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Environmental Allergies

Resolving environmental allergies with low dose immunotherapy (LDA) is one of the most miraculous treatments we’ve seen.

The low dose formulas teach the immune system tolerance. This means that instead of reading environmental inhalants (pollens from weeds, grasses, trees, animal dander, mold, dust etc) as a trigger for symptoms, the immune system returns to its natural state and is not triggered by these, providing you with symptom relief.  Histamines are not released and you don’t need to take anti-histamines anymore!

There are two main functions of our immune system.  The side that we hear a lot about is the protective side.  The immune system protects us from infection by creating inflammation to destroy the invasion (bacteria, virus, parasite).  The immune system must recognize, distinguish and protect us from foreign invasion.

The other side of the immune system is tolerance.

When the immune system loses tolerance, it sees normal environmental elements as foreign and then wants to protect you from them by initiating inflammation.  For allergies, this is accomplished by the histamine pathways and is experienced as allergy symptoms (sneezing, congestion, itching, hives, sore throat, fatigue).

Low Dose Allergy treatment allows the immune system to regain tolerance.  It teaches your immune system that it does not have to react to the normal environment so that you can breathe easily.  It works well for inhalant trigger asthma and rashes too.  (Did you know that eczema often has environmental allergy triggers?)

The treatment is simple.  It’s an 8-week cycle that allows the T cells to mature between treatments.   Each 8 weeks we obtain a larger and larger population of mature cells that recognize the normal environment.  Complete tolerance can occur after 6-12 treatments.

On the other hand, Standard immunotherapy (the allergy shots done with the allergists) teach the immune system to create blocking antibodies to the antibodies already present against the environment.  This adds a layer of complexity to the existing problem and often the effect is lost once the shots are discontinued.

As a side note, we have had many patients who wanted animals in their homes but could not due to animal dander allergies.  We are happy to say that these families are now able to include animals in their homes and visit friend’s homes with pets without suffering from allergy symptoms.

If environmental allergies are a problem for you, this may be the easiest treatment you’ll find for resolving the underlying problem so that your immune system can be fully active in its important role of protecting you from real problems.

 

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.