EXCLUSIVE
Readers of “St. M ”is already well known pulmonologist, candidate of medical sciences Viktor Solopov, who studies the nature of bronchial asthma. Several issues of the magazine (No. 1, 2006 – No. 3, 2006) published a series of interviews with him. On the eve of the release of a new book by V.N. Solopova “Asthma. The true cause of the disease ”, its author agreed to reveal to us the secrets of“ pneumonic plague of the XXI century. We present this exclusive material in two parts.
PART I
Requiem for a century of theory
When two concepts are firmly linked in the human head, either stereotypes or misconceptions arise. For example, there is no doubt that most people will confidently say that the Frenchman Louis Pasteur invented the vaccine. In fact, the first author of the invention – vaccination against smallpox – Englishman Edward Jenner. And Pasteur developed other vaccines and introduced vaccinations into wide medical practice. Or Loch Ness. Hearing this name, someone will certainly think that this is a lake monster. In reality, it is a reservoir in which the same monster allegedly lives. Approximately the same confusion arises with the words “asthma” and “allergy”. We say “asthma” – we mean “allergy”, and vice versa. So after all, the second causes the first, do they coexist, or develop independently of each other?
From 2002 to 2005 experts of the international committee GINA (“Global initiative for Asthma ” – “Global Strategy for the Treatment and Prevention of Asthma”) in their reports stated that asthma and various manifestations of allergies are often combined, although not united by a causal relationship. Therefore, the century-old allergic theory of asthma can be safely buried. “But do not forget,” Dr. Solopov warns, “that these misfortunes still have something in common” …
microscopic special forces
Both asthma and allergies are strongly linked to the body’s most important system, the immune system. Moreover, it is so strong that both one and the second, having taken root in a person, establish their own special rules for him. Which ones, we will understand if we understand the purpose and protective mechanisms of the immune system.
Every person, whether he wants it or not, is covered inside and out with microorganisms. The skin, mucous membranes of the respiratory tract and the gastrointestinal tract are flooded with them. This armor is called normal microflora. Moreover, it remains acceptable for as long as the bacteria, like servants, are friends with the owner. He allows them to live at home, they occupy their “working” space so that it is not empty and does not go to others who are not so accommodating – the causative agents of cholera, anthrax, AIDS, etc.
Microorganisms live on the skin and respiratory mucosa, not quite friendly to us, called conditionally pathogenic – fungi, staphylococci and streptococci. In the digestive system (more precisely, in the human intestine), on the contrary, our defenders are E. coli, bifidum , and various types of lactobacilli. It is the latter, synthesizing many useful substances in the process of life, that support a person’s resistance to adverse environmental influences. And from his birth, they are grown there for more than one year. And they cannot recover at lightning speed if at some point some of them or all of them die at once.
We are all alive and well as long as billions of these crumbs are comfortable sharing shelter and food with us. Without them, any earthling will go to the forefathers in a fairly short time. So, for example, it was twenty years ago in Chernobyl with those liquidators of the accident, whose lethal dose of radiation (over 600 roentgens) destroyed all microorganisms on the skin and mucous membranes, and they died after a few weeks, because it was necessary to protect them from “foreign” microbes there is simply no one. About how our defense works, I. I. Mechnikov was the first to guess when he saw a jellyfish pierced by a thorn. A whole performance was played out around the affected area: from all ends of the transparent body, some cells ran there. From the observation of the scientist, the phagocytic theory of immunity grew, which brought him the Nobel Prize. It turned out that in the human body, when a foreign object or infection enters it, a number of mechanisms are instantly activated: capillaries expand, “gates” appear between cells, and blood rushes into them into the site of damage and infection white blood cells are a special type of leukocytes – neutrophils. And, destroying microbes, they themselves die in a fight. And the battlefield turns into a festering wound that heals over time. This is how innate immunity works. But everything would be too smooth and artless if soldiers invisible to the eye always emerged from hell as heroes (albeit with posthumously awarded awards). Some microscopic enemies of humanity have learned to bypass their checkpoints and cause serious illness with impunity. Then the immune system began to fight more cunningly. Leaving the martinet algorithm “came – saw – conquered” to leukocytes, he trained other cells – lymphocytes – to recognize bacteria that had entered the body. Antibodies are produced for a once-infiltrated scout. They circulate in the blood – in case of a second attack. And, noticing the enemy, they deal with him. That is why, having had chickenpox or measles in childhood, we do not catch them from our own children. This is the merit of acquired immunity, which is “learned” from past infections or vaccinations.
Ours are being beaten!
Forty percent of asthma patients also suffer from various manifestations of allergies. The other sixty are not. Yes, and those who spend their whole lives sneezing from dust or not parting with a handkerchief every spring can live happily without asthma. But in the first, and in the second, and in the third, immunity works in a completely different way than in healthy people.
