A Root Cause Approach of Spring Allergies
Many of my clients come to me with is issues with seasonal allergies.
Ironically, it wasn’t until I started medical school that I had seasonal allergies for the first time. It would’ve been easy to conclude that my move from Salt Lake City to Portland triggered the allergic response (new flora, new pollen), but given I was now in naturopathic medical school and learning to treat the root cause and not the symptoms, I looked deeper.
What I have learned is there is a very strong relationship between certain conditions and seasonal allergies:
Prolonged, sustained periods of stress
Decreased adrenal function
Overburdened liver
G.I. toxicity from an imbalanced immune system
Gut microbiome dysbiosis
That first year of ND school I changed my diet to strict Paleo (no grains, beans, soy, dairy or sugar), healed my low blood sugar imbalance, built protocols for daily stress reduction, and generally started living a life of alignment, joy, and fulfillment.
It took some time for sure, a few years in fact, to rebalance my system but now, when they do come back up, I know it’s an indicator of where I am no longer maintaining the level of health and relaxation I need to. I see my allergies as a sign to slow down, eat better, do a cleanse, and allow my body to heal… NOT as a deficiency in over the counter allergy medications.
Just this year I had one day of allergies and I thought to myself, “Oh here they come!” I took immediate action and cleaned up my eating, took a ton of vitamin C and in two days all my symptoms were gone and haven’t come back since. Even I was a little surprised, but when I reflected on it I had just started a brand new weight lifting program and had majorly taxed my adrenals and liver for a couple days. Once I realized the cause I was able to mange for it and am sneeze & runny nose free.
Read below for more information on seasonal allergies, and strategies you can start implementing to reduce or eradicate your symptoms.
What if ‘pollen’ is not the cause of allergies? In my experience as a Naturopathic Doctor and my personal experience as someone who suffered from seasonal allergies, I’ve discovered it's actually a combination of poor adrenal function (think: fight, flight or freeze), an anxiety-stress response from years of being running down, a gut microbiome health decline, and an overburdened liver that can’t keep up cleaning out ‘all the things.’
What is Histamine for Anyways?
Histamine regulates a plethora of processes, such as secretion of stomach acid, inflammation (which is a good thing when you need it), and the regulation of vasodilatation and bronchoconstriction (think headaches and asthma). In addition, it can also serve as a neurotransmitter!
There is a critical connection between hydrochloric stomach acid, histamine prduction and sleep. Its beyond the scope of this newsletter to go into the details of the biochemistry here but ever wonder why Benadryl makes you sleepy? Or what the H in H2 blocker is for in anti-acid medications?
Histamine helps the body fight off parasites and it also causes the unpleasant swelling, itchiness, and runny nose associated with an allergic reaction. Histamine is also involved in keeping people awake during the day, so when Benadryl blocks the effect of histamine, it leads to sleepiness.
The Gut-Allergy Connection
There is a strong connection between seasonal allergies and gut health, particularly with dysbiosis, the imbalance of gut bacteria, and stomach acid imbalance; think GERD, heart burn, or food feeling like a brick in your stomach. Dysbiosis can weaken your immune system, leading to increased susceptibility to allergies. It’s important to maintain a diverse and balanced gut microbiome to support immune function and potentially alleviate allergic symptoms. By incorporating prebiotic and probiotic foods like FIBER, veggies, and gluten free grains, and promoting gut health by chewing your food all the way, drinking apple cider vinegar before meals, and eating in a relaxed state, you can reduce the severity of seasonal allergies.
An Overburdened Liver
In Chinese medicine, allergies are seen spiritually-emotionally connected to excess anger and being easily ‘inflamed’ by your environment. Anger is the emotion processed by the liver. It’s all about setting or resetting betrayed boundaries. Allergies are in essence your body’s boundary with nature has been lost, and you are now over-reacting to the natural world around you. From this lens, you can contemplate the following questions:
Where are you pissed off in your environment?
What are you tolerating or putting up with?
Where do you need to speak up for your needs?
Here are some actions you can take to cure seasonal allergies for good. This is a marathon, not a sprint - it isn’t the quick fix that taking over the counter (OTC) allergy medications is; it can take 1-2 years of work. ALL of my clients who have dealt with recurring seasonal allergies and worked with me on these root issues have remarked on the improvement of the severity of symptoms and the reduced need to take OTC medications. In time, many of them have reported the complete reversal of environmental allergies all together! It is worth the effort!
Balance your blood sugar. This means not letting your blood sugar get too low, or too high. For most that is starting with eating small frequent meals every 2.5-3 hours of paleo-friendly, whole foods (no sugar, gluten, dairy, processed foods) for 3 months. Essentially 6 cups of veggies a day and 50-90g of protein depending on activity level and body size. (Stay tuned for a deeper dive on glucose/blood sugar support in our next newsletter.)
Be fully hydrated. This supports the liver and kidney to do their job as the heavy lifters of our detox pathways. Not drinking enough water every day is akin to washing your dishes every night for a month without changing the sink water. Yuck! Just hydration alone can reduce allergy symptoms considerably.
Support adrenals, immunity and reduce inflammation with WAY more Vitamin C then you would think. While working with a health care provider, you can safely increase your daily intake of vitamin C up to 25x the standard daily dose of 1,000mg/day. Vitamin C stabilizes the white blood cells that release histamine and can shut down an allergic response as effectively as over the counter antihistamine, reduce hives, itching, watery eyes, sneezing runny nose - all of it. It's not just vitamin C either. Biofavinoids and some other critical plant anti-inflammatories support the control and reduction of the allergy response while we do the deeper inner work to clean up your liver, heal the gut, and restore adrenal function.
Get 9 hours of sleep a night. Deeper rest = less allergies. Period.
Eat clean, happy, living food. Stop consuming inflammatory foods such as sugar, alcohol, anything made of flour, wheat/gluten, and dairy especially (it increases mucus). I recommend 6 cups of vegetables daily plus pasture-raised meats, organic legumes, wild or ancient rice, quinoa, organic raw nuts and seeds, and fresh in season fruits.
Do daily castor oil pack (learn how here.)
Do a Neti pot nasal lavage 1-2x a day into sink or in the shower
Shower at the start and end of your day. Use a simple cleanser to wash off or reduce pollen on the skin and in the hair.
Check out my FULLSCRIPT three-month protocol for natural allergy support.
If you’re suffering from seasonal allergies and you’d like to get to the root cause of it, feel free to book time with me here.