If you or your child have seasonal allergies it’s imperative to understand how allergies and inflammation are related – especially if you live in the southeast (North Carolina, to be exact) like I do. When it’s pollen season here, it covers EVERYTHING.
This is unfortunate for me because people already accuse me of waiting too long between car washes, and the pollen makes it even more obvious!!
But what’s even more unfortunate, is the impact pollen and allergy season has on so many of my patients.
The Impact of Allergies Have on Inflammation
When the pollen comes around, you may be noticing an uptick in symptoms, including allergies, eczema, asthma, or chronic running nose.
As an integrative pediatrician, I’m all about looking at the root cause of inflammation that is triggering flare-ups.
To illustrate this and the impact of inflammation, let’s look at a case study I cover in my book, Healthy Kids, Happy Moms, from my eight-year-old patient named Sara.
Sara has eczema, asthma, allergies, chronic running nose, and constipation; eats the Standard American Diet of processed foods; has environmental allergies to trees and grasses; and lives in an area with high levels of air pollution.
When spring and fall allergy season comes along, or Sara is exposed to more pollution or a virus, her inflammation goes up, and her glass begins to overflow (watery/itchy eyes, nasal congestion, runny nose, post-nasal drip, and cough).
Since we can’t cut down all the trees and dig up all the grasses, lets focus on what we can control.
In our practice, we have our families do the best they can with nutrition by eating an anti-inflammatory diet, we educate them on our allergy avoidance strategies, and we use adjunctive supplements to support their systems during the green haze we are in right now.
When we implement these strategies, kids like Sara may get through allergy season with little to no allergy medicine, no additional topical steroid need for eczema flares, and she may not need her albuterol rescue inhaler as much as she did during previous seasons.
Download my free guide on my favorite Allergy Avoidance Tips to help get your family through allergy season!
I cover our tried-and-true strategies to mitigate your allergy symptoms such as:
- Keep your pets off of furniture and out of bedrooms
- Use a HEPA air filter (my go-to is the Austin Air filter!)
- Dust with a damp cloth 1 to 2 times per week
- Wash sheets and blankets once per week in hot water (130 degrees is the temperature needed to kill dust mites)
Use our favorite supplement to help with allergies, HKHM Hist-Assist (capsules or chewable) which is a part of our HKHM Allergy Bundle.
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