– The nature of the cellular response to both asthma and allergies is similar in their mechanisms. This is eosinophilic inflammation, – explains Viktor Nikolaevich. Eosinophilic leukocytes, rather than neutrophilic ones, are involved in this detrimental immune response. They should practically not be in the body – the norm in the blood ranges from 0 to 5 percent – while there are at least 60 percent of neutrophils. As well as the process of formation and reaction of antibodies in healthy people with normal immunity – one, But for allergy sufferers, it’s completely different. Normal antibodies – these are class G immunoglobulins – find the microorganism that has re-entered the body and, by combining with it, neutralize it. And in allergic diseases, antibodies of another class, class E immunoglobulins, combine with the allergen. If IgG blocks and neutralizes the enemy, then IgE forms a complex with the allergen. And when such a tandem hits mast cells (or mast cells ) in the tissues of the body, a large number of special substances (allergic mediators) are released from them, which cause the inflammatory process. This reaction attracts not normal leukocytes – neutrophils, but eosinophils to the site of the incident.
In other words, with asthma and allergies, our own immunity, for some reason only known to him, begins to be mistaken for “aliens”, not only microorganisms and parasites invading its territory, but also everything that was originally inhaled, eaten and drank for many generations. of people. Everything seems dangerous to him! And then the enemies become dogs and cats, flowers, chocolate, oranges, strawberries, and so on, and so on, and so on. And from a blow inflicted on microorganisms hostile to humans that cause infections, or on parasites that invade the body, now the body itself also gets it.
The mismatch came out…
In the history of asthma research, theories of its origin and methods of treatment, says VN Solopov , there are unforgivable inconsistencies.
“Not knowing the nature of allergies and the theory of immunity, G. Kurshman and E. Leiden guessed in the century before last that asthma is an inflammatory disease,” he explains. – But the allergic theory of asthma, which appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, prevented scientists from understanding the true cause of the disease. But at the same time, all these hundred years, doctors, agreeing with the allergic theory of asthma, in practice more and more often prescribed anti-inflammatory – hormonal – drugs to patients. In addition, not taking into account the data on the participation in a number of cases of infectious inflammation in asthma, in the 90s, medicine left only two types of drugs in its arsenal: those that relieve bronchospasm and anti-inflammatory – hormonal. And asthmatics became more sick and more likely to die from fatal attacks of suffocation.
In twenty years I have not seen a single person who was cured of asthma by trying to get rid of allergies. In addition, it is known that from 30 to 50 percent of people have positive tests for all allergens that are currently identified, but they do not have any manifestations of either allergies or asthma. It was high time to understand: if a theory does not agree with practice, then it is defective !
– And yet, is asthma somehow related to allergies?
– Not directly. In the GINA 2002 report, for example, it is written that clear immunopathological differences in asthma patients with and without allergies have not yet been identified. Although asthma and allergies often coexist, it has never been proven that the latter is the root cause of the disease, and not just an aggravating factor. That is, the hundred-year-old theory of allergic asthma was declared untenable, which all the experts of the GINA committee were forced to sign when publishing this document.
Therefore, after analyzing the available data, we can assume that: firstly, an allergy can simply be a marker of a disease – evidence of its existence or potential development. Secondly, that asthma and allergies are two similar but opposite processes in the human immune system. two separate diseases. And when one joins the other, the asthma gets worse. Thirdly, to think about the existence of a special allergen among a large number of allergens – asthmatic. In this case, people who are affected by it develop asthma. The rest are simply allergic. But a search of known allergens shows that they are all found in asthma, and for the most part are external factors. And from the external factors that man has encountered in the entire history of his existence, nothing new has appeared, except for industrial pollution.
Unfortunate heir
– And what about the hereditary aspect of the disease?
– If asthma had a hereditary nature, then the disease would manifest itself from birth. In addition, to date, neither genes nor chromosomes have been identified that would be responsible for the development of asthma. There is only a list of “candidate genes”.
Quite often there are cases of both the simultaneous illness of twins, and examples of the fact that one of them is asthmatic and the other is healthy. Blood relatives of asthmatics get sick more often, but it also happens that healthy children are born to asthmatic parents. And the only factor is inherited – the primary hyperreactivity of the bronchi. This is the ability to respond with a spasm of varying degrees to adverse environmental influences: fog, dust, etc. A third of healthy people have this feature. But it remains invisible until a person gets sick with asthma.
PART II
Trojan mushroom
They left him at the gates of the city. Residents personally brought a “gift” within the fortress walls, hoisted it on the square and went to sleep. What happened next with the Trojan horse, I think, there is no need to tell …
Viktor Solopov painted a similar picture, talking about the cause of asthma he found. Five thousand case histories, hundreds of laboratory studies, five years of reflection and comparison – these are the approximate statistics of his discovery.
