Freedom

From Allergies

1. What Allergy Will Cause Your Eyes To Itch?

2. What Mysterious Symptom May Be Caused By Allergies?

3. Bedwetting In Children Can Be Caused By What Allergy?

4. What Are The 7 Most Common Food Allergies?

5. What Is The Most Important Step In Food Allergy Recovery?

To Learn The Answers And More,

Look Inside….

TOPIC: ALLERGY FREE

Chronic pill-popping is one of the hallmarks of our age. However, medication doesn’t cure. At best, it treats symptoms by masking them. This is akin to covering a flashing oil light in your car. The red light goes away, but the problem remains.

“The only way you are going to get happy is to call up Mother Nature. Without her, you will cure nothing, heal nothing, solve nothing.”

Adapted from Keith Scott-Mumby, MD, PhD, Diet Wise

Answers To Questions On The Cover

1. Pollen allergies will cause the eyes to itch, but if an eye only itches on the inside corner, it may be a food allergy.

2. Allergies are implicated in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (just gaining traction in the medical community).

3. Milk allergy can be responsible for bedwetting.

4. All allergic people should be tested for sensitivities to wheat, yeast, corn, soy, eggs, milk, and sugar.

5. Proper digestion is key in recovering from food sensitivities. Krohn, et al, suggest that understanding the digestive system can inform healthy food choices.

Freedom From Allergies

According to the American College of Allergies, Asthma, and Immunology, allergies are a major cause of illness in the United States. They report that as many as 50 million people have allergic rhinitis (“hay fever” symptoms).

This means that about one in five persons has an inhalant allergy. This number doesn’t include those suffering from food and chemical sensitivities. In fact, it may be that allergic reactions are the most frequently unrecognized cause of illness in the country.

Further, this is only one of three types of allergies. Besides inhalant allergies, foods and chemicals are also reactants. The weakening effect of any allergy leaves us vulnerable to developing others.

Allergic Responses

There is a wide range of individual allergic responses. It extends from those unaware of their allergies to those viewing their allergies as a nuisance to those who are laid low by them.¹

Every year hay fever attacks are responsible for over 10 million doctors’ office visits, 28 million days of restricted activity, 10 million missed workdays, and 2 million missed school days.

Commonly the word allergy implies an immune system involvement, resulting in a response to a skin patch test. However

…because people have reactions to substances that don’t show on tests, we will use allergy throughout to also name intolerances, sensitivities, etc.

Allergic Responses: Footnote 1

Anaphylactic allergies are those that are life-threatening. These are the allergies for which an injection of epinephrine is needed to sustain life against an attack. Familiar allergens include bee stings, shellfish, and peanuts.

We do not cover anaphylaxis in this issue. Check the Mayo Clinic website.

Sorting Out Symptoms

Jacqueline Krohn, MD, et al², defines 5 clinical profiles of allergic individuals, including those with overlapping allergies.

1. People who have inhalant allergies are affected in the presence of the reactant: pollen, mold spores, dust mites, cat and dog dander, etc.³

2. Those whose main complaint is food allergies have varying reactions to foods to which they are sensitive.

3. Those who have chemical reactions find they suffer from exposure to various chemicals, including perfume, fabric softener, tobacco smoke, etc. These people may not be sensitive to either inhalants or foods.

4. Those who react to all three: inhalant, food, and chemical allergens. Krohn, et al, comment, “There are infinite numbers of allergy combinations, varying in severity, and from person to person”.

5. Those with severe allergic reactions whose health is further undermined by other health conditions. These individuals are considered to be “universal reactors”. They are often referred to as being environmentally ill.

In the past, individuals in the final two categories found it difficult to find treatment, much less understanding, and were frequently accused of being hypochondriacs. If you find your self in this situation, I strongly advise you to begin by referring to the resources section the Krohn book.

Although every system of the body is affected in an allergic reaction, the immune system takes the brunt of the attack. In a way, recovering one’s health from any and all allergic conditions is fundamentally the challenge of restoring the immune system to health. Because other systems of the body may be affected, symptoms are all inclusive.

Head: Migraine and other vascular headaches, faintness, dizziness, feeling of fullness, excessive drowsiness soon after eating, sleep disorders, facial swelling.

