DoctorYourself.com - Allergies: Another Opinion

How to Naturally Get Rid of Allergies

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I regularly annoy a few people because I basically don't believe in allergies. Neither does most of human history, for allergies appear to be a rather modern disease, only showing up in force during the last few generations. One might argue that other, more serious diseases had overshadowed allergies in the past, and that diagnostic methods are now so improved that more allergies are noticed.

Cow cookies. Do you really think that the human race would have evolved at all if we had to turn around and sneeze every time we walked by some ragweed? Do you honestly believe that man's earliest response to a dust storm was to SNEEZE? How many cave men do you suppose, while running away from a lion or tiger, had to stop to wipe their eyes and nose because they were allergic to cat fur? Oh, come now. Those that did were eaten, and their allergy died with them.

Evolution would not favor allergies, but modern disease care does. There's money in them thar noses. There actually are true allergies: the best example would be what happens if you give a blood type A person type B blood. But nine times out of ten what is called an "allergy" is a hypersensitivity to substances because of a weak and poorly nourished body. That is a naturopathic view of the subject.

It is simplistic, yet provable. Some easy ways to test my theory are:

1) Avoid artificial colors, flavors and preservatives in your food. Paint, industrial chemicals, and microbe-killers may get a very natural reaction from a healthy body, let alone a weakened one. May I suggest you take a look at Why Your Child is Hyperactive, by Benjamin F. Feingold, M.D., if you'd like a second medical opinion.

2) Stop eating "deli meats", especially cold cuts, hot dogs, and other preserved meats. I know a fellow that had chronic skin rashes. They went away in days when he simply stopped eating the above. Was it the nitrites? Might be, but who cares! The rashes vanished when the hot dogs did. "What kind of kid eats hot dogs?" Kids with allergies, that's who. "Even kids with chicken pox." It figures.

3) Stop eating other meats, too. Regrettably, feedlot animals are raised with a steady diet generously fortified with antibiotics and hormones. Don't try to kid me on this one: in earlier years I milked 120 head of Holsteins twice daily and I know a bit about cattle. Do you suppose that some "allergic" folks are just naturally reacting to foreign chemicals inevitably found in animal flesh?

4) If you'll do the above, you are virtually a vegetarian. Very few vegetarians have allergies. Vegetarians get much more fiber (average of 50 grams daily versus only 10 to 15 grams in the Standard American Diet (yes, what a lot of folks eat is pretty SAD). Vegetarians eat more legumes (peas, beans and lentils), more whole grains, more vitamin-rich fruits and vegetables, and more high-quality protein foods such as sprouts and tofu. This diet is going to do a lot more good than just help obliterate allergies.

5) Vitamin C in large doses is an excellent antihistamine and antitoxin. There is abundant medical evidence to support this, and much value will be found in the hundreds of controlled studies cited in The Healing Factor, by Irwin Stone; How To Live Longer and Feel Better, by Dr. Linus Pauling, and the many papers of Frederick R. Klenner, M.D. summarized in Clinical Uses of Vitamin C, edited by Lendon Smith, M.D. You may remember Dr. Smith as the "Children's Doctor on the TODAY show).

To illustrate, consider the potentially deadly allergy to bee stings. That must be the ultimate in histamine reactions, where the breathing passages close up to the point of suffocation. I do not recommend this, but I do know a person who had such an allergy and immediately after being stung took 25,000 mg of vitamin C. By the end of the day he'd taken about 100,000 mg. He did not take his medicine or use his inhaler. He had no symptoms at all. To me, this is a genuinely amazing episode, one which I would not suggest repeating. So why mention it at all? Because compared to this, what's a stuffy nose?

6) President Ronald Reagan's personal physician, Ralph Bookman, M.D., simply told Ron to drink a good bit more water to relieve allergies. There's a good idea in general, and it's drug-free.

In an interview, Dr. Bookman said, "Unquestionably, the single most important element in the treatment of asthma and other bronchial allergy symptoms is hydration. Unless adequate fluids are available to the mucus glands in the bronchial tree, their secretions will be tenaciously hard to raise. In asthma, liquids are medications. . . Liquids make mucus liquid. They change it from a troublesome solid that makes breathing difficult to an easy to cough up liquid. I demand that my patients drink 10 full glasses of liquid every day, and I question them constantly to make sure they understand how important it is. . . Water is best, of course, but I tell them to drink what they like. . . Any fluids will work but you must make a fetish of it." (Bookman R. 101 hints, tips and bits of wisdom from the president's allergist: Timely help for people with allergies and asthma. Emmaus PA: Rodale's Allergy Relief, Vol 3 No 7, July 1988, p 1-8. Posted at http://healthandenergy.com/101_allergy_tips.htm . See also: Bookman R. The dimensions of clinical allergy. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1985.)

7) Are there pressure points for allergies? Sure. In The Natural Healer's Acupressure Manual, author Michael Blate describes several that are worth a try.

8) Is lactose intolerance really a milk allergy? Maybe not. For many, a simple solution is to eat yogurt, kefir, aged cheeses, or other cultured milk products. These dairy products contain friendly bacteria that do a lot of our digesting for us. Pasteurized milk does not have these helpful microorganisms. I therefore think fluid milk is the least desirable dairy product of all. (My children's mother works for a large dairy corporation, so I hope she's reading something else right now.) The majority of supposedly lactose intolerant people actually aren't, and can eat ice cream or even moderate amounts of milk with meals. In fact about two-thirds of supposedly lactose intolerant persons do not prove to be so when they have a breath-hydrogen assay. (Williams, Nutrition and Diet Therapy, 7th edition, page 41). Lactase production in humans decreases after age 5, and in other mammals it disappears not long after birth. Is this perhaps simply biochemical weaning? It does lend some credibility to a vegan (dairy-free) diet for older children and adults. Lactose intolerance may be mostly due to a poor colon bacteria environment which makes it tough to properly digest many foods. More fiber and less meat in your diet lessens constipation and will enhance your intestinal population of helpful bacteria. Did you know that about ONE HALF of a human bowel movement is composed of bacteria? That's a lot of critters that are so small that you need a 1200 power microscope to see even one.

If you try all these alternatives and still have symptoms, even I would concede that you might well have a real allergy. But most people don't.

Andrew Saul is the author of the books FIRE YOUR DOCTOR! How to be Independently Healthy (reader reviews at http://www.doctoryourself.com/review.html ) and DOCTOR YOURSELF: Natural Healing that Works. (reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html )

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Andrew W. Saul

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