Welcome all to the vibrant summer season when the birds are ‘busy’ and the colours are shining bright.
This season can also bring challenges for some of us, these challenges vary from asthma through to hay fever. It may be a time when you or someone you know may get those irritating symptoms of itchy eyes, itchy throat, streaming nose, constant sneezing, sore throat and not to mention the irritability that comes with such debilitating symptoms.The pollen triggered asthma (called hay fever asthma) can vary according to one’s constitution, for example it can be dry and wheezy or wet and wheezy and so on. But all in all hay fever symptoms can be pretty ‘over whelming’.
Why would anyone become ‘allergic’ to their own environment? After all, pollen is natural, something that our ancestors were exposed to and they did not have such allergies. What changed? What is different now?
Well… we most definitely have more toxins in our environment, more of us have been exposed to antibiotics and various sorts of pain killers and vaccinations that our immune systems have been ‘supressed’. Toxins can also come in the form of ‘emotions’ such as grief and/or guilt or even shock etc. Hay fever is only one of the symptoms of a ‘suppressed’ immune system.
The immune system then starts to ‘malfunction’, so rather than keeping our bodies safe from the actual ‘real’ invaders. The immune system starts to perceive our natural environmental pollen to be the ‘enemy’. So it starts to disrupt the physiological balance within the body and increases the production of chemicals such as histamine, adrenaline, IgE, inflammatory cytokines etc (which result in all these hay fever symptoms). Traditional ‘hay fever’ medications work by ‘blocking’ the action of these chemicals, now this is great for initial relief but what about the next years when these medications no longer work as the body becomes ‘immune/tolerant’ to the medication? I have seen patients ‘over dose’ on their steroid containing nasal sprays or asthma inhalers in the attempt to get some relief! It’s not a pretty site.
So why not address the underlying actual cause of the ‘malfunctioning’ immune system?
There is plenty of research showing various natural supplements that help re-address the immune system imbalance. These natural supplements include omega oils, probiotics, vitamin C, quercitin, bioflavonoids and other anti-oxidants. It is also beneficial to support the adrenals and digestive system which can also be ‘out of balance’ in hay fever ‘sufferers’. Some people even benefit from cutting out dairy and wheat at this time of the year.
This is all good and helpful especially as we can spare our body from further toxins that come in the form of ‘Western medication’. Now please don’t get me wrong, I totally believe these medications have a place and purpose, gosh if I had hay fever and did not know about homeopathy, nutrition and/or homotoxicology, I would be imbibing in these anti-histamines and steroids! But hay fever can be addressed naturally, it may take a few years to completely clear in some cases but one can completely resolve it rather than live with it for the rest of their life.
I just want to share a recent ‘hay fever’ case just to convey how natural medicine can work without the use of anti-histamines and/or steroids.
In early February, I saw a 10 year old vibrant friendly boy for hay fever. His hay fever started when he was 6 years of age and lasts from end of february all the way through to September. He gets the usual, sneezing attacks, itchy and streaming eyes that also ‘puff up’, runny nose and copious phlegm in the throat. He becomes unhappy and irritable basically for the whole of the spring and most of the summer season. When the hay fever first started the anti-histamines were effective and slowly he also started to use the nasal steroid spray over the years as the symptoms were getting more intense and less manageable with the anti-histamines alone.
Going through his history and health profile questionnaire it was evident that his nutritional intake was lacking in various nutrients including the all important protein food group. He had also been on various antibiotics in the past for several infections as well as the numerous anti-histamines and nasal steroid sprays for the hay fever. Following this session he was prescribed a homeopathic detox (due to the history of numerous medications) with a few other remedies. Along side this he was advised to increase his protein intake as well as his salad and vegetables.
He came for a review session at the end of March with no hay fever symptoms at all. He had finished all his remedies by mid March and his mother was expecting the hay fever to kick in once the remedies ‘ran out’. I explained that the remedies had ‘re-balanced’ his immune system as well other ‘imbalances’ and there was no need to keep on taking remedies like one does with standard medication simply as we are not alleviating symptoms but addressing the ‘root’ cause. Within 4 weeks this young boys life changed, he can now continue to play his out door sports to his full potential.
To great health!