Allergies
About 80 million Americans (more than 20 percent of the population) suffer from some form of allergy. Allergies fall in three general categories:
Airborne Allergies
Airborne allergies result in inflammation of the respiratory membranes and are one of the most common allergies. Common symptoms are runny nose, weepy or itchy eyes, sneezing and dark circles around eyes. Asthmatic symptoms such as wheezing and shortness of breath are also a result of airborne allergies.
Food Allergies
Food allergies are very common and often overlooked. Often foods like cow’s milk, egg whites, peanuts, wheat or soybeans will affect children. Adults often don’t realize they have a food allergy unless they feel a direct response when eating a food. Symptoms like diarrhea, nausea, stomach cramps, respiratory congestion, bloating, or extreme fatigue after eating can indicate a food allergy. Many food allergies are not true allergies but rather food sensitivities that can be easily resolved.
Contact Allergies
These result from direct contact with an offending substance, which may be as universal as poison oak, bee stings, or common irritants such as dog or cat dander, or contact with environmental chemicals. Usual response is a rash, hives, or swelling of the local tissue that has come in contact with the irritant.
Another less known form of allergic response is an autoimmune type allergy, where one may respond to ones own tissues. A chronic cough, for example, may be a result of one being allergic to his or her own mucus, or chronic swelling of the eyes may be an allergy to ones own tears.
Standard medical treatment involves using medications to control the symptoms. In more involved cases diagnostic blood or scratch testing is done to find the offending substances and treatment can consist of shots and medications. Other treatments involve finding the offending substance and trying to avoid it.
The Allergic Reaction
Allergies result from a reaction by the immune system to a foreign protein in the blood stream. This should be beneficial to the body in that this is what the immune system does. It destroys bacteria, viruses and other unwanted intruders. But in certain situations, the immune system targets an improperly digested food particle, pollen, mold or animal dander and builds up a literal army of antibodies against such substances. Whenever that substance, called an antigen, is ingested or inhaled or is contacted, the army goes into action. The attack by antibodies releases histamine which produces the typical allergic reaction.
Under normal circumstances the body will begin producing its own antihistamine to neutralize the histamine and no reaction occurs. Often though, the prime producer of anti-histamines, the adrenal glands, are fatigued and incapable of responding. When that happens an allergic reaction occurs.
Natural Allergy Desensitization
There is an exciting breakthrough in the natural health field in the treatment of allergies that actually normalizes the body’s reaction to allergens. Successful patients have been able to end their dependency on shots, medications, and food avoidance methods. In our experience we have had good outcomes with pollen, weeds, bee stings, foods , nuts and many more.
There are no side effects to the treatment and it is safe, and quick. In many cases the reacting antigen only needs to be cleared once.
The doctor who does natural allergy work will evaluate the function of the body as a whole. In some cases certain physical functional problems or weaknesses may need to be attended to with chiropractic care and nutritional support. These may be the underlying causes to the allergies.
Testing for natural allergy desensitization involves the use of a simple stress test done by the doctor. About two hundred items are tested that are most commonly found in the environment. The number of treatments depends on the number of items that need to be treated and the general health of the patient.