Natural Remedies for Long-term Allergy Relief

Don’t let allergies ruin your summer!  - Tips to help you feel your best this allergy season. 

            Allergies are usually associated with the Spring or Fall, but especially where I practice in the Northeast, it is not uncommon to see allergies occurring right in to the summer, or even all year round (perennial)—these are often connected to chronic food sensitivities and gut imbalances (see below).   

            Since warm, sunny weather seems so fleeting in the Boston area, most of us want to take full advantage of it.  Summer is a time to be enjoying the outdoors—hiking, biking, pool time, beach time, barbeques, exercising outside, or just being with friends and family outdoors.  However, for some, warm weather is associated with a stuffy head, chronic cough, drippy nose, fatigue and headache.  Some people don’t even recognize that their symptoms are actually allergy related, and can be as subtle as slight tension headaches that keep re-occurring, or just feeling bogged down.  Another common symptom that I see which can be exacerbated by allergens is anxiety and insomnia.  Many people don’t realize that allergens can affect the central nervous system, and in a sensitive individual, this can create feelings of nervousness or panic. 

            If you think that allergies may be affecting your health and energy, here are a few suggestions to help you feel your best so that you can take full advantage of every season! 

1.     Acupuncture:  Get regular, weekly acupuncture treatments for about 3 months prior to when you usually start to feel allergy symptoms (eg. If your symptoms tend to start in March, start weekly treatments in December or January).  Starting treatment early helps the body to build and regulate it’s immune system, so that it does not react as strongly to the allergens once you are exposed.  Then, during allergy season, you can come in for symptomatic treatment if you are still feeling some symptoms.  Does this mean that if you missed the preventative treatment stage, that acupuncture won’t work for your allergy symptoms during the flare up?  No.  Acupuncture can certainly help reduce your symptoms and provide some relief during the season, but it is much more effective to start earlier, before your symptoms begin. 

2.     Watch your diet:  Sugar, caffeine, alcohol and common allergens in the diet can interfere with the body’s immune system and make a person more sensitive to environmental allergens like pollen, dust and mold.  By reducing or eliminating sugars, refined carbohydrates, and common allergens such as wheat, gluten, soy, dairy and yeast, many people find significant reduction in their allergy symptoms, if not complete relief from them.  It’s definitely worth a try!  You can do an elimination diet, or a blood test to find out what foods you are sensitive to.  In my clinic, I often do a blood test, as it is easier for many than an elimination diet. 

3.     Exercise:  Our lymph system (the system in our bodies that fights of foreign invaders, viruses, bacteria, etc) requires movement in order to circulate and function properly.  From a Chinese Medicine standpoint, our energy, or Qi, needs regular exercise or movement in order to stay balanced.  Whether it’s brisk walk or a high intensity work out at the gym, the key is consistency—4x/week is a great goal. 

4.     Vitamin D3:  Vitamin D3 helps to regulate our immune systems.  Studies have shown that people who are low in this vitamin are much more susceptible to viruses and infections (and other diseases, including asthma, certain cancers, depression, anxiety, hormonal imbalances).  Taking at least 2000 IU’s a day with food is recommended.  The best way to figure out the correct dose for you is to have your blood levels tested. 

5.      Probiotics:  These little critters are essential for our gut health.  You may ask what gut health has to do with allergies….  An imbalanced gut flora makes person much more vulnerable to illness and allergies.  Take a good quality, high potency probiotic supplement in pill or powder form.  The amount that you get in yogurt is usually not enough to colonize the small intestine where it’s actually needed.  Make sure to take this supplement with a meal. 

