Allergies in Carmichael CA

Curious about allergy causes? Our clinic in Carmichael CA is here to help. We all have been affected by allergies at some point in our lives, whether it's our own allergies, a loved one, a friend, a co-worker, etc. Allergies seem to be more prevalent in certain areas and there always seems to be the more common instigators such as pollen, grass, cat hair, mold and so forth. The solutions are typically the same as well-you know them well: anti-histamines, of course, are what we are all familiar with.

But did you ever notice one thing? That no matter how many medications you take, your allergies always seem to come back the following year and the year after that and the year after that. It's pretty obvious that the reason why is because you are merely suppressing the symptoms and in the meantime allowing it to go further into your system and possibly causing much more serious havoc to the body. But when we are so accustomed to this approach because it keeps our symptoms "at bay", it is easy to fall into this cycle even though we know that we're not treating the cause, just the symptoms. So why do we do it year after year? Because we want to be able to go to work, play with our kids, clean the house, all the finer things in life. Good reasons, by the way. But I think we all know that the point is being missed here and that is by taking a look at the way we are eating and what we are consuming every day of our lives.

Allergy Facts in Carmichael CA

You may ask what being allergic to pollen has to do with that burger and fries you had for dinner last night and the 2 coke's you had for breakfast this morning. Well, I am not questioning that you might be sensitive to pollen but did you ever consider the elimination of some ingredients from your diet.

Have you ever tried giving up pasteurized dairy for 90 days, how about sugar for 30 days, processed foods for 60 days or coffee for, um, 2 hours? You do realize that people with chronic allergies have some type of immune system suppression. If there wasn't suppression, your immune system would be strong enough to ward off the allergen. Now I know some healthy people who still get allergies, but are they truly healthy? My feeling is that there is some type of nutritional deficiency somewhere down the line, whether it's a mineral deficiency, maybe unknowingly eating processed foods, pasteurized dairy or the like.

Maybe you do have the perfect diet today but was it like that in your 20's and 30's? There may be a need for cleansing of some debris still left in your system. That is why a cleanse/detoxification may be one of the best decisions you could ever make right now. More than likely the toxic accumulation of processed foods over the course of time has now made you more reactive to the suspected allergen.

When we get to this magical point of our lives, we must consider the fact that our past lifestyles have now come back to haunt us if you will. If we remain toxic (even though we may not think we are), our bodies will react to anything foreign that comes our way.

So what are some steps that you can take to elude these so called irritants? Remember that this is the effect, but the cause is that your immune system is being suppressed somehow. The first thing you want to strongly consider is the elimination of processed foods. It's that simple, right? I don't think so. This might be one of the hardest things you ever do because most of the foods today that we consume are processed. Even the so called "good foods" that are out on shelves today are mostly processed or a genetically modified organism (GMO). If you thought just regular processed food was bad, wait until you learn about GMO's. The fact is that most (80%) of what we see at the grocery store is genetically modified. One of the most common foods that are genetically altered is soy. For a lot of people, mainly vegetarians, this comes as a shocker. Also, for people who have tried to cut dairy out of their diets. But the truth is that as of 2009, virtually all US soybeans are genetically modified while 42 % of all land that is used for growing crops in the world is planted with genetically modified crops. This is scary and no doubt that number will continue to rise.

So do you think that all this talk about processed foods and immune system suppression has anything to do with your grass allergy? It may be hard to swallow at first to acknowledge that you are responsible for your own health and that it is not the fault of the grass, pollen, dust or whatever allergen is out there. It has been so implanted in our heads that we are allergic to certain things and that we have to take medications to suppress the symptoms but this couldn't be further from the truth. This comes down to the basics, the bare essentials of eating the right way. Not the way that the FDA wants you to eat (they are the ones that allow GMO's) or the American Dairy Council, but the way that our ancestors ate 100 years ago. When cows and chickens weren't confined and fed GMO soy and injected with hormones and antibiotics, when none of the earth's land had genetic crops and when your local grocery store didn't have processed foods lining up the shelves.

