The “unknown pathogen in the lungs” theory was beginning to make more sense to me than what the doctors were saying about the COPD disease progression. As my mother’s health improved little by little, we convinced the doctor to run the tests that had originally indicated prescribing the drug in the first place. In this way, we let the doctor take her off the drugs one at a time. The only exception was some of the COPD medications and treatments which my mother took herself off of.
In End Stage Emphysema the drugs and treatments stopped working, one by one. First was the albuterol sulfate in the nebulizer. My mother eventually refused to use the nebulizer saying it did not do anything any more. I called her doctor and he switched her from albuterol sulfate to DuoNeb which was albuterol sulfate with ipratropium bromide. Ipratropium bromide is the drug they put in the Combivent rescue inhaler and probably some of the others. I knew this carried the potential of bromide toxicity so it seemed dangerous to add more of this drug to her daily regimen.
The DuoNeb stopped working shortly after that and she stopped using the nebulizer altogether. Next to go was the Spiriva. After that was the Advair and last was the Combivent. They all stopped working in about a 6 month period.
When my mother first started getting the Combivent it would last a month and a half or so. The last one she used lasted only 3 or 4 hours. She was using it over and over and getting no relief from it! It was very hard to watch her struggle so much for air and not be able to help her. Watching these drugs stop providing the temporary relief they once had worried me even more. The oxygen concentrator that maxed out at 5 liters was already set on 4 liters and my mother was gasping for air!
Eliminating the Need for Supplemental Oxygen
Now here we were two and a half years later and she no longer needed any supplemental oxygen. I reasoned that it was because the pathogen that had once proliferated and occupied a large portion of her lung volume was now dead and no longer occupied any of her lung volume.
She carried around a portable oxygen tank for almost a month but never needed to turn it on. She had also re-gained the 26 pounds she had lost since her diagnosis. She was now able to sleep through the night and eat full meals again, unlike the sleepless nights and tiny little meals she had eaten when she was in End Stage.
“Barrel Chest” Condition - Explained
I realized the other conditions she had experienced during her illness could also be explained logically based on this unknown pathogen theory. As the pathogen proliferated in her lungs, her body adapted by distending the lungs. The pathogen then proliferated more and the body adapted again distending the lungs even further. This back and forth between the pathogen proliferating and the lungs distending may have been continuing for years or even decades and was most likely responsible for the condition common to COPD patients known as “Barrel Chest.”
Eventually the distending lungs crowd the stomach making normal-sized meals impossible. This was the reason for her meal size decreasing as the disease progressed. My mother would eat these tiny little meals (about a cup of food) and when I would prompt her to eat more she would tell me that if she ate any more she could not breathe. Why? Expanding the stomach with food, even a little bit, would crowd the lungs, that were now distended, and make breathing even more difficult. This is apparently a common occurrence among patients who have deteriorated down to End Stage Emphysema or Stage 4 COPD.
The patient is eventually unable to eat enough food to maintain normal body functioning or weight and subsequently starves to death. They generally call this heart failure but I believe the heart fails as a result of starvation.
How I Reversed My Mom’s Emphysema
I wrote a book that details each and every step I took in reversing my mother’s emphysema. There are two primary steps. First there is a specific diet that must be followed and second there are specific supplements that must be taken to restore the body to optimal health, restore the immune system, get the body alkaline, amplify the immune response and directly attack the pathogen that I believe is causing the progression of all COPD diseases!
“The New Menu That Began My Mother’s Recovery from COPD & Emphysema” covers the diet in detail. Click the title or book cover below to order your copy today!
“The New Menu That Began My Mother’s Recovery from COPD & Emphysema” covers the diet in detail. Click the title or book cover below to order your copy today!
This book details the diet that, as the title implies, began my mother’s recovery from COPD and emphysema. This is the diet I borrowed from Dr. Hunter that was verified by Dr. Fuhrman and also included in Dr. Pescatore’s book.
If you are like 7000+ other people who have purchased the above menu book and are already seeing improvements, then it's time to return and get the book and the first month of supplements.
If you did not read the first two parts of this article and would like to, click the links below:
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