Allergy

The wide spectrum and variety of symptoms caused by allergies are often unrecognized by patients and their physicians.  One of the fundamental emphasis in solving health problems at our clinic is identifying underlying allergies causing your health problems.

One of the immune system's role is to protect our body from infections microorganisms, but sometimes it overreacts to what is typically a harmless substance.  This overreaction is known as an allergic reaction.  Common airborne or inhalant allergens include pollen, dust, dust mite, mold, animal dander. The classic example of inhalant allergy is hayfever causing symptoms such as sneezing, nasal congestion, itchy eyes, asthma and rashes from pollen allergy.

Allergy symptoms are considered to be mediated by the release of histamine, hence, the use of antihistamines to treat allergy. Allergic reactions also release numerous other inflammatory mediators.  So we can look at allergic reactions as inflammatory reactions to which all of our tissues and  organs are susceptible:

• Inflammation in the nose-congestion
• Lung inflammation-asthma
• Gastrointestinal inflammation-"irritable bowel syndrome"
• Joints and muscle inflammation-arthritis and myalgia
• In the brain-mental fogginess, memory impairment, mood swings

Long-term untreated inflammation can lead to chronic disease, which is one of the reasons why identifying, avoiding and treating allergies is of utmost importance.  Cardiovascular disease has been clearly recognized as having a major inflammatory component.

So from both a health improvement and disease prevention viewpoint, allergy evaluation, identification and treatment can be extremely beneficial.