This comes down to making a stand and coming to the realization that just because it was approved by a certain governmental agency, doesn't mean it is necessarily good for you.

Let's talk about the function of the medication you have been taking. The most common type is anti-histamine. But do we really know what anti-histamine is? We all know what anti means but what about histamine. Basically, histamines are produced by our white cells to help trigger our protective mechanisms. Things like coughing, runny nose, watery eyes, etc, these types of things that help us recover and get better. Remember the whole body heals itself thing. Yeah, that's what I mean. But anti-histamines unnaturally interfere with the body trying to do the work itself. The mouth, nose and eyes are the first line of defense. Like we had mentioned earlier, the allergen is allowed to enter further into the body than it ever would have gotten in the first place because the meds blocked the normal clearing responses from happening. This leads to tolerance and if done long enough, toxification. Anti-histamines do not treat the cause of the allergy, it only prevents the body to do what it was designed to do in the first place and that is fight the allergen on its own.

For a lot of people, allergies can be a precursor for more serious conditions, mainly autoimmune diseases. When we talk about autoimmune disorders, a term you didn't hear 30 years ago, we think about rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia. These are all conditions of unknown origin; we just know that the body is attacking itself because the body believes a part of itself is foreign and it must dispose of the supposed toxin or allergen. But we also know that these are "incurable" conditions and that they are progressive in nature. The medical model is to treat the symptoms (pain, swelling, inflammation), but again, what are you really accomplishing? Tolerance, toxification and lots of side effects. How about approaching it at a cellular level by attacking the most likely suspect-- blood poisoning or toxemia. The food that has been non-digestible has now been leaked through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream. This sets off a series of events beginning with the rotting debris setting up shop anywhere it desires, mainly tissues, arteries, joints, or organs. But this ultimately is where the inflammatory process will begin and since there are no digestive enzymes in the blood to 'fight" this process, the white cells (cells that regulate immune function) will come to action and that is how the immune system is compromised. Hopefully, you can now see the correlation between autoimmune disorders and regular old allergies.

We have just skimmed the surface on processed, man-made foods but haven't even touched upon pesticides, preservatives, additives and hormones of the foods we eat. Just when we thought we were doing well, we then realize that all the fruits and veggies that we have been eating are riddled with this garbage. A recent study done by the EWG (Environmental Working Group) concluded that some fruits and vegetables have anywhere from 47-67 different chemicals per serving!! The worst ones noted were celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, cherries, and lettuce just to name a few of the top ten. By the way, some of the cleanest ones (those with very little or no chemicals) were onions, avocados, pineapples, mango, asparagus and cantaloupe. Notice the worst ones have soft skins while the best ones have more firm skins indicating that the chemicals more readily penetrated the softer skin foods. One big problem with these chemicals that is rarely mentioned is that they stay in our bodies for months or years and become fat soluble-basically meaning that they are stored in our fat cells.

So after reading all this information, I am hoping that you see it my way and no other. Ok, I know that will never happen but can you at least be open to the fact that what you consume on a daily basis has a direct effect on the body's immune system. We have been stuffing the same garbage down our pieholes for so many years and have accumulated this toxic load that is just sitting there and rotting away and now our blood is toxic because of it. Wouldn't any irritant or allergen just be that last straw that is going to make us break out in this allergic reaction because our immunity wasn't strong enough to ward it off? It has to make some sense to you by now, but if you want to continue on the annual Claritin regimen between April and June or get your allergy shot and not treat the underlying cause, then that is your decision. Hopefully this will be a wake up call for you to challenge yourself for 60 days and just see if eliminating processed foods or dairy or sugar might make a difference. There will be no cheating, no altering, just plain elimination of the garbage that you know you're not supposed to be eating in the first place. The 60 day Detox/Cleanse program would be the ideal place for you to start this along with some key supplementation for colon cleansing and blood detoxification.