TREATING SEASONAL

Treating Seasonal Allergies with Acupuncture

by Debra Pardee

It seems like spring “popped out” in one day—six weeks early and with a vengeance. Yellow pollen is everywhere. The damp winter has kept the pollen down but made the mold allergens worse. People are complaining of sinus pressure and stuffy noses one week and runny noses with headaches the next, wondering if it’s allergies and concerned it might be something more. When people are suffering from allergies, acupuncture usually isn’t the remedy that comes to mind. However, acupuncture has been treating allergies for over 3,000 documented years. Acupuncture brings the body back into balance—all parts of the body work better. Acupuncture is inexpensive, safe, painless and extremely effective. One acupuncture protocol in particular, Acupuncture for Sensitivity Elimination Technique, or AcuSET, specifically targets allergies. With the assistance of a computer program, the practitioner can identify sensitivities and then target them with specific acupuncture treatments.

In the meantime, here are some simple suggestions that can help us manage our way through the allergy season:

n Wash your hair and take a shower before bed to get the pollen off your body and not onto your bed and pillow.

n Don’t wear clothes in the house that you wore while working in the yard.

n Slice a lemon and put salt on it (if you can tolerate salt), and eat it quickly—salt dissolves phlegm, and lemons are an astringent, according to Oriental Medicine.

n Drink a cup of hot water with lemon.

n Vitamins A, C and D are especially helpful. There are many great homeopathic medicine formulas at the health food stores that are safe, effective and inexpensive.

n Rub your face gently but firmly around the sides of your nose, forehead, top of your head and temples. A big acupuncture point is in the webbing between the thumb and first finger.

n Eat more fruits and vegetables and a lot less sugar, gluten and dairy (if any). In Oriental Medicine, green onions, apples, strawberries, radishes, star fruit and carrots are recommended for allergies.

Debra Pardee, AP, NCCAOM, and author of Sensitivities and Keys to a Vibrantly Healthy Long Life, has been in private practice for more than 20 years. For more information, call 386-734-4126 or visit AcuDebra.com. See ad below.

Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise. ~George Washington Carver