Allergies, great and small

 

This is a disclaimer ⇒⇒⇒  I am not a doctor. I am not a scientist. I am not recommending anything. I am simply sharing my thoughts, my story, and my journey with you.

An allergic reaction is what happens when something your body comes in contact with is perceived as a bad thing, poison, or hazardous. If you think about what physical things happen when you are having an allergic reaction, they are all overzealous defense actions. They are your body’s well intentioned protection actions.

• stuffy nose/sinuses/throat: increased mucus forms a protective barrier in those areas
• runny nose/water eyes: increased fluid to wash away the bad things
• coughing: propels bad things out of the throat and lungs
• sneezing: propels bad things out of the nasal passages
• digestive distress: lets you know you ate something bad, please stop
• vomiting/diarrhea: gets whatever bad thing you ate out of you quickly
• hives/itchiness: I’m not entirely sure what your body is trying to tell you with that one, but I’m sure it has very good intentions

These reactions, or symptoms, are caused by massive histamine releases in those areas. So the individual symptoms are brought on by the histamine your body thought it need to produce in that area, not necessarily the perceived bad thing. That’s where histamine blockers (conventional allergy pills) come in.

Histamine blockers do just that. They block the well-intention histamine production. That’s one reason why allergy meds seem to work better if you take them regularly and preventatively versus reactively. But they don’t actually fix what is causing the histamine response in the first place: your body.

Allergy meds (histamine blockers) weren’t enough for me. They weren’t curing anything and I was tired of being tied to a pill (or a handful) every single day forever.

I tried the allergy shot treatment for about 6 months before I quit. That potentially could have fixed the underlying issues of my body being over sensitive to the specific things in my personal serum. I’ve heard great success stories from other people, but turns out it wasn’t the right treatment for me.

But along my journey to good health, I have made some interesting discoveries:

Food matters. The better I was at maintaining a healthy diet, giving my body all the things it needs and none very little of the stuff that isn’t food, the less often any allergen would cause me any great suffering

Homeopathy. I do not necessarily believe in homeopathy. In all honesty, I don’t understand all of it, and what I do understand, I can’t wrap my head around enough to make me think it works. I don’t know if homeopathy is safe, or viable, or all in the mind, BUT when I was experimenting with different alternative health methods I dabbled a bit and found two things that have helped me, and some of my loved ones, immensely.

Apis mellifica: (ground up honey bees) CAUTION: Yes I wrote ground up HONEY BEES! I have no idea how ingesting honey bees relates to being stung by honey bees. Make your own decisions!

These things have worked for a variety of insect bites. I got bit up two summers ago by biting flies. My legs were covered and the itch was insane! It just didn’t stop. None of my other remedies even touched it! Benadryl didn’t even make it go away. Out of desperation, I googled and googled, and came across Apis mellifica. Knowing that homeopathic drops/pellets are essentially sugar pills with a tiny bit of something in them, I was willing to try it out. (Heck, at that point I was willing to try almost anything!) Lo and behold, it worked! And it worked fast!

My daughter and I are “allergic” to mosquito bites. Basically, we get bit by a mosquito, and it swells up to a large welt, is hot to the touch, and itches like crazy for weeks. I actually had to take her to the emergency room once for a bite on her forehead. The left side of her face got so swollen her eye was shut. We’ve been using the Apis since that summer and it always works.

Nux vomica: (ground up nuts of the strychnine tree, also known as nux vomica, poison nut, semen strychnos, and quaker buttons) CAUTION: Nux vomica contains trace amounts of strychnine, a powerful poison! Make your own decisions!

I’ll be honest. I had no idea what Nux vomica was made from when I started taking it to relieve various digestive issues with various causes. As I said before, I dabbled in homeopathy for a bit, and homeopathy is not something for a dabbler. It is a very in-depth practice that probably takes years of dedicated study to scratch the surface of being competent. But I did take it, and it did work, for me.

As advertised, Nux vomica helped with when I ate too much, ate the wrong things, or had an upset stomach (or had a hangover). When I was still trying to wade through the world of what to eat and what not to eat for my body, nux vomica got me through the hard trials like a Gatorade and a can of chicken noodle soup (neither of which I could have anymore) would in the old days.

Stinging nettle. I drink a quart of stinging nettle infusion at least once a week. I started off forcing the infusions on my daughter, but now she actually asks for the nettle and raves about how good it is. We have both noticed, since drinking the stinging nettle, that yes, we still get bit just as much by mosquitos, but for the most part, the itch just goes away (if we can manage not to scratch it), and all signs of the bites are gone by the next day. No welts, no lingering itchy spots, nothing.

Also, since cleaning up my diet and drinking nourishing herbal infusions regularly, my seasonal allergies are waaaaaaay better. I won’t say they are gone. In the throes of spring, I occasionally take an OTC allergy pill, usually only if it’s really bad and I know I’m not going to want the extra annoyance that day. I can see the bad allergy days on everyone around me, but I’m just not affected anymore. And I have to say, IT’S AWESOME!!

Yes, it takes effort. Yes, it took time to get here, and it takes time to maintain. Yes, it’s totally worth it, for me. I enjoy my infusions. I appreciate food (vs. non-food) soooo much more now. I feel better, great even.