By Jeann? McCartin September 22, 2011 2:00 AM

There were four ladies at game night, all sniffling. nothing contagious of course. It’s fall after all “and the pollen count is high.”

“I am simply miserable this year,” says Nicci. “The headache is the worst.”

J.Anne suggested an herbal remedy she was using, Nettle and Quercetion. She wasn’t symptom free, but definitely improved over past years.

I was giving the herbal route a go myself. Like J.Anne, I wasn’t reduced to the horrid flu-like symptoms of earlier seasons — a major improvement. I’d been getting increasingly worse, fall 2010 and spring of this year debilitating at times.

With the exception of Nicci, who has struggled lifelong with upper respiratory issues, that was true for all of us — things were getting worse. I was hearing it regularly from others; they’d developed allergies later in their 20s, 40s and older. Today they were not only affected, but for weeks or months dealt with exhaustion and flu-like symptoms.

Maureen was just miserable. She’d tried over-the-counter meds and found they exacerbated some symptoms and came with a few of their own.

“I can’t take it anymore,” she says, as she closed her bloodshot eyes and placed her achy head on the table. “Jeann??” comes her muffled, nasally voice, “There’s some local doctor that is supposed to have a ‘magic bullet.’ before I go to extreme measures please track him down. find out his secret. I’m desperate.” We all knew she, (along with others), was woefully underinsured; it was a tough spot.

All Maureen had to go on was the doc wrote books that had something to do with blood. That of course, led me to Naturopathic Doctor James L. D’Adamo, of Portsmouth, who, as it happens, was more than happy to share his “magic bullet,” which of course was not one at all. no pill. no salve. no chant. It’s lifestyle choices, says D’Adamo.

“Generally speaking, because of a great amount of toxicity in the body we become allergic to things we can normally process,” he says. Things that “were good are now bad,” he adds.

His first suggestion — and main point — is to look at the food you eat. Dump refined carbohydrates and sugars, “like cakes, candy and soda first.” but there’s more. Lots more, yet all of one thing and simple at that.

Much of the American diet is composed of meat and potatoes. It’s generally light on greens, which help cleanse a body, he notes. much of our food is produced with chemicals, which remain in the product. Meats for example are often laced with antibiotics, pesticide and other chemicals. Antibiotics are found in farmed fish and pesticides and chemicals in veggies and fruit.

“American foods are unhealthy,” he adds. “We’re twenty-second in the world for unclean foods.”

Food should be clean and support not tax a body. Add the food chemicals to others in our environment and the body is overloaded before pollen hits the air. Perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us that as food and the environment chemicals increase more of us develop allergies later in life.

D’Adamo pulls out another example. at least one sugar substitutes is made with formaldehyde. “Imagine that going through your system.”

Organic foods are best and today readily available; “So, it’s easier to do this now.”

After addressing food issues, pay attention to the body’s elimination system. If your bowels and kidneys are not functioning correctly there’s lots of morbid matter in the body, “and so good becomes bad. It’s important to make sure that it is working properly.”

“And,” he adds, “a lot of people suffer from (allergies) because of a lack of water. Drinking a lot of water is a very good thing.”

D’Adamo returns to the topic of refined foods. Their chemicals create toxicity in the body, he says. Then circling around to tie it all together, “So the key is removing as much waste from the body as we can and drinking as much water as we can.”

A few foods should be avoided when dealing with allergies, if not permanently. Wheat, which can exacerbate allergies, is one.

“Most people says wheat is good for B-complex. but for most people it’s 80 percent of the wrong acid for the digestive system — it proliferates in the muscle and joints and causes aches and pains and is then interpreted as arthritis.”

Choose wheat-free grains and start reading labels for hidden wheat, he suggests.

He also recommends A and O blood-types cut out animal milk and cheese, “it can cause mucous conditions in the body.” Again, go for soy, almond and other “dairies,” and again read labels for hidden ingredients.

D’Adamo does suggest a few supplements to help with respiratory allergies: Vitamin C and Echinacea and Vitamin A/Cod Liver Oil. “They’re very good for the respiratory system. …; And a good B-complex is always beneficial to strengthen the body,” he says. “You want to boost the immune system.”

The silver bullet? clean. our bodies are struggling with chemicals, preservatives, antibiotics and pesticides in addition to an onslaught of environmental chemicals; makes it hard to tackle the additional pollen onslaught.

“Once you clean it out the allergies are better. The next year they’re less and by the third year they’re gone. it all has to do with how much poison you have in your body.”

“We often look to the physician to cure us. but in truth the most precious thing we have is our health.” Many illnesses that plague us are not caused by viruses, such as cancer, arthritis, Alzheimer’s and diabetes. We don’t ‘catch’ them, says D’Adamo, they’re food and stress related. The individual can do a lot to foster a strong, healthy, resistant system.

“You need to be more responsible, turn back to nature,” he says. “Your health is everything.”

***********************

House Detective Jeann? McCartin may be reached at .

Ads by Google

One day of just being careless and not that futurespective, I negligently refused to recognize the bump on my face as a fever blister. I wiped my eye, picked my nose. Whatever. now I'm super scared about having an extra case of eye herpes and nose herpes. How long after initial infection do the symptoms (minor flu, bloodshot eyes, etc) start to show themselves? Keep in mind I'm not talking about a herpes outbreak, but the subtle symptoms that indicate you have herpes.

Go to webmd its a good site for this.