If you have a fever, aching muscles, fatigue, dry cough, and chest pain, you’ve contracted an influenza virus. A stuffy or runny nose, and a sore throat? You’ve come down with a closely-related virus that causes the common cold.

In Canada, cold and ‘flu season generally runs from late September to April, depending on the temperature and climate in your particular area. Every year the viruses are a little different, but they are no less debilitating or life-threatening. According to Health Canada, between 500 and 1,500 deaths are reported each year due to influenza.

So what causes this increase in cold and ‘flu cases?

Marsden compares winter in Canada to traveling in a jetliner, with its dry, germ-laden, recycled air, for about six months. As the mercury in our thermometers dips, we keep our doors and windows closed, forcing us to breathe recycled air…ideal breeding conditions for cold and ‘flu bugs. Then, we turn on our furnaces, which blow warm, dry air that sucks the humidity from our homes and dries us out, leaving us even more susceptible to cold and ‘flu viruses.

Keep Mucous Membranes Moist

That’s because, according to Marsden, Medical Director for Pascoe Canada, when moist mucous membranes dry out, they shrink and lose their protective qualities. One way to combat this – in your home and, for that matter, when you fly – is to use a saline nasal spray that contains vitamin C. The nasal spray helps protect your mucous membranes and helps prevent them from drying out. Similarly, keeping rooms humidified will help to keep mucous membranes moist; this is particularly important for bedrooms.

As with most diseases, the best line of defence is, without a doubt, prevention. Keeping your immune system healthy and strong will go a long way toward helping you avoid colds and the ‘flu.

As counter-intuitive as it may seem, Marsden noted, just because you never suffer through a cold or the ‘flu does not mean that you have a healthy immune system. “In fact,” he said, “my healthiest client is the one that comes in and says ‘I caught a cold last winter; I had a sore throat and a mild fever and felt better in a day or two’.” This means that they were exposed to a virus, their immune system kicked in as it should and they recovered. Your immune system needs some exercise occasionally in order to remain strong.

Ensure Your Immune System Stays in Working Order

While an underactive or weak immune system can result in an inadequate response to an infection and more frequent and lengthier illnesses, the combination of an infection and an overactive immune system can result in symptoms that are more severe.

To help regulate your immune system – either to strengthen a weakened immune system, control overactivity or just to maintain it in good working order – it’s best to mix a well-balanced diet, filled with fruits and vegetables, with some bioregulatory homeopathics. Marsden recommends homeopathic remedies that incorporate Echinacea, Bryonia, Baptisia, Sanguinaria and Silicea for strengthening, regulating and maintaining immune systems.

“And,” Marsden said, with a bit of a laugh, “don’t forget what your mom used to tell you – wash your hands frequently if you want to stave off cold and ‘flu bugs. And remember to steer clear of antibacterial soaps; they kill off good microbes along with bad ones”

Eric Marsden, BSc, ND, is a Naturopathic Doctor practicing in Richmond Hill, Ontario, and Medical Director for Pascoe Canada. He can be reached at thedoc@pascoecanada.com.

Credit: www.newscanada.com

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(NC)-One of the more common ailments this time of year is allergies. Just as people are adjusting to the plants of early summer, August brings changes in vegetation that cause a new wave of itchy, watery eyes, runny noses and head-rattling sneezes.

Many patients – and many medical professionals – focus their treatments on relieving the symptoms without tackling their underlying causes. Naturopathic therapies, however, address both and can help reduce the suffering of allergy sufferers in any season.

Nine times out of 10, allergies have their genesis in the intestinal tract. Together, the gut and our airways comprise between 60 and 80 percent of our body’s immune system. That’s why naturopathic therapies for allergies – and immune irregularities – begin by bolstering the health of the intestinal tract.

We know that when there is inflammatory or allergic-type reactivity in the intestinal tract most often there also is an immune reaction that can sensitize other mucous membranes and trigger allergic reactions elsewhere in the body. Accordingly, one of the naturopathic therapies for people with allergies is to reduce the consumption of foods which might be triggering allergic reactions.

Allergy sufferers can use a food diary combined with an elimination diet to determine which foods are causing their symptoms. Among the foods that most commonly contribute to allergies are dairy, onions, garlic, soy, gluten containing grains -such as barley, rye, oat, wheat, spelt and kamut, citrus fruits – especially oranges and grapefruit – melons and kiwis. Not every person will be allergic to all these foods; some are sensitive to none.

Start your elimination diet by cutting suspect foods from your diet. Begin to reintroduce them one by one after two to three weeks. Record in your food diary whether your symptoms are relieved as you drop these foods from your diet and which cause a reaction when reintroduced.

In addition to determining which foods you might be sensitive to, there are other easy methods to reduce the symptoms of many allergies. In your home you may find relief in washing your sheets frequently in hot water, replacing your air filters frequently, vacuuming carpets often or removing them entirely and investing in a good air cleaner. You can take similar actions in your office.

Between eight and nine out of 10 of my patients have seen a 90% reduction in allergic reactions – and some have entirely eliminated the risk of anaphylactic reactions – by making changes to their diets, repairing the mucous membranes in their bowels, and by using an allergic desensitizing therapy.

Homeopathics and botanicals can help reduce the inflammation in mucous membranes and rebuild them. There are literally thousands of such substances that have been shown to help, but probably the most commonly known are probiotics or good bacteria.

There are a large number of products on grocery and pharmacy shelves that promise to help reduce bad bacteria and promote the production of probiotics; generally, however, there are not enough organisms in these products to provide any real benefit. You need between four and eight billion organisms if you are to receive any real benefit from the products.

Microorganisms are terrain dependent. Therefore, if you change your diet and heal your mucous membranes using natural botanicals – such as licorice root, slippery elm and marshmallow root – you won’t need to take probiotics in massive doses over an extended period. Rather, you can use them as a temporary measure… to kick-start the healing process.

In addition, you can desensitize yourself to allergic reactions using homeopathic medicines. A number of controlled studies have proven that homeopathic medicines containing a combination of gelsemium, acidum, fornicum and aluminum are at least as effective as commercial antihistamines at reducing allergy symptoms, especially seasonal allergies, but without the side effects associated with commercial antihistamines, such as drowsiness. Remedies containing this blend of substances can be found in many naturopathic pharmacies and health food stores. For best results using these types of remedies it is always advisable you seek the advice of a naturopathic doctor.

And, as with many other disorders, which often are the body’s reaction to its environment, reducing your stress levels can help to reduce your allergic symptoms. Attending to the nervous system also can help to reduce allergic reactions. The study of how one’s mental state interacts with the nervous and immune systems is known as psychoneuroimmunology. Researchers have observed that as people become more stressed and the nervous system becomes more irritated, histamines are released. There are any number of homeopathic and botanical remedies that can help you to reduce stress and, as a consequence, reduce the severity and period of allergic symptoms.

Finally, working to make our environment – air, land and water – cleaner would benefit not only allergy and asthma sufferers but the rest of us, as well.

Eric Marsden, BSc, ND, is a Naturopathic Doctor practicing in Richmond Hill, Ontario, and Medical Director for Pascoe Canada. He can be reached at thedoc@pascoecanada.com.

Credit: www.newscanada.com

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