This is the season when many people in the Bay Area are really suffering from seasonal allergies, often known as hay fever. This is not as benign as it may seem, because it is often the precipitating cause behind asthma flares and sinus infections – and can cause significant fatigue and brain fog.
Hay fever occurs when our immune system freaks out over being exposed to a common allergen in the air, such as pollen. Have you ever wondered why some people can breathe that same air and not have a problem at all, but you are taking 3 different allergy meds, inhalers, and are still miserable? Remember – allergies and asthma are not caused by a deficiency of antihistamine or bronchodilator medications.
Think of your immune system as a bucket. You will only have immune-related symptoms such as allergies if you overflow the bucket. If your “bucket” is already 99% full – because you are eating foods that you have an intolerance to, you are exposed to mold at your home or work, you have a hidden parasite or other underlying chronic infection, you have heavy metal toxicity, maybe you have a candida overgrowth in your GI tract, or you are deficient in some important anti-inflammatory and immune-modulating nutrients – then it doesn’t take much to overflow the bucket and cause you to have uncomfortable or even debilitating allergy or asthma symptoms.
When we test you for these underlying immune irritants – in other words find out exactly what is filling up your “bucket” – and fix all of that with simple, natural integrative medicine treatments – then many patients don’t have hay fever or asthma symptoms at all – or are able to function much better on a lot less medication.
Our integrative approach to treating hay fever, allergies, and asthma is very helpful in naturally decreasing symptoms and flare-ups, and hopefully preventing future sinus infections. If you do get a sinus infection, we can often treat it topically by prescribing natural inhaled agents, or if it is really bad, inhaled antibiotics – which hit the infection at the source without hurting your whole body with systemic oral antibiotics just to get a little bit into your sinuses.
Imagine sailing through the spring without a sniffle or getting through the entire year without another asthma flare or sinus infection. We hear that story from our patients over and over. Give us a call and see what a difference we can make in medically treating your hay fever, asthma, or sinus infections the more natural, integrative way.
Author Dr. Lynne Mielke Dr. Mielke takes a whole-person approach and uses specialized testing to determine the underlying cause of each person’s health condition.