Eyes, ears, nose, throat: Runny or stuffy nose, postnasal drip, recurrent sinusitis; watery or burning eyes, dry eyes, iritis, blurring of vision, puffiness or dark circles under the eyes; ringing or buzzing of the ears, earache, chronic ear infections; sore throat, hoarseness, chronic cough, gagging, dry mouth.

Heart and lungs: Asthma, allergic bronchitis, palpitations, arrhythmia, rapid heart rate, congestion in the chest, cough with mucus production after exercise.

Gastrointestinal: Heartburn, indigestion, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, bloating after meals, belching, irritable bowel syndrome, colitis, flatulence, feeling of fullness long after finishing meals.

Skin: Hives, rashes, eczema, dermatitis, facial pallor, dry skin, brittle hair and nails, an urge to touch face or pick at blemishes.

Musculoskeletal: Muscle aches and pains, arthritis.

Other symptoms: Fever and flu symptoms, inability to lose weight, obesity, chronic fatigue, weakness, water retention, insatiable hunger, binge eating, PMS, epilepsy associated with migraine.

All of these symptoms involve stress, and stress involves the adrenal glands. Using techniques that reduce stress can help the adrenals as well as lessening your allergy symptoms.

These include healthy eating, sufficient water, sleep, and exercise, and meditation. Alan Christianson’s The Adrenal Reset Book can be of great help with this problem.

Allergies can also produce psychological symptoms, including mental fatigue, hyperactivity, anxiety, panic attacks, depression, crying jags, aggressive behavior, irritability, listlessness, confusion, slurred speech, stuttering, inability to concentrate, indifference, poor work habits, learning disabilities, and even suicidal ideation.

The symptoms listed here can indicate problems other than allergies. However, perhaps the best approach in dealing with these symptoms is to take the advice Marshall Mandell, MD, gave for sick children back in 1979: “Rule out allergy first.”

Allergic Symptoms: Footnotes 2 & 3

2 Along with her colleagues, Frances Taylor, MA, and Erla Mae Larson, RN, Jacqueline Krohn, MD, published Allergy Relief & Prevention: A Practical Encyclopedia (A Doctor’s Complete Guide to Treatment & Self-Care).

This 500 pp book is called the “allergy bible”. The Third Edition was published in 2000. Cross-referencing reveals that (except for supplement amounts) Krohn, et al, remains ahead of its time.

Krohn and Taylor also authored Natural Detoxification and Finding the Right Treatment.

3   If you suffer from hay fever, you may want to investigate this website which issues “Allergy Alerts”: http://www.pollen.com/faq.asp

The 3 Allergy Groups

We begin this section with chemical allergies. These allergies are so pernicious that, of the three categories, they truly wreak havoc with the immune system, inviting further breakdowns. Next, we discuss inhalant allergies; and lastly, food allergies.

Chemical Allergies

Instigated by manmade substances such as bleaches, paints, pesticides, fragrances, printing pigments, latex, and chlorinated drinking water, these allergic people can become universal reactors. One key to their affliction is that they always feel “under the weather.”

The late Theron Randolph is the visionary physician who discovered chemical allergy, also called environmental allergy.

Randolph established that petrochemicals can accumulate in our fatty tissues, eventually causing a toxic overload in the body. This initiates major symptoms of allergy. Importantly, such a chemical reaction can be the culprit in the development of hypersensitivity to everything else.

By healing his own environmental illness, Stephen Levine, PhD, founder of Allergy Research Group, established the role of antioxidant supplements in dealing with toxins.

Chemical exposures set off massive free radical reactions in the body. This results in abnormal metabolism, altered protein synthesis, mutations, production of auto-immune antibodies (such as those found in arthritis), and chronic inflammation.

The immune response is curtailed, subjecting the victims to the symptoms we discuss, and escalating vulnerability to disease of all kinds.

Obviously, living in pollution and working with chemicals demands antioxidant protection, but so does just ordinary life. Most of us are living in a kind of chemical sea.

The right supplement program can reinforce the body against chemical assault and help to keep the immune response intact at the same time. (See program under “Supplement Your Health”.)

Inhalant Allergies

Runny, itchy nose and eyes, sneezing or coughing attacks, and sometimes itchy skin and sore or irritated throat are the typical hay fever reactions. Frontal headaches, loss of appetite, nausea, asthmatic symptoms, and insomnia can also occur.

