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Allergies and Traditional Chinese Medicine


The birds are chirping, the wind is blowing, and the green shoots are jutting out of the earth.
Nothing is more relieving for those of us in the Northern hemisphere than a beautiful spring after
a long winter, well at least for most of us. If you are one of those thousands of people affected by
seasonal allergies you know the friendly signs of spring can be a step ahead of us resulting in
sneezing, runny nose, itchy eyes, and overall discomfort and misery.
Most allergies sufferers are used to stocking up on over the counter anti-histamines
pharmaceuticals in preparation for allergy season. However, Traditional Chinese Medicine can
offer treatment that can not only relieve allergy symptoms but improve your overall health.
Chinese medicine describes seasonal allergies as being caused by both internal and external
factors.
Externally, allergies are caused by pathogenic wind invading. Wind is a yang pathogen and tends
to invade the yang part of the body, namely the head and eyes. Signs that wind has invaded are
itching, watery eyes, redness that comes and goes and nasal congestion. Symptoms associated
with wind come on abruptly and strongly. This is why you can be fine one minute and have a
runny nose or be completely congested the next.
As the weather changes we become more vulnerable to outside pathogens. Don’t be afraid to
keep wearing a scarf as it gets a little warmer to help your defences from the wind.  Acupuncture
and Chinese medicine are very effective at releasing wind and therefore relieving the symptoms.
While clearing wind is important for the short term relief of allergies a long term cure can only
be achieved by working towards internal balance. Allergies are an over-reaction of our immune
system. When our stress levels are elevated our immune system becomes hyperactive. In TCM
the way to stop our natural defences from going haywire is to balance of our kidneys. When our
kidneys are regulated wind is unable to penetrate our defensive qi and symptoms do not emerge.
A kidney imbalance is the root cause of why we get allergies.  Restoring kidney qi can take
longer and making lifestyle changes but can lead to permanent resolution of seasonal allergies as
well as bringing clarity and vitality into your life.
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