Allergy Season

Spring has sprung and flower buds are blooming. That is supposed to be great, but not for some of us. Unfortunately, many of us think of stuffy nose, itchy eyes and sneezing when we hear that spring is here.

Allergy is simply a hypersensitivity reaction. It is your body’s reaction to a substance that is considered harmless to most people (like pollen or peanuts). Your immune system recognizes and removes harmful substances from your body by sneezing, coughing, inflammation, and vomiting.  Some of the most common causes of allergies include pollen, grass, mold, weeds and dust mites.

Mast cells are special immune cells which are involved in allergic reactions, from the tiny swelling that appears from a mosquito bite to a life threatening, full-blown anaphylaxis. They are found in your bone marrow and in body tissues. These cells trigger the body to remove the harmful substance by releasing histamine. Histamine is the same chemical released when you have a cold. The longer the exposure to the allergen, the longer the symptoms last. Once histamine is released, the nearby blood vessels dilate and the spaces between surrounding cells fill with fluid. This inflammatory response launches symptoms such as sneezing, itching, runny eyes, mucus production or even vomiting.

No one knows for sure why people become allergic to relatively harmless substances. There are a few theories about the cause of allergies. One of those theories is that an allergic reaction is an interpretation of your environment. In order to interpret, your body must first get the information. Your nervous system is part of this information gathering function of the body. If your nervous system is dysfunctional, then the interpreted information will be altered, and this makes you vulnerable to abnormal reactions such as allergies.

If you suffer from allergies, consider chiropractic as one of your potential options. Since there is a close relationship between the nervous system and the immune system, chiropractic can help by improving the communication between the brain and the spinal cord and can help regulate the body’s reaction to allergens.

Your chiropractor can restore the body’s alignment by manipulating the joints and the soft tissue. As a result, the interference to the nervous system is removed allowing the body to function and fight like it was designed to do.