As a naturopathic physician, I’m always paying close attention to the connection between intestinal health and systemic complaints. Allergies in particular are something that our profession has recognized as having strong ties to the digestive tract. When people present to my office complaining of allergies, one of the first things I ask about is whether or not they’re having any digestive symptoms. I also want to know about their history of antibiotic use, their diet, if they were breastfed as an infant, and whether or not they were born via Caesarean section. So, what do these birth-related issues have to do with someone’s current allergy symptoms? Well, we know that allergies are symptoms that result from antibody responses to antigens (dust mites, pollens, mold, etc.) that our body recognizes as foreign. But what your doctors don’t often discuss is why this occurs in the first place. [Read more…]
Digestive Health In Early Life Linked To Allergies
Mold: Not Just an Allergy
It’s not an uncommon scenario. Someone comes to my office complaining of headaches, recurring sinus issues, a nagging cough, “brain fog”, and other chronic symptoms. They’ve already had complete medical work-ups, and were most likely prescribed multiple rounds of antibiotics, to no avail. “My allergist said that all of my test results were normal”. The first thing that comes to mind for me? Mold toxicity. [Read more…]
Allergies-Understanding Causes and Risks
The incidence of allergic rhinitis seems to be increasing every year, among both infants and adults. Most doctors will simply treat the symptoms, but it’s important to look more closely at some of the underlying causes, and how you can prevent allergies from affecting your quality of life.Benefits of pets, siblings, and farms
To look at this question, researchers questioned 8,486 adults, aged 20 to 40, from 13 countries, about their childhoods and their current respiratory health. After nine years, the study participants completed these questionnaires again and also were asked whether and when they developed nasal allergies or hay fever.
After taking into account other things that may affect allergies, including family history of allergies and whether their parents smoked, the researchers identified several childhood factors linked with later developing allergies:
- Contact with children, either siblings or in daycare, decreased the risk of developing allergies.
- The more siblings a person had, the lower his or her likelihood of developing rhinitis.
- Sharing a bedroom with an older sibling was protective against developing allergies.
- Having pets in the home or living on a farm as a child significantly decreased the likelihood of developing allergies.
- Having a mother who smoked while they were in utero and when they were a child increased allergy risk.
- Women had fewer allergies than men as kids, but more allergies as adults.
The balance between clean and not-so-clean
Some of these results may be surprising because they suggest that childhood exposure to more “dirt and germs” can keep allergies at bay. On the other hand, other studies suggest that for children growing up in urban environments, being exposed to urban pests such as cockroaches may increase allergy and asthma risk. Read on for tips on finding the right “balance of clean” to keep your family healthy.
- If your child has been begging for a pet, don’t let the “dirt and germ factor” dissuade you. Of course, only consider adding a pet to your family if you know you can care for it properly, and pick one that fits your lifestyle. For example, cats tend to be lower maintenance than dogs.
- Periodically taking your child out to a farm to see where our food comes from is a terrific learning experience, and it may just offer the added benefit of reducing your child’s risk of developing allergies.
- Some parents of kids who have to share bedrooms feel they aren’t giving their kids the best of everything. But having siblings share a bedroom may be one of the best ways to allergy-proof your little ones.
Understanding Chronic Sinusitis
Once again, time has proven naturopathic medicine to be way ahead of the game when it comes to effectively treating a condition before modern medicine finally acknowledges the truth. In this case, we’re talking about chronic sinusitis. As long as I’ve been practicing, we’ve always addressed this largely as an inflammatory condition. By removing underlying triggers of inflammation (food and environmental allergens in particular), and using natural anti-inflammatory treatments, along with treatments to help facilitate sinus drainage, patients almost universally have long-lasting relief. Now, modern medicine is recognizing that chronic sinusitis is indeed an inflammatory issue, rather than having a whole lot to do with infectious causes. If you’re stuck in a cycle of repeated antibiotics for recurring sinus infections, definitely consult with a naturopath for treatment advice.
Food Allergies-More Common Than You Think!
A study published in the October issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology estimated that nearly 2.5 percent of Americans have at least one food allergy. The study, which is believed to be the largest food allergy study to date, showed that the allergies were more common in children 5 years old or younger.
In the study, children under the age of 5 were more than twice as likely as those older than 20 to have a food allergy and black people were three times as likely as white people to have one, while men were nearly 1.9 times more likely than women to be affected. Black boys were more than four times as likely as white women over 20 to have a food allergy.
The findings also show that food allergies were more common in those with asthma. While the researchers did not study cause and effect between food allergies and asthma, having a food allergy appeared to compound the risk for asthma and vice versa.
Those with asthma had nearly four times the risk of having a food allergy than those without it. Overall, people with food allergies were nearly seven times more likely than those without them to have required ER treatment for their asthma in the 12 months leading up to the study.
“Our findings confirm a long-suspected interplay between food allergies and asthma, and that people with one of the conditions are at higher risk for the other,” says investigator Robert Wood, M.D., director of Allergy and Immunology at Hopkins Children’s.
Wood notes that many children experience an “allergic march,” developing a food allergy first and getting asthma and hay fever later.
While people with food allergies were somewhat more likely to be diagnosed with hay fever, the link between the two was not particularly strong, and they did not appear to have higher risk for eczema, the investigators found.
