What is an Allergy? Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, are a number of conditions caused by hypersensitivity of the immune system to something in the environment that usually causes little or no problem in most people. These diseases include hay fever, food allergies, atopic dermatitis, allergic asthma, and anaphylaxis. Symptoms may include red eyes, an itchy rash, runny nose, shortness of breath, or swelling. Food intolerances and food poisoning are separate conditions. Mast cells release histamine when an allergen is encountered. The histamine response can produce sneezing, itching, hives and watery eyes. What is Happening During an Allergic Reaction? During an allergic process, the substance responsible for causing the allergy, or allergen, binds to allergic antibodies present on allergic cells in a person's body, including mast cells and basophils. These cells then release chemicals such as histamine and leukotrienes, resulting in allergic symptoms Major Causes of Allergies in Children:
How do Allergies Start? The allergic person can make allergic antibodies, or IgE, against a variety of allergens, including pollens, molds, animal dander, dust mites, foods, venoms and medications. This occurs through a process called sensitization, where a person’s immune system is exposed to enough of the allergen to make the body produce allergic antibodies to that substance. With later exposures, that same allergen binds to its corresponding IgE on allergic cells, and the body reacts with symptoms of allergies. Allergic symptoms can vary somewhat with the type of allergen and route of exposure (airborne pollen exposure may cause different symptoms than eating a food to which you are allergic). When and Why do People Develop Allergies? It is unknown why some people develop allergies and some don’t. Allergies seem to run in families, and in some cases, family members can share allergies to specific foods or medications. It appears that the allergic response was once meant to protect the body against parasitic infections, although now seems to be an abnormal response to non-infectious triggers. Allergies can occur at any time during our lives, but are more common to occur during childhood or young adulthood. Allergy Symptoms Most everyone has an idea of what an allergy is. Allergies are so common, in fact, that it seems acceptable to discuss allergy symptoms at a cocktail party with perfect strangers. An allergy is an abnormal reaction by a person's immune system to a normally harmless substance. A person without allergies would have no reaction to this substance, but when a person who is allergic encounters the trigger, the body reacts by releasing chemicals which cause allergy symptoms. In children, allergic disease first occurs as atopic dermatitis (eczema) or food allergies. Children with atopic dermatitis are then at an increased risk of developing allergic rhinitis and asthma; both are more likely to occur in school-age children. Typically, atopic dermatitis goes away by adulthood, as do many types of food allergies. Allergic rhinitis and asthma, however, most often start during the adolescent, teenage and young adult years, and are likely to persist throughout a person’s life. The severity of allergic symptoms, however, may wax and wane, and even temporarily disappear during a person’s life. Atopic Dermatitis This is typically the first sign of allergies and is seen in 10 to 20% of all children, frequently during infancy. Atopic dermatitis, or eczema, is characterized by itching, with rash formation at the sites of scratching. The rash is typically red and dry, may have small blisters, and can flake and ooze over time. In infants and very young children, this rash involves the face (especially the cheeks), chest and trunk, back of the scalp and may involve the arms and legs. This distribution reflects where the child is able to scratch, and therefore usually spares the diaper area. The location of the rash changes in older children and adults to classically involve the skin in front of the elbows and behind the knees. Food and environmental allergies have been shown to worsen atopic dermatitis. Food Allergies Food allergies can occur at any age. Almost all people with food allergies will have a skin symptom, such as hives, swelling, itching or redness of the skin, as a result of eating the culprit food. These symptoms typically occur within a few minutes of eating the food in question, although they can be delayed up to a couple of hours. Other symptoms of food allergies can include nausea, vomiting, stomach aches, diarrhea, breathing difficulties (asthma symptoms), runny nose, sneezing, and lightheadedness. In some cases, children can experience a severe allergic reaction, called anaphylaxis, which can be life-threatening. Nasal Allergies Allergic rhinitis occurs in up to 30% of adults and up to 40% of children. Symptoms of allergic rhinitis include sneezing, runny nose, itchy nose, and eyes and nasal congestion. Some people may also experience post-nasal drip, allergic shiners (dark circles under the eyes), and a line across the nasal bridge from an upward rubbing of the palm of the hand on the nose, a sign called the “allergic salute.” Asthma Allergies are a major cause of asthma, a condition that occurs in about 8% of all people. Though it can occur at any age, it is most often seen in males in the pre-teen years and in females in the teenage years; asthma is the most common chronic disease in children and young adults. Sometimes asthma is difficult to diagnose in very young children, and may require a physician who is an asthma specialist. Symptoms of asthma may include:
ALLERGY Prevention The ultimate goal of allergy treatment is preventing the symptoms from occurring in the first place. This usually includes learning how to avoid the allergen, whether it be pets, foods, insects or even certain chemicals. Preventing the development of allergies, asthma and food allergies in young children also is possible. Prevention of Allergies, Asthma and Food Allergies in Children The goal of any family prone to allergies is to prevent the development of allergies in their child. Various strategies have been shown to reduce the development of allergies and asthma, as well as to prevent or delay the onset of food allergies in children.
