Allergies
Index of Diseases / Health Conditions ... Medicinal Foods, Herbs, Spices & Household Items
The below provides a general overview on this topic and may not apply to everyone. Any treatment protocol should be discussed with a qualified healthcare practitioner ... Please refer to: Medical & Legal Disclaimer.
Common Allergy Symptoms:
Things that can make your allergy symptoms worse
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An allergy constitutes an exaggerated reaction by our immune system in response to bodily contact with an allergen (an allergy-producing substance).
Allergies are a common health problem in the United States, affecting 1 in 3 people. Allergies, asthma and other autoimmune diseases are almost nonexistent in undeveloped countries, while they have reached close to epidemic levels in the industrialized areas. This seems to indicate that there is something in our environment that causes these conditions.
Sufferers have to address the underlying causes to improve their health. Stress, environmental irritants and toxins, infections and allergens overwhelm our immunesystem and our body then becomes hypervigilant and tends to overreact to everything.
The key to lowering the immunesystem's reaction threshold is to reduce the amount of irritants affecting it, while also supporting it with a health diet and nutritional supplements.
The most common allergens:
Foods:
Although an individual could be allergic to any food, such as fruits, vegetables, and meats, there are eight foods that account for 90% of all food-allergic reactions. These are: wheat, milk, egg, peanut, walnuts, cashews, fish, shellfish and soy.
Pollen:
These allergies can occur in the spring and are often due to tree pollen. Allergies that occur in the summer are often due to grass and weed pollen. Allergies that occur in the fall are often caused by ragweed.
Mold:
Mold is common where water tends to collect, such as shower curtains, window moldings and damp basements. It can also be found in rotting logs, hay, mulches, commercial peat moss, compost piles and leaf litter. This allergy is usually worse during humid and rainy weather.
- Get professional help to eliminate mold from your home, if necessary.
- A dehumidifer in areas where mold grows can help reduce, or even eliminate the problem.
Animal Dander / Feather Dust:
Proteins found in feather dust, as well as the skin, saliva, and urine of furry pets such as cats and dogs can cause allergies in sensitive people. You can be exposed to dander when handling an animal or from house dust that contains dander.
- Allergic Alveolitis (Breeder's Lung)
Dust Mites:
Dust mites are tiny living creatures found in bedding, mattresses, carpeting and upholstered furniture. They live on dead skin cells and other things found in house dust.
Harmful indoor chemicals
... can lead to allergies, and a host of other health problems, including anemia, sinusitis, asthma, chronic fatigue, a generally weakened immune system, cancer, brain damage and even death.
- For people suffering from allergies and/or lung problems, it is particularly important to keep the indoor air free of contaminants. The best way (provided you live in an area with clean outside air) is to frequently vent your home and sleep with the windows open. For those times that this is not possible, it is important to use a quality air filtration system to clean the indoor air. Some units even kill mold, viruses and bacteria. It is imperative to maintain as much of a non-toxic indoor environment as possible.
- Scientific studies have linked chlorinated water to potentially harmful by-products that can, over time, contribute to such health-threatening conditions as cancer of the bladder, liver, stomach and colon; heart disease, high blood pressure and allergies. Shower filtration systems help reduce these risks - so you can breathe easier.
Allergy-proof Your Home
Nutritional Support for Allergy Sufferers:
- Eat organic to minimize toxins going into your body.
- Probiotics (10 billion organisms daily). The healthy bacteria help reduce allergies by balancing the immune system in your gut.
- Buffered vitamin C (1,000 to 2,000 mg once or twice a day) during the allergy season along with zinc (20 to 50 mg daily)
- Try herbs: Perilla seed extract, stinging nettle, and quercetin taken daily can help reduce allergy systems.
- Cod Liver Oil: In numerous studies, the elongated omega-3 fats found in cod liver oil have been shown to improve brain function, memory, stress response, immune response, allergies, asthma, learning and behavioral disorders, including bipolar syndrome and manic-depression. "If you want to prevent learning disabilities in your children," said David Horrobin, distinguished medical and biochemical researcher, "feed them cod liver oil."
- Grape Seeds / Grape Seed Extract: One of the most potent antioxidants known, with tests indicating that it is fifty times more powerful than Vitamin E. It has been used to treat varicose veins, eye problems, arthritis, allergies, heart conditions, Attention Deficit Disorder, cancer, and viral diseases such as herpes.
Information contained on this website is provided as general reference only. For application to specific circumstances, professional advice should be sought.
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