“Do what you can, with what you have, with where you are”
–Ted Roosevelt
This time of the year is such a wonderful time! The season is changing, the days will soon be longer, weather is warming up and flowers are blooming…Wait! flowers are blooming is not a good thing!? I recognize this because I’m starting to see my yoga students struggling to breath deeply and my health coaching clients are so congested and miserable that it breaks my heart. But what can you do other than pop an antihistamine? Maybe you have come to accept this is the way it goes year after year. But as it turns out there is a lot you can do. And I want to help you, just as I’ve help my clients to enjoy Spring as much as I do.
Allergy to pollen is not a new thing, but the extreme allergies I’m seeing are a sign of a poor immune system and a diet that promotes mucus and inflammation. Perhaps your poor gut health and your inflammatory diet are “adding wood to the allergy-season-fire”.
About 70% of your immune system lives in your gut. This means that if you have poor gut health – aka – overly acidic (heartburn anyone?) or you have a bad bacteria overgrowth (bloated, constipated, brain fog, depressed, sugar cravings…) then your immune system is not in such a great shape. This can make your body overreact to the presence of allergens, or not be able to cope with them in times like spring, when they are most abundant. On top of that, the foods that you are eating are probably causing inflammation and mucus beyond what most consider bearable. Foods like sugar and dairy are on the top of the offender’s list…they create mucus everywhere and this make your sinuses, headaches and poor sleep a nightmare.
So why don’t you turn this around? Well, maybe you have got used to covering symptoms… just pop a pill and forget that the problem is there for a bit. But the problem is still there and it is creating more problems like poor nutrient absorption, toxic overload, low energy, chronic inflammation, stress, etc. The truth is that after the pill’s effect goes, all the symptoms will come back. But what if you have the power to treat this at the cause level? simply follow these bullet-proof allergy solutions. Try all the tips and let your body to show you how immensely better you can feel:
- Eliminate or reduce to minimum the most inflammatory and allergenic foods from your diet: Dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream, etc), Sugar (and all artificial sweeteners), Gluten (wheat, barley, rye and most processed foods with soy) and refined flours even if they are gluten free
- Take a green superfood beverage containing wheatgrass and use chlorella as often as possible. I use and recommend Purium’s Organic Kamut Blend and Cracked Cell Chlorella
- Take Vitamin C daily, preferably from a food source like C From Nature from Purium, instead of a from of absorbic acid with fillers, binders and other chemicals
- Start taking a high quality probiotic supplement with at least 20 billion CFU (colony forming units). Take it daily in the AM and again in the evening if your allergies are bad.
- Include probiotic foods in your diet like fermented foods such as raw sauerkraut, kimchi and beverages like kombucha and coconut kefir
- Include more prebiotic foods like Jerusalem artichokes, dandelion greens, jicama and high fiber greens and vegetables
- Start using a neti pot everyday with warm water and Himalayan salt to clean your sinuses from pollen particles. This will help you breathe better and release sinus pressure as long as you start to use it before you are too congested. Make this a new lifestyle choice even when you are not suffering from allergies.
- Add anti-inflammatory foods & herbs like turmeric or fruits like tart cherries and goji or acai berries to your food and smoothies.
- Include foods that support liver detoxification such as dandelion greens and other dark leaves, parsley, green tea, cruciferous veggies, grapefruit, lemon, etc.
Even if you simply apply three of these suggestions you’ll likely see improvements. The best plan of attack is to use them all in tandem. Maybe you can start with a few ones and when they become part of your routine, you can add one more tool to keep getting better. Make sure that the elimination of mucus forming foods and inflammatory foods is the first thing you do. From that single step you’ll see the most results. If you suspect a serious yeast overgrowth like candida, work with an expert to help you control it, the same with leaky gut and other gut issues (I’ll be happy to support you!) All of these steps are meant to support your overall health and not to be used as instant cures. As anything worth while in life, these answers are to be embraced and used all the time. The results will be a lesser impact on your health when allergy season comes around. Be a strategist and look at the big picture instead of staying in the “antihistamine box”. Imagine yourself free from the misery of not being able to breathe, without itchy skin, free from sinus pressure and that horrible feeling of not being able to rest at night…This is in your hands. Come on! Let’s Spring into a new season without suffering. Happy Spring my darling!
Want to learn more and get a step by step method to rid your self of excessive allergy symptoms while also improving energy, digestion, sleep and losing weight? Get the DIY Spring Cleanse 7 Reboot Program. A comprehensive solution to all of these unnecessary problems that you can do 100% online and at your own pace. Learn more here
