3 Ways to Reduce Allergy Symptoms

Spring is finally here and with it comes allergy season! Have you been sneezing up a storm or hacking and coughing from the pressure? Time to get relief the natural way without the dry itch or drowsiness.

Allergies are caused by the over-response of your body's immune system to common things in your environment. If your body is reacting to multiple things at one time it can increase your immune response by ten fold, this means if you have more than one allergy you are seriously suffering from some allergy effects. So what can you do to reduce your symptoms?

Step #1: Determine what you're allergic to

Step #2 Find out where you're getting exposed to it.

Step #3 Reduce your exposure or reduce your allergy response.

#1 Determining what you're allergic to may be as simple as keeping a food diary or just looking at the seasonal calendar. Skin scratch tests can be unreliable and even give false positives whereas most blood testing will only tell you your allergy markers are elevated. If you truly need help with determining what you're allergic to, an lymphocyte reactive assay (LRA test) is the most effective because it will test your white blood cells (your immune responders) against different antigens to see if they react and how serious of a reaction your body has. We do perform this testing in my office, however insurance coverage varies depending on your plan so you may have to pay out of pocket for this test. The good news is that once you know what you're allergic to you can avoid it to facilitate healing and even getting rid of your allergy for good.

#2 can be quite tough especially if you have allergies from food additives and the change of season at the same time. The best thing to do is to start by reducing common food allergens (gluten from wheat and cow's milk) to reduce the amount of inflammation and mucus your body is producing. If you're not sure what you're allergic too it's time to start a food diary or tracking allergies with the calendar. Many allergens today are found with food chemicals and preservatives which are very hard to avoid today.

#3 If you know what you're allergic to then simply reduce your exposure or avoid the allergen in food as much as possible, however if there's no possible way to avoid it then you need to find another solution. Many over the counter medications cause drowsiness, painful dry itch in the sinus cavity, and possibly even cause serious side effects to you (including weakening your immune system and putting yourself at risk for further sickness). A natural option that can be very effective is a product I carry in my office called Aller-aid. This product works by stopping your body from having an allergy response in the first place which will reduce all the inflammatory chemicals rather than waiting for you to have an allergy response like with most over the counters.

If you need more help, call 689-6200 to schedule a consultation to discuss natural ways of beating your allergies!

Allergy Medicine May Be Making Your Allergies WORSE

Allergies affect approximately 60 million Americans every year which is roughly 1 in 5 people.

Allergies are an overreaction by the immune system to an allergen such as indoors/outdoors, food and drugs, latex or other skin allergies, and eye allergies. Many allergy sufferers tend to deal with their symptoms of stuffy nose, coughing, sneezing, eye itching, congestion, and even sinus headaches (YES sinus headaches can be a result of allergies!!!) until it becomes unbearable and they take an allergy medication or talk to their doctor about ways to help relieve their symptoms.

So how do these medicines work?

Anti-histamines: These work by waiting until your immune system reacts to an allergen and your mast cells release an inflammatory chemical called histamine. Histamine will bind to blood vessels in your body to allow them to enlarge and cause swelling but histamine is also responsible for allowing redness, itching, and even changes in mucus secretions that can lead to other symptoms such as congestion. Anti-histamines work by blocking histamine from being used in the body however they don't stop other inflammatory chemicals and can still leave you with symptoms of congestion, dry mucus linings, headaches, aching, and even drowsiness.

Decongestants: Decongestants work by shrinking swollen nasal tissues and blood vessels to reduce swelling, redness, mucus production, and slowing congestion. However decongestants do have some side effects like raising blood pressure and they can also cause irritability and difficulty sleeping.

Steroids aka Corticosteriods: These work by suppressing your immune system response to all allergies including seasonal, food, and other allergens. These medications can take one to two weeks to take effect and must be taken even when you don't have allergy symptoms to be effective. They also have many short and long term side effects including: cough, hoarseness, fungal infections of mouth, weight gain, fluid retention, high blood pressure, growth suppression, diabetes, cataracts, bone thinning or osteoporosis, and muscle weakness.

Bronchodilators: These are an inhaled medicine, usually a steriod with similar side effects to the above, that will act chemically to relax the muscles around the bronchiols in the lungs to open up airways when asthma symptoms are present. These are strong medications that can be overused to cause high blood pressure and a racing heart.

Mast Cell Stabilizers: These can be used to prevent mild to moderate allergy inflammation symptoms or before exercise to prevent some mild asthma symptoms. These medications can take up to a few weeks to see effects and like any medication will also have some side effects such as: throat irritation, skin rashes, bad taste, burning/stinging/blurred vision depending on where they are administered.

Since these medications just cover up symptoms rather than treating the immune system hyperactivity, in many cases your allergies may seem to get worse over time with more complications and the need for more or stronger medications to control your allergy symptoms. A better solution to allergies may exist in understanding why your body is over reacting to an allergen and how to take control of your allergy symptoms when they do occur.

Your immune system is designed to protect you from "foreign invaders" and potential pathogens that you may be exposed to over your lifetime. However in some cases our immune system is so overworked that it begins to attack things in our environment such as pollen that don't really fall in those categories. This can be a result of an immune system that is on high alert from chronic systemic inflammation from pain or chronic injury, medications, disease, or unknown food sensitivities.

So how can you take control without medications?

1) Reduce pain and get help for your chronic injury. This will reduce the amount of inflammation you have and will help to calm your immune system so you don't have severe of a response to seasonal allergens.

2) Research your medications and talk to your doctor. Many medications cause inflammation in the body so the more medications you are taking the higher the risk or interactions and inflammation in the body. I would research the medications you are currently taking and talk to your doctor about ways to reduce your medications or natural ways to treat the conditions rather than dealing with a host of side effects from the medication.

3) Take a natural supplement to support allergy symptoms. Aller-aid is a pharmaceutical grade nutrient that will stop mast cells from releasing inflammatory chemicals, reduce nasal and sinus congestion, support healthy mucus linings, and battle fungal infections that were found by Mayo Clinic to be responsible for chronic sinus congestion in 93% of cases. Click here for more info on Aller-aid or to purchase. Got kids? We've got a children's version that's SAFE FOR CHILDREN UNDER 6!

4) Test yourself or get tested for food allergies. When your body is constantly being bombarded by food allergies or sensitivity there will be systemic inflammation that will put the immune system on high alert plus when your gut is inflamed it will be harder to absorb nutrients your body needs to keep a strong immune system. In many cases I've seen food sensitivity cause so much inflammation that the intestinal lining is damaged and can leak out undigested food particles into the blood stream to cause FURTHER food sensitivites and increased allergy response overall. It has been estimated by experts that when you decreased your exposure to food sensitivities your allergy response will reduce by 10x!!!!

To start, I'd recommend cutting out the two most common allergens I see in my office: cow's milk and gluten. If you can cut these out for a minimum of 2-4 weeks you may see a huge decrease in your allergy symptoms. For the gold standard of testing and quick results, an LRA blood test will be your best option, this test allows the lab to test your white blood cells specifically to see how they react to many allergens. In my office I test for response to 144 different allergens including food, mold, chemicals, and food additives and dyes.

Want more information? Call 309-689-6200 to setup an appointment or phone consultation to discuss ways to reduce your allergy symptoms naturally.