are made to the air passages. The first thing to learn to do, after starting the milk, is to relax the whole body, and lie down flat in bed, and this point usually comes even in some bad cases, within the first two or three days. After that time the recovery goes on without interruption. Do not discontinue the rest part of the treatment too soon, but let it bear some relation to the time the disease has existed. As the patient gets stronger, the lungs clearer, and the breathing regular, increase the air in the room and remove some of the covering from the bed. Harden them off before getting up and beginning exercises. Continue the milk for weeks, perhaps, after getting up, if the case has been serious. It is important, even more so than in other diseases, to do the cure completely at the first trial, and not stop, after a certain amount of improvement is obtained, with the expectation of finishing up some other time.


Asthma is easily curable previous to the time that actual breaking down of lung tissue takes place, and after that I know of nothing that will give more relief than the milk diet. Old cases of asthma, with chronic bronchitis, and emphysema look, and I suppose feel, like the most miserable people in the world. But there is always a great improvement on the milk cure, especially if they break away from their depressant medicines – a thing they are very loathe to do.


I made no distinction between the different forms of asthma, as usually classified: Cardiac, renal, peptic, thymic, nocturnal or various forms of hay fever; the greatest possible benefit for all of them is obtained on the milk diet.