The Homeopathic Approach to AllergiesHomeopathy is highly effective in the treatment of allergies and fully capable of stimulating the organism to heal to the point of complete relief from all allergy symptoms. Many of us have suffered from allergies at one time in our life, and usually the best treatment offered was symptomatic relief through avoidance of the allergen or through medication. Homeopathy, on the other hand, addresses the cause of the sensitivity to allergens at the deepest possible level; avoiding the allergen (the substance responsible for the allergic response) or resorting to suppression of symptoms through ongoing symptomatic treatment becomes unnecessary once this sensitivity has been eliminated. Homeopathic practitioners try to help people with allergies using homeopathic medicine. This article will help you understand the physiological mechanism of allergy, the homeopathic miasm theory and the underlying causes of an allergic tendency. The goal is to clear allergy symptoms and strengthen the constitution toward an allergy free life. The irritation of severe allergy symptoms appears to be a profound agitation from the inside out. If you have ever been with a person wheezing and short of breath with asthma or a person sneezing, itching and dripping from the eyes and nose with hay fever you know why so many people seek out treatment for this problem. It is estimated that 60 million Americans, or more than one in every five people, suffer from some form of allergy. Are you allergic to pollens? How about animal fur? Do you consider yourself to be allergic to certain foods? How many of you feel bad around strong perfumes? The list of diseases and symptoms related to allergy is mind boggling yet many allopathic (conventional) medical practitioners don’t seem to register that eczema or irritable bowel syndrome or migraine headaches or ADHD can be linked to allergy. The Homeopathic Diagnostic Approach The homeopathic treatment of allergies begins with the physical symptoms but doesn’t end there. Important clues to the homeopathic pattern and prescription can be found in: life circumstances around the time of onset of the allergy symptoms; situations which cause an exacerbation of the allergy symptoms; situations which lead to a relief from allergy symptoms; feelings aroused by the allergy symptoms, or the person’s unique experience of the condition; how the allergy symptoms disrupt normal living, or what the person is thereby prevented from doing. Again, it is important to understand that the specific allergy symptoms are not in themselves a disease but merely represent the underlying spiritual imbalance that is the root of all disease. Whether a person will develop allergies, skin problems, joint problems, or organ problems is largely dependent on hereditary factors as well as on the degree of suppression of symptoms from past medical treatment. In the case of severe allergies and asthma it is important never to reduce or discontinue the use of medications until the allergic tendency has clearly and permanently been eliminated, and even then always in consultation with the treating physician. Likewise it is important to maintain access to emergency facilities in case of a dangerous exacerbation throughout treatment, and to continue carrying antihistamines, inhalers, an EpiPen adrenaline injector, etc. whenever away from home for use in case of a severe reaction. The rationale behind the homeopathic approach to allergies: What is the advantage of comprehensive allergy treatment with homeopathy over other natural approaches? On the one hand clean diets such as the raw food diet have many beneficial effects. For example, many people do better without wheat: they typically feel more clear-headed than otherwise, among other subtle benefits. So even people who do not complain of any symptoms indicative of allergy or intolerance might do well to avoid certain foods, and likewise to breath fresher air, drink cleaner water, and so on. But eliminating the allergen should only be seen as the first step of a comprehensive treatment strategy that addresses also the person’s allergic sensitivity. This can be achieved through treatment which strengthens the overall functioning of the organism and repairs the immune system. If dietary measures are used, they should go beyond avoidance of specific foods, aiming to heal the gut and address the excessive intestinal permeability (also known as leaky gut syndrome) that frequently underlies food-based allergies. True healing, however, is largely independent of dietary considerations: the healthy person should not only feel extra-healthy on a perfect diet, but also remain symptom-free when consuming a somewhat imperfect diet. To begin, it helps that healthy individuals