4 Steps to Getting Rid of Seasonal Allergies

Hi, everyone. Welcome to my weekly house call. Your chance to ask me your questions. And this week's question is. Dr. Hyman, I've been suffering from seasonal allergies for years. Is there anything I can do to make these go away or am I just doomed forever? No, you're not doomed. Although seasonal allergies can make people feel hopeless during spring and summer, there are ways to overcome them or dramatically minimize them. Now, conventional medicine treats seasonal allergies with injections or pills that have all sorts of side effects and actually fail to address the root cause of the problem. If you don't address the root cause, these allergies will never really go away. I've seen countless patients who've come to me complaining about gut issues. And once we fixed up their diets and heal their guts, they reported back that their seasonal allergies also disappeared. I had one patient who was so severely allergic, had so many allergies, she had asthma and hives. She almost died twice from anaphylaxis, which is like a severe allergy reaction. She was on 42 different pills and sprays and inhalers, and she still didn't feel good. All kinds of things to suppress her immune system and inhibit her immune system, but nobody asked, why was her immune system so pissed off in the first place? Turns out for her it was a leaky gut caused by celiac disease, which no one had diagnosed. It's an autoimmune disease related to eating gluten. Now, getting off gluten and other dietary allergens and helping heal her leaky gut, calm down all our allergies. And she got off all her 42 different pills and sprays that she was taking every day in just six weeks. The key here for most people is to get your gut healthy. And if your gut's unhealthy and inflamed, it won't be able to fight off potential allergens. So step one is heal your gut. You can do this by going on an elimination diet. Now, eliminate the common toxic and allergic triggers in our diet like wheat, corn, dairy, soy, and alcohol, which inflames the gut and creates a leaky gut. Also eat a whole foods, high fiber, high plant based diet that's inherently anti inflammatory. That means unprocessed, unrefined real food that's high in powerful anti inflammatory plant phytochemicals called phytonutrients. Nothing that's got lots of sugar or trans fats. And also eat healthy fats, things like extra virgin olive oil, nuts, avocados omega 3 fats from small fish like sardines, herring, sable, which is also black cod and wild salmon. Second, repair your gut with powerful supplements like probiotics, which are good bacteria to help your digestion and reduce inflammation. Also use other gut healing nutrients like glutamine and zinc and fish oil. You can also use turmeric to reduce inflammation and I always recommend taking a high quality multivitamin. There's some special supplements like quercetin and nettles that can also treat symptoms from allergies and help allergic As a natural antihistamine, it's also a natural anti inflammatory so it can really help cut down those unbearable symptoms. And then be sure to manage your stress and get adequate sleep. There is a mind body connection. So if you're stressed out and wired and tired, that can also damage your gut. It's important to practice some form of relaxation like yoga or meditation. You also might need to dig a little deeper. Look for other causes like food chemicals and additives, pesticides, chemicals, pollution in your environment. Check out for mold in your home or work. You can go to survivingmould.com to learn more about the mold issue. I also recommend a very important blood test called C Reactive protein. It measures the degree of hidden inflammation in your body. It's really important because almost every modern disease is caused by or affected by hidden inflammation, including heart attacks and heart disease, cancer, obesity, type 2 diabetes, in dementia and as well as all the arthritis, autoimmune allergic disorders and digestive problems. If your body's burning up with inflammation, you'll want to know chronic inflammation comes from guess what? A high sugar processed food diet, lots of inflammatory fats, things like omega 6, processed vegetable oils and trans fats. It also gets worse by lack of exercise, by stress, by food sensitivities. And allergies also can be caused by hidden infections like viruses, bacteria, yeast or parasites. Mold can also trigger this and other environmental allergens and also toxicity from an overload of environmental toxins. So it's important to address the root cause of your allergies. And no matter who you are, I recommend following the steps that I mentioned before in order to heal and prevent lots of these issues. Okay, let's recap. Step one, go an elimination diet. Step two, take the right supplements to heal your gut. Step three, practice stress management. And step four, if necessary, dig deeper for other causes of immune dysfunction and inflammation. Now I want to hear from you. What have you done to get rid of your allergies? What's worked, what hasn't worked. Comment below or on my Facebook page. And if you like this video, share with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter and be sure to submit your questions to drhyman.com and maybe next week I'll make a house call to you. I'll.