Allergies

Source: Healthy Way Magazine Issue 24 Article 5

More than 22 million people in the UK suffer from allergies. Hayfever affects 25% of the UK population. That’s a whole heap of people. Maybe it’s you? Do you splutter and sneeze all summer long? Is persistent nose-blowing part of your morning routine? Do your eyes and nose make determined attempts to dribble off the bottom of your face? Or maybe it’s milder, such as constant, background catarrh that you consider to be inevitable, an itchy skin at certain times of the year or strange rashes that come and go?

Why does this happen?
You may just be allergic to something – dairy products, eggs, peanuts, shellfish and oranges are all common allergens. Sometimes allergies run in families. ‘Allergy’, by the way, comes from the Greek meaning ‘altered reaction’.
You may have an intolerance. This simply means you aren’t actually allergic to something but your system finds it tricky to deal with and you may feel better for avoiding it. Many people find their digestion is better when they avoid wheat, for example, although they are not coeliac.

You may be run down and your system is struggling to cope. Dr William Rea, an American allergist, gives a useful analogy: think of your body as a water barrel with holes in it, being filled from a tap above. The holes let out enough water to stop the barrel overflowing, but if the flow of water gets stronger the barrel will eventually overflow. Our bodies are very clever and have many ways of dealing with the various toxins that they encounter from day to day. The equivalent of the holes in the barrel – the safety valves – are the liver and kidneys, the immune system cells spread throughout our tissues, even the acid in our stomach. These are all there to break down harmful substances and keep us safe. Nowadays, though, there are many more pollutants and chemicals around than there ever have been, and our bodies sometimes get overwhelmed or come across things they just don’t know how to deal with. Think of an average day:

• Coffee first thing – caffeine is a drug which your liver has to deal with.
• Artificial sweeteners in coffee – much harder to deal with than ordinary sugar and possibly connected to unpleasant diseases.
• Milk on cereal – many people are intolerant of dairy products.
• Toast – many people find wheat hard to digest.
• Perfume – chemicals sprayed straight onto your thyroid area or soft, absorbent tissue. around your wrists and neck
• Car fumes – once you get out of the front door.
• Cigarette fumes – from your colleagues.
• Chemicals – in the atmosphere at work.
• Cleaning agents – next time you’re polishing the furniture, think about what’s going into your lungs. I remember a woman whose house plant was dying until a gardening expert advised her to stop wax polishing the furniture in that room – the spray was killing the plant!

And all this is before you start eating things with additives and colourings in them, taking painkillers, drinking alcohol and taking the Pill... No wonder your body is finding it tough!What are the symptoms of allergic reaction?