are naturally attracted to healthy foods. But living in our society involves the occasional birthday or cocktail party or movie outing, and we should not be punished for sporadic indulgence. Yet many people who base their health maintenance on dietary measures alone remain sensitive to deviations from a strict diet, and some even become more rather than less sensitive — and therefore more restricted — over time. When a person can feel well only on a customized, restrictive diet this indicates an imbalance at a deeper level. This imbalance is addressable partly through lifestyle measures such as exercise and meditation; but, again, one’s health shouldn’t be highly dependent on a strict regimen of daily exercise and meditation. The way I see it, the ultimate goal in the healing of allergic symptoms involves eliminating sensitivity while increasing freedom. This is achievable through constitutional treatment primarily through comprehensive systems such as Chinese medicine and homeopathy. Constitutional treatment is the long-term strengthening of the spiritual core of the organism. (See my article on length of homeopathic treatment for information on how long this might take.) Clinically it is known that such treatment tends to increase the natural resilience of the organism to environmental stressors. We are all familiar with the image of a spiritually strong person as a Zen master who remains unperturbed when faced with interpersonal conflict or life circumstances that would overwhelm a normal being. With respect to allergies, the spiritually healthy person will prefer a allergen-free environment, but will remain healthy even when exposed to unhealthy environmental influences. When parents consult homeopaths about their child’s recurrent ear infections or sinus infections or enlarged tonsils they uniformly say that their pediatricians have not told them that the problem is chronic due to allergy. So, the homeopath asks them to ask their doctor why their child always has fluid in the middle ear and why his tonsils are enlarged but not infected. When the parents do this the doctor starts to allude to allergy and usually refers them to a specialist like an eye, ear, nose and throat doctor or an allergist. An extreme and relatively new form of allergy is Multiple Chemical Sensitivity or Environmental Illness. Homeopathy attempts to get to the underlying governing system, the vital force, to balance the health. The healthy immune system responds to foreign microorganisms or particles like pollen or dust or foods that enter the body by being inhaled or ingested or touched, by telling the body’s lymphocytes to produce antibodies called immunoglobulin E. IgE is normally present in very low levels. The IgE attaches to mast cells and after the second exposure to the allergen histamine and other chemicals are released to protect the body against any exposure. This reaction between antibody and antigen is designed to protect the body from infection. All this largely goes on undetected by the owner of a healthy immune system. The biological wisdom of the body is amazing and I our governing system can make any medicine or chemical it needs to keep us well. But people with allergies create much larger quantities of IgE, which is also called the “allergic antibody”, and this causes the excessive release of chemicals such as histamine, prostaglandins, leukotrienes and thromboxane which produce local tissue reactions from oversensitivity to harmless, everyday substances. Depending upon the tissue in which they are released, these chemicals will cause a person to have various symptoms of allergy. In the respiratory tract for example, these include sneezing, edema and mucus secretion, with vasodilatation in the nose, leading to nasal blockage and that very full feeling, and in the lungs, you get bronchoconstriction, leading to wheezing. If the affected mast cells are in the gastrointestinal tract, the person may have abdominal pain or diarrhea. The chemicals released by skin mast cells, in contrast, can prompt hives. Very sensitive people risk anaphylaxis, a potentially life-threatening condition marked by tissue swelling, airway constriction, and drop in blood pressure. It is extremely important for people who have such allergies to identify their cause and prevent severe allergic reactions that can cause devastating illness and, in some cases, be fatal. The most common anaphylactic triggers in sensitive people are shellfish, peanuts (which are legumes), tree nuts such as walnuts; fish, eggs and beestings. Such people should always carry a syringe of adrenaline or epinephrine, and need to be prepared to self-administer it if they think they are getting a reaction. Medical help at an emergency room may be needed. Researchers are