The symptoms are the result of inhaling pollens, airborne fungi, mold, dust, dust mites, dog and cat dander.⁴ They are familiar to all of us and have long been recognized as part of a medical problem.

Allergy shots (immunotherapy) are available to qualifying persons. Such individuals must have symptoms for more than 3 months of the year and/or cannot use prescription allergy drugs.

The shots work 85% of the time for allergies to bee venom, pollen, dust mites, mold, and pet dander.

The shots are not a cure. Regular injections get your body “used to” the allergen so that the reactions are less frequent and less severe.

The shots must be delivered regularly or one becomes more sensitized. The therapy may last 3-5 years, sometimes longer. After each shot, you must remain at the doctor’s for 30 minutes to be sure that no hay fever symptoms occur.

Probably the great majority of sufferers use OTC drugs: antihistamines, nose sprays, and eye drops. All of these have a rebound effect: the more you use them, the more you need them. Plus, they merely serve to mask your symptoms.

As with the other types of allergies discussed here, cleaning up one’s internal environment with right diet and supplements, plus a healthy lifestyle are the first steps toward getting well.

I have witnessed a number of people find relief using homeopathic and herbal remedies. These can help you through acute attacks without side effects.

The natural remedies work to reinforce and stimulate the body’s own defenses, building your resistance to further attacks.

There are literally dozens of herbal and homeopathic products formulated to ease the symptoms of allergic rhinitis. Ask about them in the natural products store.

Inhalant Allergies: Footnote 4

4  According to Krohn, et al, we breathe in 2T of inhalants daily! Only some of us are allergic to this intake.

Food Allergies

In general, food allergies are best treated through improved digestion, rotation diet, and elimination of the offending food.

With the increasing trend toward gluten-free eating, most have heard stories of quick weight loss just from the cessation of eating wheat.

Wheat is always on The Big 7 Most Suspect Foods List as are the other six: corn, soy, milk, eggs, yeast, and sugar.

Here is the second string: beef, tomatoes, green beans, apples, oats, coffee, potatoes, chicken, chocolate, pork, lettuce, oranges, carrots, and peanuts.

Orthodox allergists recommend a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover challenge to ascertain food allergies.

With this type of testing, neither the patient nor the physician knows if the food or a placebo is being administered.

A brochure endorsed by the American Academy of Allergy and Immunology states, “This helps ensure that any reaction is truly a physical reaction, rather than a result of the patient or physician anticipating a reaction.”

The brochure also states that many allergic reactions are not confirmed when this test is used.

Alternative physicians have gotten dramatic results by fasting their patients on spring water… and then testing foods one at a time without repeating foods in the same family within two days of each other or the same food within four days. This procedure is not recommended without the direct supervision of a health professional.

Here is a simple, practical, and effective way to work out your food allergies.

Before you begin, prepare to chart or keep notes on your actions (what foods you eliminate, etc) and reactions (what is going on in your body) throughout your personal experiment.

Then, organize your supplement program.

In addition, drink at least 2 quarts of non-chlorinated water every day.

Lastly, get rid of the foods you’re not supposed to eat. (Temptation can foil your good intentions.)

1) First, go organic. Especially be sure all the animal food you eat is organic. Genetically modified food is associated with gastro-intestinal tract problems. Further, reactions to fresh fruits and vegetables can be due to the sprays and pesticides used on them, and not to the foods themselves.

2) After 7-10 days, if you don’t feel better OR don’t feel as well as you would like, stop eating the Big 7 Suspect Foods. There are lots of other healthy foods to eat and you will find them.

One problem here is “masked allergy”. We don’t know the food is a problem until we stop eating it and begin to have cravings for it. The real challenge is to overcome the cravings, especially since eliminating them can actually cause feelings of withdrawal.

3) If after another 7-10 days, you haven’t achieved your healthy feeling goal, eliminate the remainder of the list of suspect foods. Again you will find that there are lots of delicious whole, fresh foods out there that you haven’t been motivated to eat until now.

You are now 21-30 days into it. If you are suspicious of any of the foods you are eating, eliminate them too. Read on….

4) All foods which give you an allergic response should be eliminated for six weeks.

Then, using your notes, add them back one at a time, every several days. If you still get an allergic reaction to them, eliminate them altogether.

