Overcoming Allergies: Part 2

People keep asking me how I overcame (am still overcoming) my allergies. I've shared half of my journey in a post HERE, but the journey continues. I feel like we live in a culture that expects immediate results, we don't want to work toward healing, we just want to be better now! I get it, I really do, I suffered immensely with my allergies but never took pharmaceuticals, I felt them fully. I'm sort of thankful for them actually. They were what finally pushed me towards Nutritional Therapy; as I shared in my first post the doctors gave me no hope and only prescribed cover ups like antihistamines and steroid nasal sprays. I wanted to truly heal, not cover it up. 

If you are an allergy sufferer have you ever wondered to yourself why your body is overreacting to harmless substances like pollen? I sure did, the list of things I was allergic to was extensive:

All Trees
All Weeds
Dust Mites
Some Molds

Basically a perfect cocktail that hit me every single season indoors or out. I couldn't escape them. As a florist, herbalist and lover of nature I was devastated, and angry. There was no way I was going to allow myself to live like this, so I pursued healing hard-core. Pursuing healing, by the way, can only be done hard-core, there is no half-assing. For real. People want that magic pill, and I'm here to say that it does not exist. What I am here to say is, YOU CAN DO IT! If you are suffering and unable to do the things you love you should be willing to give up some of your comforts. 

So, that said, I'll give you a quick run down of what can cause allergies.
Whether it's indoor, outdoor or food allergies they all have a similar foundation. If the terrain of your body is compromised, overly toxic and sick then you will react to anything and everything because your body is overwhelmed. This means that food allergies can actually directly cause your environmental allergies. This was really confusing for me cause I never had much digestive upset from anything I was eating but I was sneezing, my nose would run and my whole body was fatigued. You have to start at the base, with what you are putting into your body and how well you assimilate it. Here are a few things that could be going wrong:

Leaky Gut caused by food allergies: When we eat food we are allergic to it creates an immune response and cause inflammation. If we continue eating this food it will begin to damage our gut soon making what was suppose to be impermeable, permeable. This means food particles like proteins start leaking into the blood stream and our body attacks them as if they were invaders. When the body is constantly overwhelmed by this it can begin reacting to things in our environment as well. Hence the relationship to environmental allergies.
Leaky Gut caused by not chewing well enough: Leaky gut can also be caused by not eating in a relaxed state where we are chewing every bite 20-30 times. We can really mess up our digestion if we swallow big, un-chewed food, over time this damages our gut as well. We need to really be present when we are eating, especially in a culture that is known for eating on the go.
Leaky Gut caused by bacterial overgrowth in the gut: This one is what I believe caused my allergies. Your gut is a little city of bacteria and it has to be in a certain balance to be healthy. Sometimes bacteria that is always in your gut will start proliferating and get out of balance, in my case I believe it is a bacteria strain called H. Pylori. The blanket term for this condition is SIBO: small intestine bacterial overgrowth. Sometimes bacteria that is out of balance can also cause Leaky Gut, my little H. Pylori friends are corkscrew bacteria, that means they are drilling into my gut lining can causing it to be leaky. So, they've got to go! I am currently on a protocol with some intense herbs to rid myself of my little friends. A small amount of these bacteria in your gut is normal, you just don't want it to get out of balance.
Adrenal Fatigue: These days we have so much stress in our lives that our adrenals are tired out which is also a contribution to allergies. 

Healing these issues is not easy, and it takes a long time. If you've been bad to your body for 10 years you can't expect to get better in one year, but you can make some big changes in that time and start feeling better. I want everyone to feel the vitality I feel, I think this world would be a better place if we were all nutritional supported. Don't you? I wish I could give everyone an answer right here right now, but the truth is everyone is so different and I have to take bio individuality into account. 

I know not everyone reading this lives in the Pacific Northwest, so if you are far aways and want to know more about healing your whole body and in turn healing your allergies, I will be offering phone/skype consultations with a whole nutritional intake for $50. ($20 for intake, $30 for consult) I am not a certified Nutritional Therapist yet, not until October, but I have some things I can offer in the mean time. And if you'd like to wait till October that's fine too!

Email me: [email protected]