finding that food intolerances have a slightly different biological mechanism and are the result of immunoglobulin G antibodies becoming sensitized to certain foods. IgG antibodies don’t cause the release of histamine but they do release other immune chemicals designed to inactivate or destroy invaders in the body. These chemicals can cause damage and resulting inflammation to your own body tissues in the process. Symptoms from food sensitivities may appear up to 3 days after the offending food was ingested and last for weeks afterwards. Food allergens are proteins within the food that were not broken down by the heat of cooking or by stomach acids or enzymes that digest food. As a result, they survive to cross the gastrointestinal lining, enter the bloodstream, and go to target organs, causing allergic reactions throughout the body. This is sometimes called Leaky Gut Syndrome. The number of people with this problem is rising because excessive antibiotic use reduces the helpful natural flora in the gut and predisposes children at a young age. Gluten intolerance is associated with the disease called gluten-sensitive enteropathy or celiac disease. It is caused by an abnormal immune response to gluten, which is a component of wheat and some other grains. Symptoms of allergy are wide ranging and can affect multiple body systems. Here are some examples:
Due to the fact that these symptoms may not appear for days after the triggering food was eaten they are often referred to as ‘hidden allergies’. It is therefore quite difficult to pin down what is causing symptoms. The ability of a person to form IgE and IgG against something as benign as food or dust is an inherited predisposition. Your genetic background plays a major role – we know that a family history of allergies or “atopy” is highly significant. Atopy is a personal or familial tendency to produce IgE antibodies in response to low doses of allergens. The scientific statistics show that while allergy to “specific allergens” is not inherited, the likelihood of developing some type of allergy seems to be. If neither parent has allergies, the chances of a child developing allergy is approximately 10-20%; if one parent has allergies, it is 30-50%; and if both have allergies, it is 40-75%. Those who produce more IgE will develop a stronger allergic sensitivity. Males are more likely to develop allergies than females, and prenatal maternal diet and smoking seem to play a role. A number of genes linked to allergy and which carry the “allergy predisposition” have been identified on Chromosomes 5 and 11 – this is the “atopy phenotype”. Samuel Hahnemann, a German doctor who lived from 1755-1843 , founded Homeopathy, was a visionary and understood what the scientific world is just now grasping. Inheritance is everything. Hahnemann’s theory of miasms was the world’s first attempt by a scientist to classify diseases. He found that disease is caused by “miasm”. One of the best Homeopathic textbooks, “The Science of Homeopathy” by George Vithoulkas defines miasm as “a predisposition toward chronic disease underlying the acute manifestations of illness, which is transmissible from generation to generation and which may respond beneficially to the corresponding nosode made from either pathological tissue or from the appropriate drug or vaccine.” Miasms are inherited weaknesses, first conceived of by Samuel Hahnemann, which predispose each of us to disease of differing types and amounts. It is never wise to treat these deep health issues without the help of an experienced homeopath. The Homeopathic alternative is constitutional and miasmatic treatment to prevent the allergic tendency and raise the immunity. The most common ones are Ars. Alb, Allium Cepa, Euphrasia, Nat Mur, Sabadilla, Arundo, and Nux Vom. You must decide which of these are the most similar to your individual symptoms. Another creative way to get through the season is to use Histaminum, to reduce the histamine reactions the body naturally creates to protect itself when it perceives a foreign protein. I have seen Histaminum 30c or 200c help in many histamine related conditions like hay fever, asthma, and hives. Giving someone a potentized form of what they are allergic to is not usually curative of the chronic allergic tendency but is quite helpful to strengthen the body against that particular problem for that year. This method is used for sensitive people who get severe cases of poison ivy, or beestings every year necessitating steroids or hospitalization. Taking 1 to 3 doses of Rhus Tox 1M (ultra-dilution of Poison Ivy) before the poison ivy plants come out in the Spring will almost always prevent that person from getting poison ivy at all that year. Apis 1M (which is made from bees ) can be given to attempt to