Allergies and Hayfever

Allergies can be uncomfortable and distracting, imprisoning. They can make it difficult to go for a walk in the country, and even make it difficult to go outside. Some allergy sufferers can't visit their friends who have pets, and many others can't eat their favorite foods.

Even the pleasures and benefits of exercise are difficult because some allergy sufferers' noses run more than they do. A runny or stuffy nose leads to mouth breathing, then a dry mouth, then less efficient breathing, and then less efficient overall functioning. A domino effect is set up, and the allergy sufferer is knocked down.

Conventional medical treatment for allergies usually consists of antihistamines, steroids, and desensitization shots. In obstinate cases, laser surgery may be utilised to vaporise mucus-forming nasal tissue. People with allergies know that these treatments don't work; at best, they provide temporary relief of symptoms, and at worst, they create side effects which can be worse than the allergies themselves.

Perhaps the greatest misunderstanding about allergies is the assumption that the allergen (the cat dander, the pollen, the housedust mite, or whatever) is the problem. Actually, the allergen is simply the trigger, while the allergic person's body is the loaded gun. Rather than just treating symptoms or avoiding the allergen, the best course is to take action to strengthen the body's own immune and defense system. Natural therapies which do this help empty the loaded gun or simply make it shoot blanks.

Hayfever

Hayfever is the most common type of seasonal allergy, and is an inappropriate response by the body’s immune system to pollen, a substance that is not normally harmful. The immune system is a highly complex defence mechanism that helps us to fight infections by identifying foreign invaders and mobilizing the body’s white blood cells to fight them. Occasionally, in some people, this system wrongly identifies a non-toxic substance as an invader, and histamine is subsequently released into the bloodstream. This causes dilation of capillaries, a decrease in blood pressure, an increase in the secretion of mucous and constriction of the smooth muscles of the bronchi – leading to the symptoms noted above.

Natural Therapies for Allergies and Hayfever

To treat your allergy, a homeopath will prescribe a "constitutional medicine," a remedy that is individually chosen to the totality of symptoms that the person is experiencing, not just the allergy symptoms. Finding a person's constitutional medicine requires the care of professional homeopath.

Solid research have proven the effectiveness of homeopathic medicines in allergies and hayfever. Dr. David Taylor-Reilly, a professor and homeopath at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, published an important study in the Lancet (October 18, 1986) which showed that homeopathically prepared doses of 12 common flowers were very effective in reducing hayfever symptoms when compared with patients given a placebo.

How can Homeopathy Help my Allergy or Hayfever

Homeopathicy uses very low doses of a compound or drug that, if given in large enough quantities, would cause the symptoms of the disease they are trying to cure. The homeopathic remedy Allium cepa, for instance, is made from an extract of onions. Onions, of course, make your eyes sting and water and your nose run when you peel and chop them. The homeopathic 'like for like' principle says that a disorder with these symptoms would be cured by a small dose of onion. So, homeopaths may use Allium cepa to treat hayfever.

Homeopathic remedies provide relief from a range of hayfever symptoms with no side effects. They will naturally increase resistance to pollens and irritants and ease attacks. It is simple and easy to take – just dissolve two pillules under a clean tongue four times daily or as required. For those who find themselves having a hayfever attack, there is a range of differing remedies that can ease the symptoms away quickly and effectively.