Monthly Boost August 2006

This month I have been compelled to share some of my ‘wisdom’ on the increasing incidence of ‘allergies’. According to the UK media the incidence of ‘allergies’ has sky rocketed over the last few years with more people being admitted to hospital due to allergic reactions. Hospitals and clinics have been over whelmed by the number of patients attending for treatment for their allergies this July just gone. And it is predicted that these ‘allergies’ are to only get worse over the years.

‘Allergies’ may start off as hay fever, or a little skin rash, to mild swelling of the face or body…moving onto breathing difficulties, intense indescribable itching that can lead to ‘pus’ filled welts…sounds quite horrendous..don’t you think? And these are just a few of the so-called ‘allergy’ type symptoms.

Nowadays, I see all sorts of reactions in clinic which can be considered allergic reactions. You may have noticed that each time I mention allergy (ies) it is in inverted commas, this is just to emphasise that there are different types of ‘allergies’. If they trigger an IgE immune reaction they are tend to be known as ‘allergies’ and if they trigger what we call an IgG reaction they are called ‘intolerances’. As a practitioner of natural medicine I am seeing an increase in both the allergies and intolerances, for example more children are being born with allergies, such as to milk or eggs or nuts etc than even 10 years ago let alone a century ago.

To keep this e-letter simple I am going to call intolerances and allergies as general ‘allergies’ but please note they have different stimulatory pathways.

We need to ask a few questions before moving any further:

1. What are these ‘allergies’ in basic terms?
2. What are the symptoms of ‘allergies’?
3. Why do they occur?
4. How are these allergies ‘treated’ traditionally and naturally?
5. Why are some people allergic and others not?
6. Why are they on the increase?
7. Can we prevent them?

Some of these questions will be addressed in this month’s e-letter and the remaining I will cover in September’s Monthly Boost.

What are these ‘allergies’ in basic terms?
Keeping it simple, an ‘allergic’ reaction be it the IgE or IgG type basically means the body’s immune system recognises the specific substance (such as pollen) as foreign to the body. So the body sets up a reaction to defeat this intruder and wipe it out. This is all good if the intruder is a virus or a toxic metal such as mercury, but when its part of our every day life it is rather a nuisance, especially when it is a food that we enjoy or a season we love such as spring or summer.

What are the symptoms?
These can vary across the board from; runny nose, mucus in the throat, constant ear infections, eczema, indigestion, hay fever, headaches, sinusitis, water retention, low blood sugar, fatigue, arthritis and the other extreme on the symptom range is the well known allergic reaction known as anaphylactic shock whereby the body can totally shut down and even lead to death if the appropriate measures are not taken, such as adrenaline injection and/or emergency room aid in hospital

Why do they occur?
They occur because the immune system becomes slightly skewed in other words it becomes out of balance. I am keeping this explanation as simple as possible, as I remember when I did my Masters and one of our core modules was in Immunology and every single student left totally baffled and wanted to avoid any career that involved delving into the immune system….and what do I end up doing a PhD in cancer where the immune system if anything was extremely important to study and master!...

But generally there are a whole host of immune cells which have different functions, all the way from the suppressor cells which tend to switch off or dampen immune activity, to the helper cells which help other immune cells do their job by either stimulating them or supporting them and so on…there are so many different types that this Monthly Boost is not the place go into the details. These cells communicate mainly by releasing chemicals that regulate the other cells of the immune system.

In ‘allergic’ individuals, somewhere there is a communication break-down between these different types of cells and we all know that communication break-down can be the start of many disastrous endings if not addressed at the CORE! Such miss-communication can result in various cells being hyper-active and others under-active..just imagine traffic without functioning traffic lights. In such a case the immune cells start to attack or defeat foreign material in an overly-aggressive manner, such as the hay fever reaction to pollen, or the reaction to dust, certain foods, cosmetic products and of course the anaphylactic reaction etc.

The lack of communication between the immune system occurs due to various reasons (more of this in September).

How are these allergies ‘treated’ traditionally and naturally?
In traditional medicine the ‘treatment’ is to inhibit or regulate the mediators that create this ‘skewed reaction’. For example, anti-histamine drugs basically break down histamine, or prevent the release of histamine in the first place, steroids can act as anti-inflammatories or immuno-suppressants depending on which one we are referring to, but all in all they only temporarily modify the behaviour of the immune system requiring higher and higher doses to achieve the same effect as time passes.

In so-called true complementary medicine, the factors causing the miss-communication are addressed, in other words the CORE of the lack of clear communication is dealt with, so we are NOT prescribing natural immune modulators such as Vitamin C , essential fatty acids, selenium, zinc, echinacea etc. If we are, then we are continue to manage the ‘allergy’ and not addressing the root cause, this is called practising allopathic medicine with natural supplements which I do not embrace as a long-term treatment. …more to be revealed in September.

Can I just emphasise here that the word ‘treated’ is truly over-used and over-used incorrectly. Treated basically means to cure. Now either I have a few ‘screws lose’ as they say or we are being brain-washed, because being prescribed anti-histamines, or steroid medications, or medications that modify the immune system DO NOT treat, they only eradicate or suppress the symptoms of the allergy..making sense so far? In other words, if the medication prescribed ‘treated’ the ‘allergy’ then once the medication is stopped there should be NO ‘allergy’. In my experience and the experience of many others this is not the case, so to say the medication ‘treats’ allergies is rather unacceptable.

On more politically correct terms we can say that the ‘allergy’ is being MANAGED by the medication. But what about the long-term health of the individual? Again from clinical experience such ‘managed’ cases end up on either higher doses of the medication or on a stronger medication as time goes by. Why? Because the root cause is just getting entrenched deeper and deeper in our system creating a stronger and stronger reaction which can also result in an increase in the number of symptoms experienced.

However, the root cause of such allergies can be addressed using naturopathic medicine, this would include nutritional/herbal/homeopathic intervention but nonetheless the root cause HAS to be addressed.

In September’s Monthly Boost I will reveal some of the causes of such ‘allergies’, but just to wet your appetite, you can be exposed to these causes before your very conception, yes before you were even a ‘sparkle in your parent’s eyes’.

To a healthy communicative immune system!

Khush Mark