With the warmest month of March on record coming to a close, it looks like Spring has sprung here in Chicago! The nice weather seems to have caused an early and intense allergy season as I have seen many people suffering from "hay fever". This is largely unnecessary because what many people do not realize is that nobody actually has seasonal allergies! Let me explain...
What would happen if you went to your surgeon and said, "Doc, I am sick of this! I want you to remove my allergies! Schedule a surgery so you can cut them out, immediately!"? Of course this would be absurd, because if you look closely, nobody actually has allergies. If you did, they could be removed! The more accurate way to view this is that people do allergies; they do not have them. This fundamental distinction empowers you in two important ways. First, it helps you see what your problem is not and second, it tells you exactly what the problem is - that your body is doing allergies!
The next question to ask is, "Why is my body doing allergies?" On a fundamental level, an allergy describes an inappropriate reaction that someone's body does in response to what is normally a harmless substance, i.e. when breathing in a spec of harmless pollen results in a large immune reaction of histamine production, swelling, itchy eyes, mucous, etc. It is not the substance, but the body's reaction to the substance that causes the problems. This reveals a pattern of inappropriate reactivity (a bad program) that is stuck in someone's nervous and immune system.
The next question to ask is, "How can I help my immune system act more appropriately so I stop doing allergies?" Notice the wording of this question. Therein lies the solution, because the question is everything!
If I had asked, "How do I get rid of my allergies?", that would have led me in the same direction that most people go to, using drugs, chemicals, herbs, and/or machines to suppress the offending symptoms. Symptoms are viewed as something to be dominated and controlled. The shortcomings of this approach result from the dangers inherent in the actual substances used, as well as predictable consequences of attempting the goal of dominating and controlling functions of the body. Do you really want to be declaring war on your own immune system? What if you win? This is, after all, the system that is supposed to protect you...
Back to the correct question: "How can I get my immune system to act more appropriately so I stop doing allergies?" This is the road less traveled, but, because of the nature of the activities, it always results in a healthier individual. The first thing to understand is that if your body is doing allergies, then your immune system is out of balance.
Many health-enhancing activities can and should be done to improve the function of your immune system, but perhaps the most overlooked is chiropractic so I will start there. Properly applied chiropractic helps your body (actually it helps what is running your body) become aware of and dissipate abnormal patterns of reactivity that are stuck in your physiology. Unlike drugs and herbs that are designed to suppress your symptoms, properly applied chiropractic results in a healthier immune system that is able to more accurately perceive and more appropriately respond to environmental demands. This happens because the abnormal patterns of reactivity that are causing the problem are brought into light and able to be dissipated. Once the reactivity is gone, then exposure to the "allergen" no longer results in problems, i.e. you stop doing the allergic reactions, so you don't "have" them anymore. (Of course you never had them in the first place!)
The goal of, "getting rid of your allergies" is not the goal of a chiropractor. I will leave that to therapists who are determined to dominate and control symptoms. The goal of the chiropractor is to help what runs your body (your innate intelligence) express itself better through your body. A better expression of your innate intelligence can result in improvements in all areas of your life. This is, of course, important whether you do allergies (or any other condition for that matter) or not, so find a chiropractor that is able to properly adjust you today!
