Overcome Allergies with Homeopathy

Homeopathy treats allergies by the administration of minute doses of a homeopathic remedy that would in healthy persons produce symptoms similar to those of the allergic response. Put simply, it treats not just the symptoms on the surface, but the entire person, at three levels - skin, respiratory and gastro-intestinal - effectively and without side-effects.

The word, allergy, was first used by Clemens von Pirquet, MD, an Austrian paediatrician, in the early 1900s. The expression originates from the Greek allos, for altered state, and ergon, connoting excess physiological reaction to substances in the environment. The fascinating idiom caught the fancy of the world. Today, allergy is the most overused term. It describes everything from sneezing bouts and skin rash to aversion to work or early mornings, or even certain people!

Yet, millions of people do suffer from real allergies. Nearly 30 per cent test positive for one or more allergens, or allergy-causing substances. And that number is only increasing. In the last 25-30 years, the incidence of allergic rhinitis (nasal allergy, or hay fever), asthma, food allergy, or sensitivity, and atopic dermatitis (eczema) has sharply escalated. Nasal allergy, for example, among all age groups, is reported by 45-50 people for every 1,000. The frequency reflects how common clinically diagnosed, easily established allergic conditions have become, although food allergy, or sensitivity, is not always as well recognised or appropriately treated.

Why the frequency of allergy has multiplied during the last 25-30 years:

• Reduced exposure to parasitic disease in the developed world. This triggers the immune system to react against ‘harmless’ allergens
• Reduced, or lack of breast-feeding
• Pollution, pollutants, contaminated air and particulate matter from automobile exhaust
• Cigarette and tobacco smoke
• Low hygiene threshold or experiencing a highly protected living environment with very low infection early in life increases the risk of developing allergies
• Vitamin D deficiency or low levels.

Why do allergies occur?

The allergic tendency is inherited; it occurs in every 2 individuals out of 5. If you have one allergic parent, for example, you have a 1-in-3 chance of developing allergy. If your mother and father have allergies, the risk is two-fold.

A new study shows that infants with low levels of cortisol, the stress chemical, have a low prevalence of allergies compared to children with higher levels of this hormone. Also protecting or keeping children away from certain foods during childhood puts them at a higher risk of allergies.

• Allergies are probably the oldest of conditions affecting our immune system
• The most common forms of allergy are environmental and food allergies - the systems commonly affected are respiratory, gastro-intestinal and skin
• Allergies can range from mild-to-severe; they can even be life-threatening

Causes of Allergy:

Allergies can result from any, or every, substance. What you breathe in, or are exposed to - substances such  as dust, house dust mites (HDM), pollen, mould spores or animal dander, certain plants, perfumes, cosmetics, preservatives, certain food, or conventional medications (e.g., aspirin), including blood transfusion, or insect stings, or bites - can all activate allergy.

What is alarming is the rising prevalence of food allergy or food sensitivity. The trigger for this kind of allergy is, as research points out, repetitive or excess consumption of certain foods - processed wheat and corn, food additives, artificial preservatives, colouring, flavour-enhancing agents, yeast and antibiotics. It is also observed that infrequent food rotation makes people inclined, or exposed, towards developing allergic hypersensitivities. Research also suggests that exposure to cow’s milk during the first three months of life is associated with high antibody and corresponding allergy levels - possibly up to eight years of age - more so, in children with maternal atopy, or a genetic tendency for allergic disorders.

Healing with Homeopathy

Homeopathy treats allergies safely and effectively. In fact, homeopathy actually pioneered the research and treatment of allergies. It was the British homeopath C H Blackely who suggested, in 1871, that seasonal sneezing and nasal discharges were triggered by exposure to pollen dust, over twenty years before conventional (allopathic) medicine developed allergen injections.

The treatment approach is holistic - for seasonal, acute or long-standing allergies of all types. In homeopathic clinical practice, we first treat the flagrant, acute allergic conditions that individuals develop during the allergy season. We, thereafter, prescribe a ‘constitutional’ remedy, a remedy that relates to the individual’s temperament or personality to desensitise the individual against the allergen and resolve allergies from the inside out during the symptom-free part of the year.

The immune system keeps all our systems in top gear - functioning at their best possible levels. When there is latent stress on the immune system, triggered by an external or internal offender, it leads to allergy.

When our body is strong, and in top gear, allergic problems which affect us the most during seasonal changes are foreign to us and our system. Homeopathy enables us to achieve this state, naturally. It stimulates our natural healing processes by the use of micro-dosage remedies that closely match the specific, unique manner in which each of us responds to allergies.

Allergy, be it to dust or food, or anything else, is not a malady or infection. It is, as homeopathy evidences, the outward manifestation of a functional fault in the body. Homeopathy views food sensitivities too as external expressions of internal malfunction in the affected individual’s immune system.

Homeopathy treats allergies by the administration of minute doses of a homeopathic remedy that would in healthy persons produce symptoms similar to those of the allergic response. For example, a severe allergic reaction to bee sting is treated safely and effectively with Apis Mellifica, a homeopathic remedy, made from honeybee.

Put simply, homeopathy treats not just the symptoms on the surface but the entire person at three levels: skin, respiratory and gastro-intestinal systems.