Seasonal allergies (a.k.a. ?hay fever?) are enormously common, affecting at least 35.9 million people in the United States alone. In fact, approximately 16.7 million office visits to U.S. health care providers each year are attributed to allergic rhinitis.
Interestingly, homeopaths pioneered both the research on allergies and allergy treatment. In 1871, British homeopath C.H. Blackely suggested that seasonal sneezing and nasal discharge were the result of exposure to pollen. Later, American homeopath James Tyler Kent defined the practical principles of treating allergies with homeopathy. If someone develops an acute reaction to pollen (or another allergen), such as a running nose or itching, watery eyes, during the allergy season, this reaction is addressed first. After all, there is no need for anyone to suffer discomfort. Then, during the symptom-free season, a homeopath aims to find a so-called constitutional remedy that solves the problem on every level of a person's being. It can take a while for the full affects of a remedy like this to be felt. But in the end, many other complaints and conditions usually drop away along with the symptoms of allergy.
Today conventional allergists use a desensitization process that resembles the homeopathic practice of using like to cure like. They give their patients a bit of the allergen (for example, tree pollen) to stimulate a reaction that the body overcomes, thus making the body stronger. However, their injections do not feature homeopathically prepared solutions. It's a little known fact that a homeopath, Grant L. Selfridge, M.D., was the first president of the organization that is now called the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology.
How do you take homeopathic remedies? These specially prepared remedies are sold in health food stores and come in the form of small sweet pills. Buy remedies in concentration 30C. Place 5 pills under the tongue and let them dissolve. Repeat the dose in 15 minutes. If there is no improvement of symptoms at all in about 30 minutes after the second dose stop taking the remedy. Go see a doctor or go to the emergency room.
My book Easy Homeopathy describes many highly effective solutions for acute allergies. Here are six that you can start using today.
Allium cepa (made from red onion): Take Allium if you see the following signs. (Always compare these signs with the signs indicating a need for Euphrasia.)
?Irritating, caustic discharge from the nose that irritates the nose and the upper lip (opposite of Euphrasia)
?Bland discharge from the eyes (opposite of Euphrasia)
?Discharge from the nose and eyes in large amounts
?Nose eventually gets completely obstructed
?Frequently there is heaviness in the middle of the forehead and/or a headache that gets better when the nose drains freely
?Frequently the symptoms begin on the left side
?You feel worse: in the late afternoon and evening, and from being in a warm room
?You feel better: from open air, cold air
Apis mellifica (made from honeybee): More times than not this is the correct remedy to take for allergic reactions to beestings. Be prepared to give it on the way to the emergency room. Use it to relieve any severe allergic reaction that involves the following combination of key symptoms.
?Very significant swelling of the eyes. Sometimes eyes are literally bloodshot from swelling
?Heat and burning sensation of the face and the eyes
?Craves cold applications and is much improved by them
Arsenicum album (made from oxide of arsenic):
?Irritating watery discharge from the nose
?Dripping from the nose, which is completely obstructed
?Burning (eyes, nose, throat) that is better from hot drinks or hot applications
?Right side is mainly affected
?You feel better: from being in a warm room, warm drinks, and warm applications (compare to Allium cepa)
?You feel worse: from anything cold
Euphrasia officinalis (made from eyebright): (Always compare to Allium cepa.)
?Eyes feel irritated, burning and itching
?Tears are abundant and irritating, nasal discharge is bland (exactly opposite to Allium cepa)
?Worse: in the morning and from warm wind
?Better: upon lying down in bed at night
Sabadilla (made from cevadilla seed):
?Remarkable fits of sneezing. Some people sound like an automatic weapon
?Every fit of sneezing provokes tears
?Constant itching inside of the nose and/or the palate
?Worse: from cold and open air
?Better: from heat, being in a warm room, and warm drinks
Urtica urens (made from stinging nettle): This remedy is specifically used for allergic reactions to shellfish and stings by jellyfish. Look for:
?Itching hives with a prickling, burning sensation
?Hives that look like red, raised blotches with white centers
Now you are equipped with powerful weapons.
Edward Shalts, MD, DHt, author of Easy Homeopathy and The American Institute of Homeopathy Handbook for Parents is a vice-president of the National Center for Homeopathy and a second vice-president of the American Institute of Homeopathy. He also serves on the faculty of the Center for Health and Healing at the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the UMDNJ Institute for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in New Jersey. Board certified in homeopathy, psychiatry, and alternative medicine, he has been working in the field of homeopathy for 20-plus years. He provides homeopathic care to adults and children through his private practice in Manhattan. He can be reached at http://www.EasyHomeopathyHome.com