Why Can't I Meditate? What's Wrong with me? -- Stress, Anxiety & How Acupuncture Can Help

On my intake forms, I ask the patient to rate their stress levels on a scale of 0-10.  0 being no stress at all, and 10 being the worst stress imaginable.  As you can imagine, virtually no one ever puts 0.  I would say more than 80% of my patients put 5 or higher (usually higher . . . around 7-8).  With conditions such as anxiety, insomnia, and high blood pressure, it is clear that stress plays a major role.  However, based on patients' reporting of their stress levels on my intake forms, I think it's safe to say that stress is a contributing factor to almost any condition in modern society.  Even if stress isn't directly related to the disorder, it is most certainly capable of exacerbating it or hindering healing.

Self-help books, magazine articles and even holistically oriented doctors recommend incorporating stress relief techniques in to your daily life to improve health, boost the immune system and to help heal or cope with many types of disorders.  When I was a freshman in college, I began experiencing strange and vague symptoms such as dizziness, palpitations, shortness of breath, frequent headaches and migraines, frequent colds and flus.  My doctor diagnosed anxiety and stress-related disorders.  I was given medications to help with anxiety, as well as medications to help with individual symptoms that I was experiencing.  Skeptical of the effectiveness of this approach and concerned about the side-effects, I decided to pursue a more holistic path.  I started to read about relaxation techniques and began trying to meditate.  "Trying" being the operative word.  Relaxation shouldn't be so labor intensive right?  I would sit there, back hurting, neck getting sore, mind wandering at 100 mph in all directions, wondering "What's wrong with me?  Why can't I meditate?"  I considered myself a spiritual person-- I did the reading, I did the studying . . . why couldn't I translate that in to practice?  I even signed up for classes and joined a meditation group.  After about 3 months of regular attendance, I was left feeling frustrated.  Sure others in the group experienced and shared their own frustrations, but for me, being a Type A person, I hated not being good at something. 

Now, as a practitioner, I've realized that this is a very common experience.  Most of us would benefit from some daily relaxation exercises, however, we need a little help figuring out HOW to fit it in to daily life, and also how to do it correctly.  What I found is that I was so anxious and stressed, that sitting quietly for even 5 minutes was torturous.  I had no idea what it felt like to feel calm, so how could I get my brain to go there, if I didn't know where the destination was?  My instructor's "road map" was only making me feel more and more lost.  I know that three months is certainly not long enough to master meditation, and that the frustrations are a normal part of the practice, however, I was doing this to help my anxiety, and it was only making me feel more anxious!

When I began receiving acupuncture treatments on a weekly basis, something in my brain changed.  After each session, I had an all encompassing feeling of "bliss" and "well-being"-- like anything could happen in my life at that moment, and I'd be completely fine and able to deal.  After a couple months, I noticed that this feeling would carry over in to my life, even days after my treatment.  I felt like I was better able to cope with stressful situations.  At this point, I decided to try meditating again.  To my surprise, it came so much easier this time.  My mind and body, having been conditioned already through acupuncture to relax, automatically went to that place of "well-being" when I closed my eyes to meditate.  This was also the case with other relaxation techniques that I tried-- they all became infinitely more effective and easier to do since starting acupuncture treatments.  The symptoms that I had been experiencing due to anxiety only rarely bother me anymore-- usually if I haven't been sleeping enough, eating well or if my routine changes drastically due to travel, etc.  The other thing that I realized was that there are all different kinds of meditation.  For my patients who want to meditate but feel like they just can't sit there, I recommend active meditating-- just being mindful when you're doing day to day activities.  Not letting your mind wander when you're washing the dishes, or folding the laundry.  Really let yourself feel and see every part of the activity that you're doing. 

If you're suffering from anxiety or other stress-related conditions, or if you think that stress is making your condition worse, I would urge you to try acupuncture.  Acupuncture is effortless for the patient-- it is a passive activity.  You only need to show up regularly for your treatments, and the needles and the practitioner do the work.  Once your body is trained or re-programmed to respond differently to stress, you will have a much easier time incorporating other stress relieving techniques in to your life.  Another great bonus is that you'll be healthier (physically and emotionally), better equipped to deal with life's stressors, and more likely to reach your full potential.  Don't let stress and anxiety paralyze you, try acupuncture!