http://www.care2.com/greenliving/outsmart-your-allergies.html
5 Surprising Allergy Triggers
By Karen Asp, Natural Solutions
Do you know what’s causing your runny nose and watery eyes? Hint: It’s not only the pollen count. These five surprising triggers could be making your sniffle season worse. Here’s how to outsmart them.
Every spring for as long as Julie Daly can remember, seasonal allergies would leave her with chronic sinus pain, postnasal drip, and debilitating headaches. For years, under an allergist’s guidance, she took prescription allergy medication, and while that helped ease some of her symptoms, her allergies never really went away–and the drug came with a host of not-so-pleasant side effects. Frustrated, Daly finally saw a naturopathic doctor and got some shocking news: Her love of sweets and her high-stress lifestyle had more of an effect on her symptoms than the daily pollen count. So Daly took her new doctor’s advice to heart: She cut out wheat and sugar, started running every other day, and took at least one yoga class a week–and it worked. “I couldn’t believe the results,” says the 37 year old. Sure it took a while, but for the first time in years Daly managed to get through allergy season without being completely miserable. “Now that I have my diet and stress levels under control,” she says, “I realize my allergy symptoms were telling me that things were out of balance in my body.”
Pollen and ragweed have been deemed the obvious suspects of allergies, but in fact, they are merely triggers in the allergy bomb; the real culprit is the immune system. “An allergy is essentially an exaggerated reaction of your immune system,” says Holly Lucille, ND, RN, a naturopathic doctor in Los Angeles, who says that anybody with a compromised immune system–even someone who’s never experienced symptoms before–can suffer from seasonal allergies.
How can something designed to protect you–your immune system–cause you so much grief? By being overworked, that’s how. If the immune system is on constant alert combating food allergies, stress, toxins in the environment, and even prescription medications, it begins to lose its ability to distinguish between dangerous invaders and relatively harmless things, such as pollen or dust.
“When your immune system is weak, it sees seasonal allergens as foreign bodies and launches an inflammatory response, releasing chemicals like histamine, to attack them,” says Daniel Monti, MD, director of the Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia and author of The Great Life Makeover (Collins Living, 2008). Histamines cause the sneezing, wheezing, and coughing you associate with allergies–the mechanisms the body uses to expel the allergens. The amount of histamine your body releases depends on how compromised your immune system is. For instance, if your immune system is in good shape, your body may handle allergens without you even knowing it, says Lucille. If it’s not, your body may release a flood of histamine, increasing the chance you’ll be downright miserable.
So how do you outsmart your allergies? Begin by figuring out which of these five stressors are throwing your immune system into overdrive.
Next: Your diet
More from Mel, selected from Natural Solutions magazine (133 articles available)
related stories
-
(3 comments)
-
(21 comments)
-
(1 comment)
Robyn
Melissa
Deepak
Eric
Dave
Dr. Brent
Isha
Susan
Delia
Michelle
Wendy
Megan
Hilary
Ann
Judi
Ronnie
Kelly
Lily
Terri
Betsy
Cait
Andrew
Jana
Annie B.
Veronica
26 comments
add your comment »I needed this
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Interesting article, thank you!
To all suffering from whatever type of allergy, please check out NAET acupuncture treatments. http://naet.com/
It is an amazing process that truly works! I'm now free & clear from pollen, food & cat allergies. I love it!
After 10 years without a cat in my life, a stray girl was in need of a home & I needed a buddy. Years ago, I lived with three long haired cats with no issue. Something had changed...
Two NAET treatments later, boom! Gone! Individual results can vary depending on your personal situation. Find a practitioner in your area and give it a go! Best of health to all! :-)
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
thank u advice noted
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
I would recommend Nutriferon over Airborne, because it is all natural and the only immunity supplement made by the discoverer of interferon.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
I love this article! I dramatically decreased my allergy symptoms using food and lifestyle changes and that's one of my favorite things to help my clients with. Teeth Whitening If you go to an allergist and they recomment getting rid of your dogs or cats, get rid of the doctor before you throw off your beloved pets (stress is terrible on the immune system) and opt for allergy testing.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
In response to this article, I would like to share some information about a new, drug free treatment for allergies called the DNA Allergy Relief Treatment.
If you look closely you’ll see that many of the ills, ailments and disease that make us old before our time are related to allergic reactions. Allergies can be eliminated. Anyone practicing energy-based allergy elimination techniques knows this.
An Allergy is a reaction to what your immune system considers a foreign substance even if it is not one. The substances that trigger an allergy are called allergens or antigens rather interchangeable. Allergens create low vibration interference patterns in your DNA which trigger immunoglobulin (Ig) to produce antibodies. The main immunoglobulins are the IgE inducing antigens (allergen) and the Ig G inducing antigens.
In some of us a normally harmless substance such as the ragweed pollen acts as an allergen-antigen. These allergens attach to allergenic sites on the pollen causing us to produce Ig E antibodies and eosinophils. This IS an ALLERGIC RESPONSE!
http://www.linkedin.com/in/drtededwardsdc
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Just the air we breathe anymore is full of strange things that can give us all kinds of allergies & germs. I like to use AIRBORNE to boost my immune system....I'd recommend it!
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Shaklee products have been keeping me healthy and allergy-free for over 41 years! If you are still in doubt, try any of them because they are all 100% guaranteed! The company is 53 years old. In all these years, they have refunded only one-third of one percent of their products! I call that a reliable track record!
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
I became a vegetarian for moral reasons and hoped to have more energy, lose weight and live longer. I didn't have more energy or lose weight. The big surprise was that my allergies improved about 95%. I was allergic to almost everything! I was allergic to sunshine! I was even allergic to something my own body produced and broke out in a rash. Smoke still gets to me, and some perfumes, but the rest are gone. This was a completely unexpected benefit of vegetarianism.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
I have a study that compares XanGO, Mona-Vie, Tahitian Noni and Shaklee's Vivix. If anyone is interested in seeing it, let me know: ekoeppe@care2.com
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Facebook account: