What's Your Problem?
- Acne
- Allergies
- Arthritis
- Babies - Fruit Juice
- Babies - Sleeping
- Babies - Weaning
- Bed Wetting
- Blood Pressure - High
- Blood Pressure - Low
- Body Odour
- Bruises
- Burns
- Caffeine
- Cancer
- Candida
- Children - Speech Impediment
- Children and Television
- Cholesterol
- Chronic Fatigue
- Colds and Flu's
- Conjunctivitis
- Cystitis
- Dandruff
- Depression
- Dizzy Spells
- Ear Problems
- Eczema
- Endometriosis
- Fasting
- Female Sexual Hygiene
- Fever
- Foot Rot
- Grief
- HIV - AIDS
- HRT - Premarin
- Halitosis
- Hangover Cure
- Head Lice
- Headaches
- Headaches and Migraine
- Heart
- Hepatitis
- Herpes and Shingles
- Hypoglycaemia
- Immunisation
- Insomnia
- Jetlag
- Kidney Stones
- Knee Problems
- Memory
- Miscarriage
- Period Pains
- Polycystic Ovaries
- Pre Menstrual Syndrome
- Psoriasis
- Restless Legs
- Sexual Performance
- Stings - Insects and Snakes
- Stomach Ulcers
- Thrush
- Underweight
- Varicose Veins
- Warts
- Water Drinking
- Worms
Please read our Golden Rules of self help before considering the information on this page.
Allergies
"I have been to a naturopath who said I am allergic to wheat. I tried to stay off wheat but it seems that I react to more and more things? How come so many people are intolerant to wheat? I am getting really fed up and confused".
So are many people! The truth is that many people are intolerant to certain foods without actually being allergic. Allergy is a very serious thing, it can put you into shock as if you had swallowed poison. On the other hand foods that you are intolerant to just give you certain unpleasant reactions and can make your life miserable without being actually life threatening. Even though they can really cause depleting and nutritional deficiency.
Why Is It So?
Consider this. People in Europe, Western Asia and the Middle-East have been consuming wheat as a staple food for about four to five THOUSANDS years. So why have we all become ‘allergic’ to it in the past thirty or forty years?
The answer is: Progress!
In the nineteen century it was possible to refine wheat on an industrial scale. That was bad enough because the bits of the wheat that contained all the nutrients (germ and bran) were thrown out and fed to the pigs. That was good for the pigs but rather bad for humans who were now eating plain refined carbohydrates. That was bad enough but the Second World War was followed by more progress and things got worse. Wheat was grown on artificial fertilisers and sprayed with insecticides and herbicides. After being stripped of wheat and bran, wheat got now bleached (for consumer appeal); treated with some chemical so that the flour would not form a lump in the packet; with some other chemicals so that it would stick if you made a cake, stored in huge silos with insecticides based on aluminium.
Now I am going to ask you a question: do you think that we are allergic to wheat or do you think we are reacting to all the processes and chemicals that poor old wheat is subjected to?
But Wait There’s More!
The problem is when something irritates your body, your immune system views it as an enemy which it calls ‘antigen’ so it makes ‘antibodies’ to fight them. Next time this ‘antigen’ comes in the neighbourhood the immune system zaps it with antibodies. The problem is the more we absorb of the ‘antigen’ the more the immune system will send antibodies. Toast in the morning: antigens, pasta at lunch time: antigens; muffins for afternoon tea: antigens. Soon our bodies are like Bosnia with a raging civil war happening several times a day. No wonder you feel bad when you eat wheat!
So What Do We Do Now?
Have no fear, Granny is Here! Well, the sad truth is that for a while you will need to stay off the wheat and this means bread, pasta, commercial breakfast cereals, cakes, biscuits, all wheat flour products, including all hidden flour products such as the ones used as thickeners in prepacked foods (check the labels). What this will do is stop the immune system firing wheat antigens.
Then you need to repair the mucous membrane in your gut so that nothing can get through unless it is duly digested. In order to do this you need to go on Inner Health ™ to put in all the good bugs. Also it is important to use herbs such as thyme, sage, basil, oregano, fennel and aniseed which help the digestion and tone the gut, you can have them as teas but putting them in your cooking is much more fun. Of course your diet should have ample roughage in the form of vegetables, especially potatoes and grains such as rice, barley and buckwheat.
How long you stay on a wheat free diet really depends on how reactive you have become. Some people need to stay off wheat for a year.
The Challenge
Then comes the exiting part when you challenge your immune system! Of course you don’t go back to yucky refined, ‘chemicalised’, degenerate wheat. You get yourself some genuine organic wheat. Organic bread is a wee bit more expensive than the bad stuff but you don’t need to have so much because it is both more filling and more nutritious and therefore you need less. Nowadays you can get organic flour from the supermarket, so you might want to start with homemade pancakes.
I know that this may seem a little complicated but if you follow the above procedure you will be able to eat wheat again. Real wheat, properly grown and processed is a wonderful staple food and there is no reason why we should stop having it after five thousand years!
AAACCHHOOOOO!
Bless you! Hay fever is a reaction that the mucous membrane of the eyes, nose and general upper respiratory tract has to seasonal pollen and dusts. It causes itching and clear watery discharge of the nose, eyes and throat and frequent sneezing and irritability.
While some people get really excited at the golden sight of the wattles trees some other people think: “Oh, no!” and reach for the tissue box. What happens to these poor infortunates is that what is a delight to bees is an allergen to their immune system. The immune system produces large amounts of antibodies which themselves produce histamines, which fills capillaries with fluid and we have swelling and irritation. Aachoo!
The medical books always tell you first to stay away from the irritant. Great! Unless you want to live in a bubble this can’t really work, especially given the great Aussie outdoors. Besides, as soon as you stay away from one irritant, you will become sensitive to another. Here is an encouraging story for you. Bart Cummings, yes the illustrious horse trainer, when he was at the beginning of his career, had very big problems with hay fever. He was told that as long as he stayed away from horses, hay and chaff he would be alright. I don’t know exactly in which terms he put it, but he told the specialists that this was not an option and the rest is history.
What you need to do is to strengthen your mucous membranes and your immune system so that there is no wholesale reaction to any and every dust, pollen, fur, feather and fluff.
The Three Musketeers
I bet you know what I am going to say: vitamins C, A and E. Yes! The three of them together are great to build up a strong mucous membrane.
But wait, there’s more! In fact, some serious studies (Sapporo Medical School in Japan in case you need to know) on vitamin E have demonstrated that it has strong antihistamine effect. It is important to take it before symptoms start; so if you are planning a bush walk on Sunday start taking vitamin E on the previous Monday. Applied topically vitamin E can reduce itching and redness.
Another nutrient that helps is quercitin, a bioflavonoids which is found in large amounts in onions. You don’t have to eat tonnes of onions, you can buy quercitin at the healthfood store, but including onions daily in your food will help.
Hot foods like chilly peppers also help open the breathing passage ways as well as being strengthening to the capillaries.
Herbs
There is a herb which is absolutely wonderful and almost miraculous for allergies: it is called Ephedra. It is very much used in Chinese medicine for asthma and allergies under the name of Ma Hung. Unfortunately, only your doctor can prescribe it. So find a doctor who is friendly with a naturopath, get the doctor to prescribe the herb and the naturopath will tell you about dosage.
Other herbs which are also good :
Albizia, Baical Skullcap (this is not the Skullcap used for nervous conditions), Feverfew, Eyebright, Golden Seal, Golden Rod, Baptisia and of course Horse Radish.
How do you take those? Easy. Some of them you can get as dried herbs and have as tea with a little honey and lemon. Use single herbs or several together. Or you can get them as tablets at your health food store, or your herbalist can prepare a tailor made mixture for you. Of course this herbalist can prepare one just for you. Herbs such as Eyebright and Golden Seal can be used in tiny amounts (3 drops in quarter of a cup of water) as nose and eye wash and to gargle with.
You can also read "Natural Recovery" for a step by step reclaiming of your respiratory system and your digestive system.
How Long Do I Do This For?
Well, it is best to start before spring has sprung. Like two months before. But if you are generally a ‘hay feverish’ sort of a person, you should work at building up your mucous membrane at first for three months solid. Give it a rest for a couple of months, then do another three months. Soon you will only need to go on a programme for a month once or twice a year.
If you get into a serious anti-hay fever programme you too will be able to enjoy the fresh wattle buds and Aunt Emma’s new kittens!
DISMISS DUST MITES
Small may be beautiful but small things can also be a huge annoyance. Those pesky tiny, invisible dust mites create a lot of problems for people who, even if they don’t have an actual allergy to the dust mite, still suffer from a lot of sneezing, wheezing and stuffed noses because of them.
So, do you need to pull up and burn your carpets? Cover all your mattresses and pillows? Buy an industrial size vacuum cleaner? Kill the dog?
Well…
- You could start with the dog! Only kidding, I love my mutts I wouldn’t get rid of them or my cats even if I were asthmatic! Dust mites live on dust, so it makes sense to try and keep the dust as minimal as possible.
- Keeping The Dust Level Down
- Yes, it is important to vacuum regularly
- Wipe surfaces down to get rid of even more dust.
- Use pillows with artificial fibre rather than feathers.
- Wash your bed linen often.
- Once you made your bed, cover it all up with a large bedspread, which you tuck in over the pillows to prevent dust settling on them.
But Wait There’s More!
It just happens that TEA actually neutralises the chemicals in house dust which cause allergic reactions . Yes, simple everyday tea. Use tea to wipe down all surfaces and even as a rinse on the floor (after you have vacuumed), you can even put it in a spray bottle. The cheapest nastiest brand of tea will do, it doesn’t matter what it tastes like.
For a personalised treatment please contact me here.
The information on this website is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. None of the products mentioned on this website are intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
The information on this website is not intended to provide personal medical advice, which should be obtained from a medical professional.
This information is made available with the understanding that the author and publisher are not providing medical, psychological, or nutritional counseling services on this site. The information on this website does not cover all possible uses, actions, precautions, side effects, and interactions.
Liability for individual actions or omissions based upon the contents of this site is expressly disclaimed.