We therefore will say that asthmatics have hyperinsulinism. But, after all, not all cases of hyperinsulinism have asthmatic symptoms. In the language of the mathematician, we have a tendency to will say that hyperinsulinism may be a necessary but not sufficient con¬dition for the looks of asthma.17 These twelve tested patients were then placed on Harris’ diet. All of them improved considerably. Solely two had at¬tacks of asthma after being placed on the diet. The twelve were not thus fortunate with alternative symptoms of allergy, such as sneezing and running of the eyes and nose. The gratifying response of these twelve patients to the dietary treatment is more proof that hyperinsulinism has something to try to to with asthma. Royal Jelly may be a milky secretion derived from the pharyngeal glands of the honey bee. We cannot say that it is the reason for asthma. We will say that given the allergic sensitivity, hyperinsulinism apparently permits, if not induces, the spasm of the bronchi that produces the asthmatic attack. This can be borne out by several alternative facts.
It has long been known that asthmatics have reason to dread the night, for “the start [of an attack] is said to be most frequent throughout the night, when the patient has had his 1st sleep; for example, at two or three in the morning he suddenly wakes with a stuffy feeling in his chest, and inside a brief time he is during the throes of an attack of asthma.”eighteen If pollen were the sole factor, asthmatic attacks ought to be a lot of com¬mon in the daytime when flowers are open and discharging their pollen into the air. Yet, these nocturnal attacks are not fortuitous. The blood sugar in persons with hyperinsulinism reaches its minimal value at precisely those hours. Throughout the day meals are typically frequent enough to forestall a de¬cided fall in blood sugar in persons with delicate hyperinsulinism. Since the last meal is typically eaten between six and eight in the evening, there is ample time throughout the night for the blood sugar to drop below the traditional physiological minimum. Bees create Bee Honey by traveling from flower to flower, removing the made nectar, storing it briefly to combine with their enzymes, and then depositing the honey in their hives. The hyperinsulinism hypothesis additionally explains why intra¬venous injections of glucose, which are generally used to stop severe attacks of asthma,nineteen don’t succeed permanently.
The rise in blood sugar will relieve the spasm, but the growth in the concentration of sugar stimulates the islands of Langerhans to secrete insulin, and their overgenerous action lowers the blood sugar even below the amount from which the injection of glucose 1st raised it. The patient then has another attack. Feeding sugar by mouth at frequent intervals and in massive amounts has been recommended as a treatment for asthmatic children.20 It has the same objection because the treatment which was at 1st given to the luckless patient in Chapter One. It will relieve an attack of asthma simply because it relieved that patient’s tachycardia, only to evoke another attack. The patient has to take the sugar with increasing frequency to chase away the attacks. On the other hand, a “ketogenic” diet—a high fat diet—has been used with con¬siderable success in treating asthmatic children.twenty one The Harris hyperinsulinism diet is ketogenic.