The search for the “switchman”
Imagine a train from a school math problem that goes from point A to point B. If it safely reaches the goal, this is the work of a healthy person’s immunity. And when an emergency happens on the way of the train – someone switches the arrows and changes the direction of movement, and the train, along with puzzled passengers, arrives at some unknown city N – this is a shift in the immune system.
– Helper lymphocytes (“helpers” – from English help ), participating in the reactions of the acquired immune response, are divided into two populations: Th1 and Th2, – says Viktor Nikolaevich. – Cells of the first type implement a normal response. And when the second subspecies dominates, a person begins to synthesize antibodies to everything that surrounds him. A Th2 helper response would only be useful in cases of parasitic infestation, such as when a fantastic Alien invades the human body and needs to be destroyed somehow. That is, at some point in time, something shifts the “arrow” in the human body from Th1- to Th2-helper response. Then asthma begins, and allergies, or one separately from the other. Hence the conclusion: the factor that changes the Th1- to Th2-helper pathway is the cause of both problems.
But the immune system has evolved to protect us from infections and foreign proteins. So, it can be assumed that the cause of bronchial asthma is some kind of microorganism that can cause infections.
What is this microorganism?
– It must meet a number of specific criteria. Firstly, not to cause especially dangerous infections like cholera, smallpox and others, otherwise asthma would have the character of epidemics. Secondly, this microorganism should not cause specific diseases such as syphilis, tuberculosis, leprosy, etc. But at the same time, the pathogen can allow the usual carriage. That is, it must be from a number of opportunistic bacteria that live with humans. Thirdly, the desired microorganism should be detected in the largest percentage of cases in patients with asthma, and not only in sputum tests, but also in the intestines, because in the process of cleansing the lungs, mucus from them with all foreign particles – dust, microbes, etc. – rises up (like an escalator in the subway) and enters the gastrointestinal tract.
The respiratory and digestive tracts of the body intersect at the level of the pharynx and larynx – and all the dirt from the human lungs is swallowed unnoticed by them. During the day, this “escalator”, formed by a layer of mucus and cilia of cells of the bronchial tree, is able to remove up to 20 kg of dirt from the lungs into the gastrointestinal tract! That is why all environmental problems affect the state of immunity.
The fourth condition that the microbe “X” must meet is that it must be extremely common in society and in nature, imperceptibly transmitted from person to person and be resistant to all external influences. Since it is known that a hundred years ago the incidence of asthma was on average 50 times lower than today, there should be a direct relationship between the prevalence of this microorganism and the increase in the number of asthmatics. And most importantly, once in the body, it should cause initial inflammation and switch the immune response from Th1 to Th2 helper pathway. In this case, asthma develops when it enters the lungs, and allergies develop into the intestines. And if in both systems (both respiratory and digestive), then both asthma and allergies are formed at the same time.
The Adventures of Candida
“In order to find out the true face of the enemy, we acted simply: we studied bacteriological analyzes of the sputum of patients who passed through our medical center,” says V.N. Solopov. – Moreover, we analyzed the results only in those patients whom we have not yet treated. Imagine, only 500 case histories out of 5 thousand contained bacteriological data! All other medical institutions simply did not do tests!
The predominant type of microorganisms inhabiting the bronchi of Dr. Solopov’s patients turned out to be fungi in “company” with other microbes. Moreover, the causative agent of thrush – Candida albicans . It was detected in the lungs in almost 70 percent of patients. And in the intestine it was even more common – in 99.6.
The data were compared with the works of domestic and foreign scientists. It turned out that both fungi of the genus Candida , and a hypothetical microorganism that can switch the normal immune response to an allergic one and cause asthma, have the same properties. They do not cause dangerous infections or specific diseases, they live on the skin (in 20-70 percent), oral mucosa (in 20-30 percent) and intestines (in 30 percent of adults and 50 percent of children) of healthy people.
Moreover, it turned out that the increase in the incidence of asthma is directly proportional to the increase in the number of people who imperceptibly sheltered an insidious fungus inside. – In 1951-1959. asthmatics were only 0.1-0.5 percent, – explains Viktor Nikolaevich. – At the same time, the frequency of candidacy was 5-15 percent. In 1967-1985. Asthma was already diagnosed in 1-3 percent, and the frequency of cadidosis reached 20-53 percent. In 1990-2001 the average incidence rate is 4-15 percent of patients (we do not take England and New Zealand, where they are already 30-40 percent), and 60 percent of carriers . It turns out that both of these have increased by 10-15 times over the years.
Back in 1995, Top Medicine magazine (No. 1) published an interview with Dr. G. Ionescu , which was called “The role of intestinal infections in the development of skin diseases and allergies.” The author formulated the following: the cause of skin allergies is dysbacteriosis. He did not have the courage and imagination to develop the idea further, but in this work the term Candida was first used. related complex – a syndrome associated with candida.
