Allergy-Proof Your Life. Michelle Schoffro Cook

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СКАЧАТЬ about the valuable allergy and decongestant herb ephedra in chapter 5.

      Corticosteroids

      Corticosteroids are a family of drugs that are synthetic derivatives of the adrenal gland hormones cortisone or cortisol made by the body. The adrenal glands are two triangular-shaped glands that sit atop the kidneys in the abdominal area. While the natural hormones are needed to sustain life, the synthetic drugs used in the treatment of asthma and some serious allergies have serious side effects, some of which include thrush (a yeast infection of the mouth), weakness, acne, weight gain, mood or behavioral changes, bone loss, slowing of growth, eye changes, headaches, nausea, vomiting, and insomnia.12 They are available as inhalers to treat asthma, in topical forms to treat hives, or orally to address serious allergies. There are many names for corticosteroids, usually ending with the suffix -one, such as beclomethasone (brand names Beclovent, Beconase, Vanceril, Vancenase), fluticasone (brand names Flovent, Flonase), and triamcinolone (brand names Azmacort, Nasacort).

      Allergy Shots/Immunotherapy

      Allergy shots, or allergy vaccines or allergen immunotherapy as they are also known, are usually administered by vaccine once or twice a week. They are intended to desensitize the body to specific allergens. Each shot contains a minute amount of specific pollens, mold, dust, dander, bee venom, or other common allergen and is injected into the upper arm. Not only do they involve a significant time commitment to get a full course of treatment, but they can also be costly for those who do not have health care coverage for these treatments. Worse than that, they are painful and can cause serious reactions. This is particularly true for those people who tend to have life-threatening allergies, such as to bee venom. In some cases, allergy shots can cause the same allergic reactions they are used to treat. Allergy shots are intended to gradually increase your body’s tolerance to allergens. Some of the side effects of allergy shots include redness or swelling at the site of the vaccine, sneezing, nasal congestion, hives, throat swelling, wheezing, chest tightness, and anaphylactic shock; the latter is rare but a potentially life-threatening reaction to the vaccines used in allergy shots.13

      MEDICATIONS: HIGH RISK, LOW REWARD

      We might accept the serious side effects of many of these drugs if we knew they would cure us of what ails us, but the reality is that drugs don’t cure diseases; they mitigate symptoms. And in most cases, they don’t work much better, if at all better, than a placebo. According to Dr. Allen Roses, a scientist and the former global vice president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline, “Most prescription medicines do not work on most people.” He added, “The vast majority of drugs—more than 90 percent—only work on 30 to 50 percent of the people.”14

      Harvard University research found that approximately 50 percent of the effectiveness of pharmaceutical drugs can actually be linked to the placebo effect, not the actual effectiveness of the medication. Study participants were given either a pain drug or a placebo. When either the drug or placebo was administered with the message that it is an “effective treatment,” both had significantly better results. When the real drug was switched with the placebo, the results were nearly the same, provided that the message of the effective treatment accompanied the pills.15

      It should be fairly clear by now that the effectiveness of prescription drugs is much less than you may have believed. Much of their effectiveness can be attributed to the placebo effect or advertising or physician messaging that suggests that the drugs are effective. Additionally, when we refer to drugs as effective, we simply mean they reduce symptoms. Sadly, no drug has ever cured allergies. And considering the high cost, both financial and in terms of side effects, the minimal symptom improvement sometimes offered from pharmaceutical drugs is simply insufficient.

      Consider a media release issued by the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service entitled “Does Anybody Still Believe Slam Pieces on Dietary Supplements?” In it, the organization reported that “the biological action of most prescription drugs can be duplicated with dietary supplements at far less cost and side effects. . . .”16

      The nutrients, however, do not share the extensive list of side effects that accompany most prescription and OTC drugs, particularly in the category of pharmaceutically prepared analgesics. Twenty years ago, astute medical professionals who kept up on the research knew that nutrients could replace prescription drugs for treating disease.

      As you’ll soon discover in Allergy-Proof Your Life, foods, nutrients, natural medicines, and lifestyle modifications go a long way toward alleviating allergy symptoms and, in many cases I’ve personally witnessed, eliminating the allergies altogether.

      Forget blaming bad genes for the conditions that ail you: allergies are included as pioneering research into a specific field known as nutrigenomics—the study of the effects of nutrition on the expression of DNA. Nutrigenomics has found that certain nutrients formed compounds that could actually “turn off” the expression of so-called bad genes.17 While we once believed our genes were comparable to ticking time bombs just waiting to go off, leading scientists and nutritionists now know that what we eat and how we live plays a much greater role in preventing or even reversing the effects of our genes than we ever imagined possible.

      If you believe drugs are the only effective options for allergies, think again. Besides that, many drugs actually cause the same symptoms they are taken to alleviate. The natural options I’ll share with you over the coming chapters not only reduce allergy symptoms; they also strengthen and balance the body to quiet an overactive immune system and go to the root cause of the allergies themselves—which is not a drug deficiency disease as the pharmaceutical industry would have you believe.

       2

       Foods That Harm, Foods That Heal

      WHEN I FIRST MET my husband, Curtis, he suffered from severe seasonal allergies. Sneezing, sniffling, itchy eyes, and nasal congestion seemed to be part of his springtime routine. We moved in together about six weeks after our first date. Yes, it was quick, but we were and still are madly in love and have been together for nearly nineteen years now.

      When we embarked on our first joint grocery order, we decided to “divide and conquer”: I picked up the fresh produce while Curtis tracked down the juice, pasta, and other staples. When he arrived back at the grocery cart, arms full of items on our list, I was shocked. I couldn’t believe the junk he had gathered. From sugar-loaded cranberry juice to white pasta and freezer pastry dough, I hadn’t expected so much junk from someone who was so fit and athletic. I said “that’s not juice” after noticing the sugar-water-cranberry solution, and we had a good laugh about our different eating styles.

      Already a holistic nutritionist with a focus on the use of food to heal disease for several years by the time Curtis and I had that first grocery shopping experience together, I quickly realized that my sweetheart’s diet was playing a significant role in his allergy symptoms. I asked him if he would consider making dietary changes if they would likely help his seasonal allergies. Considering his love of the outdoors, as well as hiking, running, cycling, walking, he agreed.

      I recommended eliminating all dairy products from his diet, including the ones hidden in his morning muffins and other СКАЧАТЬ