The book, Air and Breathing, helps you understand air quality issues, normal breathing and the causes of breathing disorders. You will find detailed information about airborne infection, air quality and airborne hazards at home. Problems of the nose, ear and throat are discussed. Airborne allergy and food allergy causes are explained. The mechanisms of asthma are discussed and drug treatments reviewed. A chapter on respiratory infections describes viral and bacterial causes of upper respiratory disease and lung diseases. A special section on fungal diseases is included.

Air pollution and airborne outdoor causes of lung disease are also discussed with advice about improving both indoor and outdoor air quality.

Asthma is a prototype of airway disease, often associated with nose and throat symptoms. Asthma sometimes merges with chronic lung disease that involves both inflammatory changes in bronchi and inflammatory changes in alveoli that involve scarring and loss of gas exchange capacity.

Asthma is increasing world-wide and higher numbers of deaths from asthma in affluent countries worry authorities. The Center for Disease Control in Canada reported a threefold increase of asthmatic deaths over 20 years, mostly in teenagers and young adults. In the US, according to the National Institutes of Health 12.4 million people suffer from asthma; 6.2 billion dollars is spent per year on health care costs. 

The three basic treatment choices for airway diseases are:

1. Remove the causes of disease
2. Treat the effects of the disease
3. Alter the host to be more tolerate of the causes

Air and Breathing  136 pages with Abstracts.  2007

The book is available in a printed and an eBook edition

This Web Site was developed by  Environmed Research Inc. Sechelt, B.C., Canada. Online Since 1995. Orders for printed books and nutrient formulas are placed at Alpha Online. Persona Publications  is another division of Environmed with a separate online site for  downloading eBooks, music, videos and other digital documents.  Alpha Nutrition ® is a registered trademark of Environmed Research Inc.