| Theron Randolph | |
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Theron Randolph
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| Born | 1906 |
| Died | September 29, 1995 (aged 88–89) |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields | Medicine |
| Known for | Clinical ecology |
Theron Randolph (1906 - September 29, 1995) was a physician, allergist, and researcher from the United States. He studied food allergies, chemical allergies, and preventive care. Randolph, along with other American allergists, objected to the definition of allergies as arising from serological abnormalities; this definition, common among European allergists of Randolph's day, excluded from consideration the kinds of adverse environmental reactions that Randolph studied. Randolph authored four books and over 300 medical articles and is considered the Father of Clinical Ecology.
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As a medical student, Randolph witnessed one of the most dramatic moments in the field of allergy when he wandered into the allergists' meeting in Atlantic City and witnessed the dean of American immunologists, Arthur F. Coca, pleading with his colleagues not to adopt the redefinition of allergy in terms of immunology [IgE, histamine response], which was then becoming fashionable.
Dr. Doris Rapp writes in Is This Your Child?, the original definition of allergy was "any adverse reaction to a substance that does not bother most other individuals. The majority of people, for example, do not develop illness after they are exposed to dust, molds, pets, freshly cut grass, or after eating certain foods. In contrast allergic individuals commonly develop hay fever, asthma, hives, eczema, or intestinal symptoms from these types of exposures. The tentative diagnosis of allergy was originally based mainly upon the patient's history and physical examination, which suggested allergy. For example, if someone's nose repeatedly and suddenly became watery and itchy while cutting the grass, it was diagnosed as hay fever due to grass pollen.
In 1925, however, allergy was redefined, and the scope of was called allergy became strictly limited."
As Dr. Doris Rapp documents, Dr. Arthur P. Coca's objections at the allergy conference went unheeded. However, Coca's arguments impressed Randolph and, as a practicing physician, he began to study and treat the group of patients who had been left out by the new redefinition of allergy.
In the forward to his first book Richard Makarness wrote; Randolp's great contribution has been to show that what twentieth century man has done and is doing to the environment, including food, drink and air is responsible for at least 30 per cent of the sickness which takes people to the doctor. Even more important, in the long run, is his work on the chemical hazards to health in our modern industrialized society. [1]
Randolph followed in the footsteps of other pioneers in medicine, like Florence Nightingale, when he sought and discovered the demonstrable cause of an illness in the patient's environment. Common foods were found to be the most frequent precipitating factor in these illnesses, Randolph taught, but the effects of food allergies were masked. It was the physician's job to unmask "nature's medical coverup" and to teach patients to avoid those foods that were responsible for their symptoms. This approach was in sharp contrast to the usual medical instruction.
Randolph's major legacy is the recognition of chemical sensitivity which studies now estimate to affect 16% of the U.S. population, with 3% in a severe form causing disability.
Randolph wrote four books and over 300 medical articles, many of which were about clinical ecology and environmental medicine: