By Eric Marsden, BSc, ND

(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

Trackback URI | Comments RSS