Allergy Free with Dr. Z: Understanding Allergies, Asthma, and Much, Much More

By John F. Zwetchkenbaum

An allergist reveals why patients have a hard time finding relief—and offers three steps to ease your symptoms.
 
Allergy sufferers around the world—rejoice! For decades, allergies have been misunderstood and misdiagnosed; as a result, millions of people with allergies (whether they know it or not) have been mistreated.
 
Finally, here is a no-nonsense resource that will educate the reader on what allergies are, what allergies are not, and what we can all do to have a sneeze-free day—every day!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Aug 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781683502463

Book preview

Chapter 1

Is Your Doctor Allergic to Allergies?

The eight-year-old boy sat on the table in my office with a miserable look on his face.

He has trouble breathing, his mother said. He can’t run around for more than a minute without stopping to catch his breath. One glance at her face, and I recognized the helpless look of a parent very worried about her child.

How does it feel when that happens? I asked the boy.

His shoulders sagged and he shook his head.

I just can’t breathe, he said. It feels like I’m trying to suck air through a teeny straw and I can’t get enough.

I nodded.

I know exactly how that feels. And I do know. Because I felt the same thing when I was his age.

When I was eight years old, my parents sent me off to summer camp—a bona fide Heaven on Earth for any normal eight-year-old boy.

But I was not normal; I had asthma.

Running for more than a minute left me short of breath. People could hear me wheeze like a steam engine when I walked by. So often, while other kids ran and played, I stood and watched. While other campers were swapping stories at bedtime, I was in the infirmary with my inhaler as my only friend. What should have been the makings of a happy childhood memory was just one more reminder of my medical condition.

It was terrible, infuriating, embarrassing, and unfair. It was asthma. And of course, it wasn’t just at camp. Home and school presented similar problems.

No pets.

No stuffed animals.

No sleepovers.

In short, many of the things a regular kid did were off limits to me. My parents trekked from doctor to doctor in search of some miracle treatment for my condition. I became defined not by my hopes or dreams, but by my asthma.

Then I met Dr. Bernie Berman.

Bernie Berman was a different kind of doctor. Crusty, often irreverent, and sometimes guilty of ignoring his own advice, he understood the nature of asthma, and knew something could be done about it.

Rather than treat the symptoms of asthma, just looking for a way to keep my air passages open, he searched for a way to treat the underlying cause of inflammation.

And it worked.

Dr. Berman worked with my parents and me to address triggers of my asthma, such as staying over at a house with pets, indoor swimming, and ice-skating. He found the medication that addressed the symptoms.

In time, I was a much more normal kid, doing the things any kid should have a right to do.

But my asthma story didn’t end there. In truth, dealing with asthma has defined much of who I am, and I’ve made it my life’s work to help others deal with it. Bernie Berman gave me hope, and made me want to become a doctor who would help kids and adults like me.

That’s why I’ve written this book.

Dr. Berman was ahead of his time in his approach to helping people with allergies. I was lucky to have met him, and lucky to have discovered that developing an allergy did not mean I had to live with that allergy.

Many others have had no such luck. In fact, most people believe that being allergic is something akin to a lifestyle, and as a result, their lives tend to revolve around finding numerous ways to deal with the uncomfortable and awful symptoms of allergies.

My story as a young boy took place years ago, and yet many people today are still living that nightmare, and not just when it comes to asthma.

As a medical student, I was shocked to discover that allergies are not necessarily considered a serious issue among those in the medical profession. In fact, some of my colleagues at medical school, and within the medical community, outright admitted that they do not believe in allergies as a contributing factor to ailments such as asthma.

Patients with ailments such as asthma were considered the easy admission during my training. Load them with medications, discharge them, and call it a day.

This helped with the symptoms, but these patients were nonetheless miserable.

Why?

Because instead of addressing the root cause, these doctors were simply treating the symptoms.

Have you ever weeded a garden? Even if you don’t