Seasonal allergy natural treatment methods
Over 22 million people in the USA suffer from seasonal allergies. Manifestations of it show starting from the beginning of spring and remain until the beginning of winter. If it’s your case too, you may be affected during this period as well. To make it worse, is that conventional doctors do not have enough understanding of this group of diseases, consequently, there is no proper treatment too.
Allergy happens when one’s immune system shows too strong reaction to such substances, as blossom dust, herbs, airborne fungi, as well as some nutrition products and beauty preparations. Currently there exist more than 60000 chemical substances, and each year about 500 ones appear, due to what our immunity has to react to a lot of biochemical matters. When the body meets some allergen for the first time, it tries to resist and our labrocytes generate histamine, an inflammatory substance. This reaction to allergens causes such wide-spread symptoms as rhinitis and running eyes and makes us sneeze.
You might think that the goal of antihistamines, as the name suggests, is to stop the production of histamine. But you are mistaken. The role of antihistamines just means that the receptors are not influenced by the action of histamine. To put it differently, these substances block the appearing signs, but the original cause of the problems remains. Moreover, the influence of antihistamines is connected with negative side effects, for example, giddiness and dormancy. Some patients even suffer from depression. Fortunately, there are other ways helping to overcome such inflammatory diseases.
One of the reasons of an allergic reaction is the production of leukotrienes. Due to this substance bronchioles get up to 1000 times narrower than under the influence of histamine. Leukotriens are released under the influence of arachidonic acid. This fatty substance is present in animal products only. Thus, to be able to resist strong attacks of seasonal allergies, it is recommended to exclude all meat and dairy products from your meals, or at least restrict them.
One more reasonable ground to prefer salads to meat is the presence of flavonoids. Flavonoids, or bioflavonoids, as some experts call them, are substances, due to which different plants get their natural color. Quercetin, or flavin, is frequently met in fruits and vegetables, and it suppresses the production of leukotriens and histamine in labrocytes. Besides eating many fruit and vegetables, you may be recommended to take supplements with quercetin.
Nettle (Urtica dioica): For a long time nettle has been used as a natural treatment method in case of seasonal allergies. The successful application of this plant has been described by Dr. Andrew Weil, author of Natural Health, Natural Medicine (Houghton Mifflin, 1998), who took it to help himself to overcome this diseases. But it’s easy to mix up this herb with U. Urens, another plant, where a lot of leukotrienes and histamine are present.
Ephedra (Ephedra sinicia): This plant is also called mahuang, and the everyone must have heard its generic name, because of ephedrine, the synthetic form of this substance, which is present in a lot of famous drugs, pseudoephedrine being one of them. Traditional Chinese healers started to use ephedra in their practice more than 5000 years ago, and since then this plant has been frequently used as a drug for asthma. Remember that the use of ephedra can result in the increase of blood pressure, both systolic and diastolic, and some patients speak about the increased affectability.
Echinacea (Echinacea purpurea): This plant is also called purple coneflower. This herb, originating from America, is recommended by doctors as one of the best treatment methods helping to make the immune system stronger. Echinacea has been studied by a great number of researchers and now, after more than 50 years of studies, everyone is sure of its ability to stimulate generation of T-cells and to enrich the blood with them.
Garlic (Allium sativum): In a lot of research experts speak about the ability of garlic to fight viruses. Russians call this herb ‘Russian penicillin’, and many years ago doctors used it in hospitals for respiratory diseases. Some research conducted in Japan several years ago, prove that the extracts of old garlic are able to increase the NK activity and strong antibacterial action, which helps to fight viruses and yeasts. The action of garlic is so strong due to the presence of allicin, the substance produced because of the reaction of alliin, an amino acid, with alliinase, an enzyme. But the product of reaction of these two substances is rather unstable. Despite raw garlic is very wholesome and does you a lot of favor, the environment in the stomach quickly destroys the enzyme, which is required to stimulate production of allicin. Consequently, one of the most reliable methods of taking garlic is to take it as powder in the form of coated tablets. This will allow you to stimulate your immune system in the best possible way. Remember that the use of garlic may result in raising or lowering of sugar in the blood. In case you suffer from diabetes or hypoglycemia consult your doctor before taking garlic products.
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Something to know about colds:
The Journal of the American Medical Association writes that those having plenty of social contacts have greater resistance to respiratory disorders. In the course of the research conducted in 1997 two rhinoviruses were introduced into the bodies of 276 healthy adults of 18 to 55 years old in the form of nasal drops. It was found out that those having more than 6 different social contacts were less susceptible to flu, and it didn’t depend on the age, sex and the type of virus they were infected with. Thus, we advise you not to stay at home the next time you feel that cold is going to attack you. Meet people you like and you won’t get ill.
Recommended dosage:
Stinging nettle - 250 mg. freeze-dehydrated extract every 2-4 hours or until signs of disease disappear;
Ephedra - 12.5-25 mg. 3 times a day;
Quercetin - 400 mg. 2 times a day between meals;
Echinacea - 350 mg 3 times a day;
Garlic – one tablet contains as much garlic as 10 cloves;
Social contacts – any number you like!