Allergy and hayfever season is here. Those symptoms of sneezing, coughing, swollen sinuses, itchy eyes, and a puffy face all have a reason, a root cause, an agitator that triggers your body into responding in this unnecessary and unpopular way. If you knew what was causing your problem, you would have a much better chance of accurately fixing it, and that is what we want to help you with.
For physiological answers, we turn to the medical world. You usually do not expect the medical community to offer natural healthy options for your maladies, but what you can expect is a reliable understanding of what causes those maladies. I am talking about medical research, not your doctor's office.
What Your Doctor Is Likely to Tell You
If you talk with a doctor, he or she may or may not have read the medical journals that explain your condition in detail. What did happen, though, is that he or she listened to the pharmaceutical rep who visits regularly. The explanation the pharmaceutical rep offered was the truth, but it only explained one layer of the ailment.
Here is their explanation. Allergies are caused when the immune system uses histamines to attack the body. The histamines do attack allergens like pollen and dust, but the battle of the histamines is an unnecessary one because pollen, dust, and most other allergens are of no actual danger. The immune system attacks out of confusion, and the allergy symptoms are the inflammation caused by the histamine attack.
The reason this explanation is offered is to sell drugs called anti-histamines that block the histamine reaction. That is pretty cool because they really do work, and symptoms abate for a little while. However, this does not address the root cause. It also reduces the immune system's ability to fight off real dangers like viral and bacterial infections.
For answers to the root cause, we must dive a little deeper.
A Note on Life-Threatening Allergies
Side note: When we are discussing allergies in this article, we are not talking about the kinds that can cause anaphylaxis and are life threatening. These include, but are not limited to, peanuts, shellfish, eggs, NSAID medications, antibiotics like penicillin, bee stings, and latex.
While there are some very promising natural remedies being tested for these, they are not being sold in the USA yet. We will eventually have an article on those when we have more substantial information. I will tell you, though, that in Honduras they use soursop (graviola) leaf, which grows everywhere, for peanut allergies. Locals with peanut allergies explain that they can eat peanuts and only experience a little tingling in the lips, as long as they drink soursop tea regularly. Graviola root was popular (until the FDA got wind of it) a few years ago because of its successful use as a cancer treatment. More on that in another article.
The Real Root Cause: Systemic Acidosis
Dr. Mark Sircus explains in his book, Sodium Bicarbonate, that allergies are caused by systemic acidosis. Systemic acidosis is created when a person eats too many processed carbohydrates and food chemicals. The acidic waste from these foods and chemicals builds up in all the tissues and fluids, except the blood. The body will not let acid build up in the blood because the pH changes would interfere with the electrical rhythms in the heart and cause a cardiomyopathy heart attack. The body knows the blood pH must be maintained at all cost, so it parks the acidic wastes everywhere else.
Systemic acidosis confuses the immune system and causes it to attack all manner of incoming elements and organisms, most of which are not dangerous. Once the immune system is confused, detoxing alone will rarely solve the problem, which is why some of the healthiest people you know still have allergies. A liaison must be used to guide the immune system back into balance. Herbal combinations that include marshmallow root, astragalus, and Pau D'Arco make great liaisons. You can make your own, or you can buy one that has been tested and proven. One of those proven formulas is Alymune from Better World Botanicals.
How Alymune Came to Be
I remember when I was a kid, my mom turned into a mucus factory every spring when the ragweed was blooming. Her allergies were beyond horrible, and she would be completely incapable of doing anything except scratching her eyes, blowing her nose, keeping a wet rag over her face, and suffering for 6 to 8 weeks. My family was into natural health back then, but nobody had any idea what to do to help her. She suffered that way for years.
I have a nephew who is terribly allergic to cigarette smoke and has been since he was a baby. I have another nephew who is allergic to chocolate, and a niece who used to be allergic to everything. My wife used to have seasonal allergies. She was also ridiculously allergic to cats. I remember years ago when we were looking for a house, the realtor took us into one that had cat hair everywhere. My wife walked in the door and immediately turned and walked right back out. She was only in the house for a few seconds, but it didn't matter. She was so sick and swollen that she didn't get out of bed except to use the bathroom for 3 days.
While my wife was suffering from her seasonal allergies, I started working on a formula to see if I could help her. The Creator must have agreed to support my efforts, because I successfully developed a formula that worked better than anything I could have dreamed of. I called it "Alymune," and my wife was my first victim. I mean, test subject. She took 1 dropper every 15 minutes until she started feeling relief, which took about two hours. After that, she started taking it only when her symptoms came back, which became less and less often. She did continue taking a tablespoon each evening for the rest of the summer.
She rarely suffers now, but when she does, it is easily alleviated by Alymune. We also have four cats that she has no issue with. My nieces and nephews are also doing fine. My mother only feels her hayfever if she eats too much sugar during allergy season. Otherwise, she eats what she wants.
Quick Relief When You Are Caught Unprepared
If your allergies suddenly come on and you are caught unprepared, there are still natural things you can do for some quick relief. Adding a teaspoon of baking soda to a 16 oz glass of water and drinking it will quickly neutralize some of the acidic pH in your body. This works great, but it is only temporary. Be sure to do this when you have not eaten anything for a couple of hours, and do not eat anything for at least 40 minutes after you drink it. This is because your stomach uses acids to digest food, and baking soda will neutralize your stomach acids, which will cause the food to ferment instead of digest. It will also cause a lot of gas, burping, and potentially a nasty stomach ache. Even though baking soda neutralizes acid, it does not remove the waste from the body that caused the acid in the first place. Herbs and a clean diet do a better job of that.
The Bottom Line
Allergies are the symptoms of a root problem. Take care of the root and the symptoms will disappear on their own, and your whole body will be healthier because you did.
If you would like more information, contact one of our trusted associates, go online at betterworldbotanicals.com, or call us at 740-492-1880.
