Published April 19, 2003 in the North
Island Weekender
Once
again allergy season is upon us and we are inundated with advertisements for
over the counter remedies to treat symptoms of allergies, runny itchy eyes and
nose, sneezing, wheezing and just feeling crummy! This may go on for only a few
days in some and for weeks in others, depending on what is blooming. This is
also the month where we observe Earth Day, Parkinson’s Disease and Cancer
Awareness. How can all of these diverse topics relate? Chemicals in our
environment can affect all and by being more aware of how they get there and
what we can do about it, will decrease their risk to our health.
Many
folks blame the pollens and grasses for their allergic symptoms however we know
that the body can only take so many stresses before it starts to complain. Allergy
symptoms may just be the tip of the iceberg of underlying causes such as food
allergies and toxins in the body.
Karen,
age 30, gets severe allergies every spring that last for two months. She needs
to take over the counter antihistamines to get through and she came to me
because this year her symptoms were worse than ever and the medication made her
tired so she wanted to know if there was an alternative. She is a business
woman on a very tight time budget so I had to come up with a plan that was going
to work well and not add more to her already stressed lifestyle.
The
first thing I do in all of these cases is help people get off wheat and dairy.
First of all they are overwhelmed with “What else is there to eat?” Then they
take the information I give them and they discover that alternate foods are
quite easy to come by, taste good and they start losing weight and feeling
better too! I explained to Karen that when the overall stress in her body is
lowered by avoiding these common food allergens, she has more reserve to tackle
the allergy problem.
I
also suggest natural anti-histamines such as vitamin C and quercitin in
therapeutic doses to ease her symptoms and other remedies such as homeopathic
combinations, essential fatty acids, Pollinosan tablets and astragalus.
Another
way to ease the stress on the body is to give the liver a break by avoiding
foods laden with chemicals, hormones, pesticides and give it herbs to help it
rejuvenate. Spring is a favorite time for folks to consider “cleansing” programs
but a lot of people don’t know what these are. I put Karen on a simple 14 day
program which gave her elimination organs (kidney, skin, lungs, bowel and
liver) extra support in order that her body could detoxify more effectively. A
common question asked is “Why would I want to detoxify if I don’t drink
alcohol?” What we are speaking of here is an “oil change” for the body. If we
give these organs the tools they need to optimize their elimination functions,
then the rest of the body, including the sinuses, functions better as
well.Those who do regular cleansing programs every 3-4 months find that they
don’t get the allergy symptoms as much, nor do they get the yearly colds and
flus.
Where
do these chemicals come from? Aside from the air, chemicals such as pesticides
and hormones are used to raise animal and plant foods. Chemicals are found in
cleaning products, plastics of all types and clothing. They are everywhere, so
the trick is to support the body as much as possible so that the liver can
detoxify these agents efficiently. If there are not adequate nutrients in the
body, these detoxifying processes cannot occur completely and they are left to
store in the body causing future health problems ie Parkinson’s Disease and
cancer.
Karen
asked me if I could help her 7-year old son who has asthma. I assured that I
could, using a lot of the same information I had already given her as asthma is
very much affected by the internal and external environment of the body. When
Karen chose to switch to organic sources of foods she not only increased the
vitamins and minerals her body needed for detoxification and allergy control,
she also helped to decrease the use of chemicals on planet earth. She felt
better right away on the cleansing program and her allergy symptoms were easily
controlled with the above remedies. Next year she hopes to have no allergy
symptoms at all!
Next
time you find yourself going to the pharmacy to pick up yet another new
anti-histamine to treat your allergies ask yourself what else might be causing
your symptoms. Try taking vitamin C every hour and seeing if that will work. If
it doesn’t you need to dig deeper, but you will find that if you treat your
allergies as above, you also treat your weight gain, your heartburn, your
memory, and your energy problems as you can’t separate your nose from the rest
of you!
Happy Spring!
Dr. Pincott has been practicing naturopathic medicine since 1985 and is currently practicing in Campbell River. She can be reached at (250) 286-3655 or www.DrPincott.com