Even though allergies may be worse this year, they are not something that you have to live and suffer with for the rest of your life. Nor do you have to take drugs or get shots for the rest of your life just to get a modicum of relief. In fact, it is possible to eliminate your body’s allergic response in a short period of time.
I’ll explain all of this, but first, let’s look at what an allergy really is from a functional medicine point of view.
What Is An Allergy?
An allergy is a heightened sensitivity to a foreign substance, like pollen or foods, that causes the body’s defense system (the immune system) to overreact when defending itself.
Normally, the immune system would only react if a harmful substance, such as bacteria or virus, is detected in the body. For people with allergies, their immune system misidentifies pollen, or shellfish, for example, as a bacteria or a virus, which it thinks must be destroyed. However, what really gets destroyed is the immune system’s own marker cell (mast cell) that has attached to the pollen or shellfish.
When mast cells are destroyed, their stores of histamine and other allergy mediators are released into the surrounding tissues and blood. Too much histamine can cause your airways to constrict, like with asthma, or cause blood vessels to become more permeable, leading to fluid leakage or hives.
So, allergic reactions occur because the immune system mistakenly identifies something, which is actually harmless, as a bacteria or virus. It acts on this misinformation, which results in it killing off its own messenger cells that release a powerful cocktail of histamine, and other cell messenger substances into the blood stream as they die. This large volume of histamine then produces a runny nose, itching eyes, hives, asthma or what we call an allergic reaction.
Allergies Eliminated Using NeuroModulation Technique (NMT)
In order to eliminate what causes allergic reactions, it would make sense to correct the error or misinformation in the immune system’s programming that causes it to see pollen as a bacteria or a virus. Making such a programming change would eliminate allergic reactions and all the annoying, and sometimes life threatening, symptoms they produce.
Like a computer programmer corrects “glitches” in computer code, NeuroModulation Technique (NMT) corrects faults in the body’s Autonomic Control System (ACS), and thereby restores the body’s innate capacity to see pollen as harmless to the human body.
I have been using NMT in my practice for over 10 years, and have found it very effective in treating fall allergies. Once the informational confusion is cleared up, the immune system no longer sees the pollen or the particular food as harmful.
You can watch an NMT session by going to this website: http://www.nmt.md/Video/
Please feel free to call me if you would like to chat about your particular situation and the use of NMT at 301-613-4449.
Additionally, acupuncture can be useful in eliminating allergies; however, it is my experience that NMT is much more direct and requires much less time to accomplish the desired result. If one tends to have a challenged immune system, it could be very useful to follow-up your NMT allergy elimination treatments with acupuncture and herbs to boost and maintain a high functioning immune system.
Home Interventions For Allergy Suffers
While I have never seen fall allergy sufferers eliminate their allergies altogether by changing their diet or doing any of the suggestions listed below, these ideas may contribute to reducing the severity of allergy symptoms and make you a little more comfortable.
Avoid these foods:
- Ragweed sufferers should avoid these foods: melons, bananas, tomatoes, zucchini, sunflower seeds, dandelions, chamomile, and Echinacea.
- Why? Your immune system confuses the protein molecule in these foods with the pollen molecule, which is molecularly similar.
Eat these foods:
- Omega-3 fatty acids: People who have diets rich in omega-3 fatty acids suffer from fewer allergy symptoms.
- Probiotics: People who take probiotics throughout allergy season are found to have lower levels of an antibody that triggered allergy symptoms.
- Take Vitamin D: Vitamin D reduces the allergic response to ragweed and mold.
- Locally Produced Honey: Many believe that consuming locally produced honey, which contains pollen spores picked up by the bees from your local plants, can act as a natural “allergy vaccine.” By introducing a small amount of allergen into your system (from eating the honey), your immune system is activated, and over time, can build up your natural immunity against it.
- Quercetin: Quercetin prevents histamine release and thus is a “natural antihistamine.” Quercetin can be found in tablet form or in these quercetin-rich foods: apples, berries, red grapes, red onions, capers and black tea.
- Stinging nettles: Stinging nettles inhibit the body’s ability to produce histamines. Follow the dosing directions on the bottle.
Hopefully, I have given you a number of ideas to try that you might not have known about. It is always best to employ natural measures before harsh drugs, and fortunately, NMT allergy treatments work quite well.
Source material: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/08/24/allergy-season-hits-us-with-a-vengeance.aspx?e_cid=20110824_DNL_art_1