If you find that you no longer get a reaction, rotate them every three, four, or five days. If you do not rotate the foods, they will build up in your system and once again cause an allergic effect.

(Incidentally, foods that may not cause a problem alone may do so in combination.)

In concluding this section, if you would like a greater understanding of your food allergies and a more specific step-by-step plan for eliminating them, let Keith Scott-Mumby, MD, PhD, help you with his book Diet Wise: Let Your Body Choose Food That’s Right For You. (2007)

Supplement Your Health

At Nutrition News, we define nutritional supplements as matrix and target. Matrix supplements are the basics that we take for general health on a daily basis. Target supplements are those that are specific to a condition.

Matrix Supplements

Matrix:⁵ A multivitamin-mineral formula (MVM). Unless you choose a powder (which have higher amounts of nutrients), you will need additional vitamin C (discussed below), vitamin D (minimum 1000 IU/d), vitamin E (min 400 IU), vitamin K2 (min 45 mcg), chromium (200 mcg), magnesium (300 mg), selenium (max 200 mcg). Take 3-6 grams of EPA/DHA fish oils.

If you are over 40, add Coenzyme Q10 for cellular energy (CoQ10, 30-300 mg); DHEA to support hormone production (women, min 10 mg; men, 50 mg); and melatonin, the sleep hormone that is also an antioxidant (1-5 mg at night).

A word about Vitamin C: If you have allergies, vitamin C can be your best friend. Powdered, buffered vitamin C taken in water immediately as a reaction begins is useful in ending it quickly.

Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant.

Recommended at 3000 mg/d (up to 12,000 mg) in divided doses after meals. Non-buffered vitamin C (ascorbic acid) will cause diarrhea if you are not used to it. Start at 100 mg 3x/d and build.

Ester-C and buffered brands are easier on the system. Do not skip this vitamin.

Matrix Supplements

Footnote

5 Justification for all matrix supplements can be found in Nutrition News, “Supplement Your Health”.

Target Supplements

Asked and answered in Question 6 (on cover), the most important thing you can do to recover from allergies is to support your digestion.

Broad spectrum digestants contain Aspergillus oryzae and Aspergillus niger both fungi that miraculously support digestion. They should be taken just before or within the first few minutes of eating. You can open the caps and sprinkle the powder directly on food if you are taking medication/s.

Probiotics are very important to digestion. A dose is best taken with food with “just before breakfast” being the most effective time.

Quercetin, a well-known flavonoid and companion to vitamin C in nature is also helpful. Take 200-400 mg 20 minutes before meals.

Pantothenic acid, one of the B vitamins, is useful for chemical allergies. During an acute attack, take 200-500 mg 3x/d after meals. Daily, take 100 mg/d taken daily.

N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) is the principle precursor to glutathione, one of the body’s most important antioxidants. Especially important in clearing up chemical toxins in the body. 500 mg 3x/d.

All allergies involve inflammation. To fight it, I recommend bromelain (the digestive enzyme), 1-2 tabs, 2x/day on an empty stomach and a turmeric product, taken with meals. (The spice is the source of curcumins and curcuminoids, very potent natural anti-inflammatory agents.) Follow instructions on the product label.

Allergies FYI:

Low thyroid hormone output (hypothyroidism) can underlie food allergies. If you are consistently sluggish, don’t seem to be able to get enough sleep and/or lose weight, have your thyroid hormone levels checked.

Candida albicans infection can mimic allergy problems also. One of its key symptoms is hypersensitivity to chemical odors, like perfume. Others are sugar cravings, chronic yeast infections and athlete’s foot. Is this you? Look into it.

(See Nutrition  News, “C. albicans: The Infamous Fungus”)

Freedom

From Allergies

According to the American College of Allergies, Asthma, and Immunology, allergies are a major cause of illness in the United States.

They report that as many as 50 million people have allergic rhinitis (“hay fever” symptoms). This means that about one in five persons has an inhalant allergy.

This number doesn’t include those suffering from food and chemical sensitivities.

In fact, it may be that allergic reactions are the most frequently unrecognized cause of illness in the country.

Further, this is only one of three types of allergies. Besides inhalant allergies, foods and chemicals are also reactants. The weakening effect of any allergy leaves us vulnerable to developing others.