ARTICLES

New, Effective Natural Treatment for Seasonal Allergies

By Dr. Justin Lafreniere BSc. ND

For millions of Canadians, the end of winter means that hay fever season is approaching. All the sniffling and sneezing brought on by a never-ending string of colds going through the office or the kid's school is finally over - only to be replaced by all that miserable sniffling and sneezing triggered by trees and grasses coaxed back to life by sunshine and warm weather.

More than one in six Canadians suffer from hay fever, or seasonal allergic rhinoconjunctivitis. Depending on what a person is allergic to, allergy season can start in the early spring and last right through to the fall. Here in Vancouver, you could suffer from allergy symptoms from early March to late November.

The symptoms of allergies vary individually, but most people with allergies experience itchy, red eyes, runny nose and sneezing, chronic sore throat, daily headaches, and skin irritations and rashes. For those with asthma or chronic bronchitis, seasonal allergies can greatly exacerbate their already compromised respiratory symptoms.

An allergy is the immune system’s excessive sensitivity and over-response to exposure from a normally harmless foreign substance, or allergen, such as plant pollen, house dust mites, animal hair or certain foods. The immune system responds, as if to a real threat, by triggering an immune response or allergic reaction. This immune response triggers the release of a number of immunochemicals that cause inflammation. One of those immunochemicals, called histamine, is particularly responsible for the symptoms of seasonal allergies.

Over-the-counter anti-histamines, such as Claritin (loratidine), may be effective short term treatment for allergy sufferers, but not without side-effect. The fatigue, headaches, dry mouth, and blurred vision that come with these types of anti-histamines make this type of treatment unacceptable for many people. And while the subcutaneous allergy therapies offered by allergy specialists are effective for long-term relief of symptoms, concerns over safety with anaphylaxis and severe allergies prevent the use of this therapy for many people. In the last few years, however, much research has been conducted in a new form of therapy called sublinugual immunotherapy, or SLIT for short. SLIT involves the administration of a small dose of allergen daily, which desensitizes the immune system to that particular allergen. Results show that allergy sufferers, when give SLIT treatment for their specific allergens, can have relief of symptoms in as early as one week. If the treatment is maintained, the allergy can be permanently desensitized after three years! The advantage to using SLIT therapy is that it is easy to use, safe and well tolerated by everyone from young children to severe asthamatics. SLIT therapy has been shown to be greater than 80% effective, and the Cochrane database (the world leader in evidence-based medicine review) has stated that ‘SLIT is a safe treatment which significantly reduces symptoms and medication requirements in allergic rhinitis’.

Here at the West Vancouver Wellness Center, we are now offering in-office (Pollenguard™) skin prick allergy testing for trees, ragweed, pollens, grasses, and even dust mites and cat dander. After determining your specific allergens, we then put you on a customized allergy program that will include sublingual immunotherapy, nutrition optimization, and natural medicine to put you on the path to compete relief of your seasonal allergies. For more information, please contact our office at 604-925-2560, or on the web at www.healthydoc.com.

References:

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  Int Arch Allergy Immunol 2000;121:229-234
2. Sublingual-swallow immunotherapy (SLIT) in patients with asthma due to house-dust mites: a double-blind, placebo-controlled study
  Allergy: European Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology:Volume 54(3)March 1999pp 249-260
3. A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial by the sublingual route of immunotherapy with a standardized grass pollen extract
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