Dr. Creed: All that Wheezes is asthma

I have been writing for years that physicians have been taught the following:  "All that wheezes is asthma." Some of you mock me for saying this, or think I'm making this up.  But, Folks, you cannot make this stuff up.

I recently had a physician lecture me how she thinks CHF causes asthma, and that Ventolin helps."  I scoffed at this, but was not surprised.  I'm no longer surprised by anything in medicine.  

For those of you who want proof, here is your proof. This is from a real article written by a real physician, and later added to the fake physicians creed in 1961.
Magazine:  California Medical
Author:  Hymann Miller
Title:  "Physiological Basis for the treatment of intractable asthma"
Date/ Issue: March 1947, Issue 66, No. 3
Pages:  Pages 128-130

SOME years ago Dr. Chevalier Jackson coined a phrase which has become a medical cliche: "All is not asthma that wheezes." He implied that much wheezing goes on that is not asthma. To this the author would like to take exception. To the practicing physician everything that wheezes is asthma. To him, asthma means wheezing. Wheezing means bronchial obstruction. Therefore, asthma and bronchial obstruction are synonymous. 

Bronchial obstruction may be due to many causes -new growths, congenital abnormalities, foreign bodies, swelling of the bronchial mucosa, mucous secretions, bronchospasm and so on. New growths, congenital abnormalities and foreign bodies may in themselves cause mechanical obstruction. Swelling of the bronchial mucosa, mucous secretions and bronchospasm are usually secondary obstructions. 

The bronchi respond to irritation with a defense mechanism. The purpose of this mechanism is to prevent the entrance of noxious agents, or to dilute or get rid of them. In the lower respiratory tract this reaction represents what laryngospasm represents in the upper respiratory tract, namely, a protective mechanism. In the lower respiratory tract it is characterized by bronchospasm, the outpouring of mucous and coughing.

This protective mechanism can be initiated by an allergic reaction, an infectious reaction or a mechanical one. No matter which it is, we call it bronchial asthma. In other words, all asthma is the result of obstruction of the respiratory tract. But the initiating cause may come from a mechanical factor -as a growth -or it may come from an irritating stimulus, allergic, infectious or otherwise.

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