desensitize a person who is hyper allergic to beestings—but they should still keep their emergency epinephrine shots handy—as well as more Apis for treatment on the way to the ER in case of a sting. We call this method of giving the same substance that is known to be the cause of someone’s suffering isopathy, in contrast to homeopathy – where we give the similar remedy—not the same remedy. Isopathy helps people—but it is good to focus on finding the similar remedy that fits the whole person to eradicate the entire allergic predisposition. To take isopathy even further, some practitioners administer homeopathic remedies made from foods, animal dander, dust, dust mites, and molds in an attempt to de-sensitize an allergic person. Milk and soy allergies are particularly common in infants and young children. These allergies sometimes do not involve hives and asthma, but rather lead to colic, and perhaps blood in the stool or poor growth. Infants and children are thought to be particularly susceptible to this allergic syndrome because of the immaturity of their immune and digestive systems. This highlights the “hygiene theory”, whereby people living the so-called clean western lifestyle are at greater risk for developing allergy. Recent studies suggest that heavy exposure to dog and cat allergens in the home may actually prevent allergies developing in infants (they suggest having two or more pets in the home!) Modest exposure to the common aero-allergens and allergenic foods in conjunction with these other factors leads to sensitization in early life and clinical allergy then develops. Modest early exposure seems to be the key to triggering sensitization, as evidence now exists for very high allergen exposure during early life having a “protective” effect (for example to cats and dogs). However, minimal exposure during the first year of life is still the recommended “rule of thumb” for allergy prevention. So many things hinge on the strength of the constitution at conception and then on life’s stresses starting with the parent’s emotional state during pregnancy and on through stresses at birth. Exclusive breast feeding (excluding all other foods) of infants for the first 6 to 12 months of life is often suggested to avoid milk or soy allergies from developing within that time frame. Such breast feeding often allows parents to avoid infant-feeding problems, especially if the parents are allergic (and the infant therefore is likely to be allergic). There are some children who are so sensitive to a certain food, however, that if the food is eaten by the mother, sufficient quantities enter the breast milk to cause a food reaction in the child. Premature introduction of foods overloads the weakened immune system. Many homeopathic practitioners believe that parents should avoid violation of a newborn’s undeveloped immune system on the first days and months of life by postponing the recommended 40 immunizations till the child is older-thus giving them a better chance of avoiding a life of allergy. Vaccinations can inundate a fragile system. American children are the most highly vaccinated kids in the world. Seven vaccines injected into a 13 lb. two-month old infant are equivalent to 70 doses in a 130 lb. Rather than obediently following the government’s schedule, there is now sufficient evidence, grounded in good science, to justify adopting a more user-friendly vaccination schedule, one which is in the best interests of the child as opposed to what planners judge best for society as a whole. From a risk-benefit perspective, there is growing evidence that the risk of neurologic and autoimmune diseases from vaccinations SOURCES:
http://kidshealth.org/en/teens/allergies.html# http://www.learnhomeopathy.org/the-homeopathic-approach-to-allergies/ https://www.verywell.com/what-is-an-allergy-82647 http://www.alive.com/health/homeopathy-and-food-allergies/ http://www.webmd.com/allergies/guide/allergy-basics http://www.homeopathyzone.com/blog/article/the-homeopathic-treatment-of-allergies/ http://www.allergyuk.org/what-is-an-allergy/what-is-an-allergy http://www.altmd.com/Articles/Homeopathy-for-Allergies http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/allergies/basics/definition/con-20034030 http://www.care2.com/greenliving/homeopathic-treatment-of-allergies-including-hay-fever.html http://www.aaaai.org/conditions-and-treatments/allergies
9 Comments
9/27/2018 02:09:31 pm
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December 2016
CategoriesAuthorA convinced believer, an eternal student and a fervent practitioner of Homeopathy and Alternative Medicines, I am awestruck by the real-life miracles these sciences deliver every day! My goal is to help people with my knowledge, experience and willingness to learn and adapt! |