A staggering 5.4 million people suffer from asthma in the UK. Asthma is a disease that seems to belong to modern Western society and its prevalence has been increasing since the 1970s.
Although asthma death rates have decreased, this is solely due to the fact that asthma is now better controlled. The various treatments are much more effective in controlling its more extreme possibilities. However, asthma remains a disease that can have a devastating impact on people’s lives.
The analysis highlights some significant facets of the disease:
• Half of all cases occur in children under 10 years of age.
• In this age group it affects twice as many men as women.
• 60% of adults who suffer from it are women.
• If one parent has asthma, their child is about twice as likely to develop asthma as children whose parents don’t have asthma.
• Children born into homes that use more cleaners are twice as likely to have persistent wheezing.
Currently, there is no clear culprit as to the cause of asthma. Many suspects have been proposed: pollution, smoking, modern living, central heating, house dust, exercise. None of these are the real causes of asthma: they are triggers of an asthma attack or they create the environmental conditions that lead to an asthma attack. They are not the root cause of someone having an asthmatic condition.
However, there is a possible culprit with a certain degree of suspicion about him; one that has previously been indirectly involved but has never been closely examined. As part of the questioning, I would like to discuss a number of key questions.
What is the reason someone suffers from asthma?
A relatively recent argument about the cause of asthma looks at our increased use of cleaning materials and argues that our increasingly sterile homes mean we can’t develop the immunity we once used to acquire through exposure to bacteria.
However, I would say that the problem is much more direct than that.
In short, asthma arises because we put bleach (sodium hypochlorite) down the toilet; we let it do its thing, sometimes overnight, and then too often we use the toilet without flushing it first.
The mixture of urine (containing ammonia) and bleach reacts to release a small dose of chloramines that we inhale and damage our lungs.
Repeated regularly the damage becomes significant.
Our damaged/weakened lungs become less resistant and more sensitive to our surroundings. Triggers that we would not have reacted to before suddenly begin to affect us more. For some, exposure to these triggers leads to an asthma attack, the affected condition of their lungs making them more susceptible to attack from elements in the air they breathe.
A question mark remains as to whether the lungs are really damaged or simply develop an intensified defense system; in other words, they react more quickly to a perceived threat. This could be a significant finding as it would determine the path of recovery for those who already have asthma. If the former, then the lungs must undergo physical repair; if it is the latter, readaptation or rehabilitation may suffice.
Why do some people suffer more than others? Why do some people suffer and others do not?
There are two basic reasons why there are different levels of suffering;
First of all, people have different levels of exposure. Obviously, the higher the level of exposure, the greater the risk. Households use different amounts of cleaning materials; different concentrations of cleaning materials, different ways to use those cleaning products. Our exposure levels vary.
It’s also worth noting that not only are we using more household cleaning products, including bleach, but our attitude toward the physical task of cleaning has also changed. We spend less time cleaning, believing instead that we can clean just as effectively by throwing chemicals at the problem. For an instant, we will put the bleach in the toilet to clean it instead of cleaning it manually.
Second, we have different levels of sensitivity. The variation in the extent and depth to which people suffer from asthma is due to different mechanisms in our bodies. Lung damage will increase an individual’s level of asthma risk, but you must have a predisposition to that sensitivity.
Pain, hunger, cold, tiredness, we all feel differently. What might be a cold room for one person might be perfectly fine for another; a sleepless night can leave one person exhausted while another person can get through it without feeling any different. Our lungs work in a similar way. The size, efficiency, and sensitivity of our lungs vary. Any lung damage effectively changes the height of the bar. It reduces its performance and consequently can reduce the amount of exposure we need to a substance to trigger an asthma reaction.
We should also consider that an individual’s diet can affect the amount of ammonia in the urine and therefore increase the risk of asthma. We know that asparagus is high in ammonia. Similarly, dehydration and bacterial infection (particularly in women) can increase ammonia levels.
What causes lung damage?
Our liver converts the ammonia in our bodies into urea which is then excreted in the urine. This ammonia in our urine when mixed with sodium hypochlorite (bleach) produces chloramines which when inhaled cause damage to our lungs.
Of course, the dose that we will be exposed to in our daily ablutions is small, but it will still be harmful to us. Whatever we do, if we do it often enough, it will have an impact.
It’s like using a tanning bed: too much, too often, and you risk increasing your chances of developing skin cancer. Repeated exposure to Chloramines damages the function of our lungs.
Why is asthma so common in children?
Children’s lungs are much smaller and more sensitive since they are still developing. Therefore, they are more vulnerable to any damage.
We must also consider your level of exposure to Chloramines.
Many households leave bleach to soak in the toilet overnight. In the morning, the first person to get up is six-year-old Tommy, who obediently goes to the bathroom and thus receives a chloramine injection.
Also, children who are younger and stand directly on the toilet bowl receive a much higher dose of chloramine and therefore inhale more. This supports the evidence that in children more boys suffer from asthma than girls.
The damage is cumulative, so with age, lung damage becomes more common. As children get older, their nasal proximity to chloramine gas decreases, while women, sitting on the toilet, remain much closer. This may explain why, with age, more women develop asthma than men. It may also be relevant that, generalizing and slightly stereotyping, since women tend to do most of the bathroom cleaning, their potential levels of exposure are higher when doing this.
Are there other sources of chloramine exposure that cause lung damage?
A similar chlorine-based cleaning material is used in swimming pools. Again, chlorine, when combined with urine and sweat, gives off a chloramine gas that people inhale. In a swimming pool, any urine is substantially diluted. However, it is still there and repeated exposure can contribute to lung damage. Hence the reason why so many swimmers suffer from asthma.
How should we be looking to cure asthma?
First, we need to eliminate the cause of the problem by making sure we don’t inadvertently produce and expose ourselves to chloramines. This will prevent lung damage and make us less vulnerable to asthma.
In terms of corrective treatment and whether or not we can cure those people who already have asthma, we need treatments that either seek to strengthen the lungs or treatments that change the way the lungs work so they are less reactive to asthma triggers. The lungs’ defense mechanism is set up to watch for a particular attack, but if the triggering invasion comes by a different route, it may go unnoticed. The lungs would then not go into a defensive lockdown.
This theory of chloramine inhalation as to the cause of asthma requires further investigation. Although there is a clear finger of suspicion, it is still not a waterproof case. We should be doing everything we can to bring this case to a close.