Ditching Allergy Medications for 9 Fool-Proof Natural Solutions
Healthy Living
Allergies complicate the lives of over 65 million people. The U.S. as a whole is on all sorts of allergy medications, but they needn’t be. Allergies primarily come from eating the wrong foods, being subjected to high levels of stress, and being exposed to an onslaught of toxins from pesticides, herbicides, and other environmental chemicals. And guess what, there are solutions.
Just over 50 years ago, people didn’t have to walk around with epi-pens, or suffer from watery eyes, headaches, and constant sneezing. There are also other forms of ‘allergies’ like insomnia, anxiety, joint pain, and acid reflux. People just accept these complications, but you can feel better without taking over-the-counter medications year-round. It shouldn’t be a way of life.
In her book, The Seven Day Allergy Makeover, Dr. Susanne Bennet discusses the underlying causes of allergies and how to naturally remedy them. Instead of masking the systems with antihistamines and nasal sprays that give temporarily relief, Dr.Bennet says people should inspect their lives for root causes.
9 Natural Ways to Tackle Allergies:
- 1. Are you breathing in toxic fumes from the freeway when you could simply press the re-circulate button on your car’s AC?
- 2. Are you dowsing yourself with a chemically irritating perfume or cologne every morning before work, or washing your hair and clothes in personal care products that are full of toxins? There are more than 12 toxins lurking in many of your bathroom and laundry room products you would never have guessed were there.
- 3. Are you eating things that hamper your healthy gut flora, thus causing a cycle of allergy-triggering inflammation? Since your gut is home to over 100,000,000,000,000 microorganisms, its health must be kept in strict balance. In some cultures, it is believed that all disease starts in the gut, this includes autism, diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome, arthritis, and others. Derived from seaweed, for example, carrageenan is commonly used as a thickening agent in ice cream, yogurt, soymilk, and sour cream—even organic versions. It is completely unnecessary for use in food, and dietary doses have reliably caused inflammation in the GI tract. Also included are nonsteroidal drugs (NSAIDs) like Advil, aspirin, and Motrin, as well as alcohol and many antibiotics.
- 4. Are you consuming GMO and non-organic foods that are replete with pesticides and herbicides? These toxins not only cause poor gut health, but also impair your immune system, making you prone to hay fever, colds, congestion, joint pain, and other ailments that many call ‘allergies’? Dr. Judy Carmen did studies on pigs who ate RoundUp Ready feed and Bt proteins found in transgenic GMOs. She found that these two items significantly increased inflammation. Eat only organic foods, or grow your own.
“These pigs were eating the Roundup-ready gene, its protein product, two Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins, and the proteins from the two Bt genes, which are designed to produce insecticidal proteins. I suspect that the reason why we got such strong stomach inflammation was the interaction between the proteins that the animals were eating, And when I say ‘severe,’ I’m talking about a stomach that is swollen and cherry red in color over almost the entire surface of the stomach. This is not the sort of stomach that you or I would want to have at all,” she says.
Read: Home Remedies for Allergies
- 5. Are you drinking water or bathing in water full of fluoride and chlorine? Chlorine is an antiseptic, and it destroys all the good bacteria in our guts. Fluoride is an equally devious water-additive, leading to inflammation in human macrophages. Invest in a good water purification system for your home, and make sure that what you are bathing in is just as clean as what you drink. To summarize a study from Poland:
“Fluorosis from excessive exposure to fluoride can result in inflammatoryreactions involving macrophages and their differentiation, a process that is rapidly followed by generation of prostanoids—products of arachidonic acid metabolism, including the pro-inflammatory factors prostaglandin PGE 2 and thromboxane TXA 2, which are implicated in atherogenesis and rapidly increase during acute inflammation.”
- 6. Are you consuming cow-derived dairy products which many people can’t properly digest?According to Dr. Bennet, by the time we are five years old, most of our guts stop producing an enzyme called lactase, which breaks down dairy products. Simply eliminating this one item (cow-derived dairy) can help lessen chronic allergies. Try goat’s milk and cheeses, that our bodies more easily digest, or almond or coconut milk as alternatives.
- 7. Do you suffer from leaky gut or intestinal permeability? If you do, small particles of undigested food are escaping from the intestinal lining, caused by exposure to chemicals and GMOs. The body doesn’t recognize these particles as vitamins or minerals, and sends the immune system on high-alert again, causing food intolerances and other allergies. As Natural Society previously reported, 18 million Americans are now suffering from a gluten and GMO intolerance with increased occurrence of leaky gut, celiac disease, and other digestive disorders. To be safe, ditch gluten.
- 8. Do you breathe shallowly and stay inactive? The lymph system relies on movement to circulate cellular sewage out of the body. If you never exercise, and breath shallow breaths, then the lymph system can’t do its job. This can lead to a host of allergies since lymph is a primary aid in overall immunity. Take some deep, cleansing breaths, called diaphragmatic breathing, and break a sweat. Your allergies should get better.
- 9. Are you constantly stressed out? If your body is constantly in a state of high alert – due to job stress, family pressures, or back-to-back life changes like divorce, death or job changes – your immune system goes into overdrive. This can trigger hormones that cause anxiety and depression, and also keeps your health compromised. Meditation, yoga, spending time in nature, or just turning off your cell phone after 6 pm are all great ways to de-stress and lessen allergies.
While there are other habits that contribute to allergies, they happen primarily due to an over-active immune system, a lymph system that is too clogged, and a liver that can’t rid the body of toxins because it is too congested. Eliminating many of these toxins from our lives, detoxing our liver and lymph systems, and lowering stress can all help put an end to allergies for good.
| Christina Sarich is a humanitarian and freelance writer helping you to Wake up Your Sleepy Little Head, and See the Big Picture. Her blog is Yoga for the New World. Her latest book is Pharma Sutra: Healing the Body And Mind Through the Art of Yoga. |