According to the authors of another article, “What is the cause of allergies in children?”, where the humidity is high and there are mushrooms, allergies are observed in 40 percent of cases, versus 27 where these factors are absent. And in the lungs – warm and damp! That level of the bronchial tree, where asthma nests, consists of millions of air -conducting branches with a diameter of tenths of a millimeter. It’s concentrated heat and moisture where mold and fungi thrive remarkably.
In terms of resistance to the Candida fungus , little can be compared. He, verily, neither burns in fire nor sinks in water. Even in the dried state, it retains its viability for several years. Tolerates repeated freezing and thawing. Withstands competition with many microorganisms for the duration of existence on various products: sour milk, sauerkraut. But especially densely, according to researchers, populated cottage cheese, ice cream, sweet fruits and juices from them. And it dies only when boiled – and even then not immediately, but after a few minutes, as well as under the influence of disinfectant solutions of formalin, chloramine, etc.
How is the fungus transmitted from person to person?
– Through a kiss, sexual contact, infected objects, wastewater from baths, pools, showers. There are known cases of candida infection of newborns during the passage of the birth canal. In addition, the fungus is carried by domestic animals: calves, lambs, foals and poultry. The most interesting thing is that in 90 percent of cases of diseases of the upper respiratory tract (angina, tonsillitis ) are caused by associations of cocci with candida, which can be transmitted by airborne droplets.
When a person coughs, the air flow speed reaches 100 meters per second. It flies at a distance of up to 10 meters and consists of drops of saliva, in which – the entire contents of the throat!
Candida is not aggressive in most people , and they do not think about its presence in the body, then why does it cause problems for others?
Candida fungi enter the mucous membranes in situations favorable for them (massive antibiotic treatment, frequent relapses of respiratory infections, weakness of immune defense, etc.), they begin to actively multiply and, releasing toxins, cause the initial inflammatory process. In addition, the antigens of these fungi have a high ability to allergize the body. It can be assumed that they are the ones that shift the immune response from Th1 to Th2 type.
– How does this happen?
– When a microbe enters the body, innate immunity is activated. And Candida fungi have a special property – they do not just stick to the epithelium of the mucous membranes, but grow into their walls. Inflammation starts. The body cannot respond to the invasion with a normal neutrophilic response of innate immunity (with inflammation and pus). Because if Candida colonizes abundantly on the surface, either severe inflammation of the organ or necrosis of a large part of it will occur. Then the immunity switches to the antibody -forming mechanism – Th2-type, in order to bind fungi that enter the body again. That is, a sparing response is triggered – to avoid massive tissue necrosis. And as a result, it turns out that the immune system begins to see the “enemy” in everything that gets into it.
This is confirmed by the experimental data of a number of researchers – microbiologists who studied candidiasis and its mechanisms. Scientists have found that the prevalence of Th1- or Th2-immune response depends on the mass of infecting cells and the duration of the infection. But getting an experimental result and explaining it are two different things: after all, microbiologists are not engaged in pulmonology, and pulmonologists are not engaged in microbiology. asthma and allergies develop much less frequently. That is, an active infectious attack in the first years of life trains the body to respond with a normal immunological response.
Antibiotics and fast food
The emergence of antibiotics is also to blame for the fact that harmful fungi have bred around the world, Solopov believes – and finds confirmation in the scientific works of other researchers. More precisely, their uncontrolled use in cases where it is quite possible to do without them.
“Imagine that a person with oral candidiasis and a respiratory infection in addition coughed on you, and you, being nearby, inhaled both the flu virus and candida. And then, for anti-influenza treatment, the “initiative” therapist also prescribed broad-spectrum antibiotics for you, – Viktor Nikolaevich explains, – then candida is likely to multiply and subsequently asthma will develop. After all, antibiotics will kill all microbes – both harmful and beneficial – and the microbial “niche” of the human body is never empty: mushrooms will grow in it.
The increase in the incidence of asthma also coincided with the transition of society to the industrial nature of nutrition: fast food, convenience foods, frozen foods, reconstituted juices, in which fungi are perfectly preserved. In addition, before people ate mainly at home, now they are on the run, from dishes that cannot be boiled to get rid of candida, but simply cannot be washed.
– Should Candida be in the human body at all?
– Back in 1979, Professor of the Ryazan Medical Institute R.N. Rebrova conducted research and found that this microorganism should be found only on the mucous membrane of the mouth and throat in no more than 5 percent of healthy people. The growth of candidiasis , and with it the increase in the number of asthma and allergy sufferers, provoked antibiotics and the transition of mankind to an industrial type of nutrition. Also important are the simpler and “lighter” connections between people according to the Western model, when microbes are easily and simply transmitted through close contact. In the USSR, the problem of asthma was not as acute as it is now in Russia. As soon as we tore down the walls and opened the borders, it got worse.