A fix for a dry cough: whenever I'm in climate-controlled buildings or extreme temperatures, my airways get irritated and I have dry coughing fits. Allergy tests turned up negative. What can I do? - ask the experts: answers to your questions from the leaders in natural medicine

Natural Health, April, 2002

HARRIET BEINFIELD, L.AC., REPLIES: The heating and cooling systems in buildings are probably to blame. These systems can dehydrate your respiratory membranes. They also contribute to the problem of rapid temperature changes when, for example, you leave a hot sunny street and walk into a cold air-conditioned building. Such physical challenges can weaken your defenses and lead to chronic coughing, repeated sneezing, a perpetually runny nose, and other respiratory symptoms.

Fortunately, some simple remedies can help. Dress in layers, so you can easily add or eliminate clothing as the temperature changes. When your building is air-conditioned, drink hot liquids and eat warm foods. This helps protect you against the chilling effects of cold drafts and keeps you well moisturized. When your building is heated, drink fluids at room temperature and eat more raw fruits and vegetables, as well as a little spicy food to help you perspire. No matter what your building's temperature is, avoid cold beverages and foods, which reduce your ability to conserve heat in a cold environment or to cool off through perspiration in hot quarters.

To strengthen your respiratory system, try the Chinese herbal remedy called Jade Screen Formula (yu ping feng san), available at Chinese apothecaries and some natural food stores. This formula contains astragalus root, schisandra berries, and sileris root. Take 2 to 3 g of the tablets two to three times a day with warm water, up to 9 g total. You should notice a difference in four to six weeks.

Homeopathy for Hair Loss

Is there a homeopathic remedy for alopecia areata?

JENNIFER JACOBS, M.D., M.P.H., REPLIES: There are at least 25 homeopathic remedies for alopecia areata, or hair loss in spots or circles. In my clinical experience, hair loss often occurs as a result of a specific stress, and it is important from a homeopathic viewpoint to locate that stress. Your constitution (the physical and emotional features that identify you) and other symptoms also help determine the remedy that's right for you. Alopecia can be treated successfully by a homeopathic professional, but it is too complicated for self-treatment. (To locate a homeopath, call the American Institute of Homeopathy at 888-445-9988 or visit its website at www.homeopathyusa.org.)

The correct remedy can give dramatic results. For example, I recently treated a 10-year-old girl whose large bald spots had developed shortly after the death of her grandfather, to whom she was quite close. She became withdrawn, and her mother often heard the girl crying alone in her room, although she refused to discuss her feelings. She craved salt and bread and developed headaches whenever she went out into the sun. These symptoms all matched the remedy Natrum muriaticum, derived from sodium chloride (ordinary table salt), a classic remedy for grief, and I instructed her to begin taking it. At her two-month follow-up the spots were a little smaller, and she was more open and cheerful. It is typical in homeopathy to see an improvement on the mental or emotional level before physical changes are noted. After four months (the girl's most recent visit) the spots were about half their original size, and I fully expect them to resolve completely with time.

Ways to Stamp Out Gout

I have gout in one foot. My doctor has told me to stay away from alcohol, coffee, and certain foods. Is there anything else I should do?

ROBERT ANDERSON, M.D., REPLIES: People who have gout are unable to break down and excrete uric acid, a byproduct of digesting certain foods. Eating anchovies, asparagus, legumes, mushrooms, meat, organs, and shellfish results in high levels of uric acid. These levels cause uric acid crystals to build up close to a major joint (most commonly the big toe), leading to acute attacks of arthritislike inflammation, swelling, and pain.

Doctors commonly prescribe anti-inflammatory drugs at times of acute attacks and suggest the continued use of the prescription drug allopurinol, which reduces uric acid levels. However, you should be able to prevent gout attacks with the following natural options.

Continue to stay away from alcohol and coffee, because they accelerate the breakdown of protein into uric acid. Besides avoiding the foods I've mentioned, limit your intake of simple carbohydrates, because they block uric acid excretion from your kidneys.

Supplement your diet with 2 g of fish oil capsules twice a day to reduce the chances of gouty inflammation. Vitamin C increases the excretion of uric acid; take 1 to 2 g daily. (Some doctors theorize that this much vitamin C could increase the risk of uric acid kidney stones, but I have often recommended it to gout patients with great benefit and have seen no incidence of kidney stones.) And finally, European reports have confirmed the benefit of the herb devil's claw (Harpagophytum procumbens) in managing gout; you can take 400 mg of the dried extract three times a day for as long as you wish.

Supplements and Cancer Recovery

I'm taking the drug tamoxifen to prevent a recurrence of breast cancer. I'd also like to take antioxidant vitamins and the herbs astragalus and milk thistle to help prevent a recurrence, but my doctors disagree. What should I do?