Allergy Specialists and Treatment
IAllergies and Sensitivities
Allergies and sensitivities are not the same things, though they both can cause uncomfortable symptoms.
Understanding Allergies
An allergy is an abnormal immune system response to a substance. To simply put it: your immune system responds inappropriately when you encounter an allergen.
Understanding Sensitivities:
Sensitivities are actually more common than allergies. You may have sensitivities to certain foods or chemicals. Generally speaking, it is thought that a sensitivity doesn’t create an immune response, but can still generate an inflammatory response and cascade of other symptoms which can be at immediate or delayed onset. Food sensitivities often trigger a digestive system response and are often rooted in gut function.
Understanding Histamine Intolerance:
A histamine intolerance is when your body’s ‘histamine bucket’ (how much histamine an individual can tolerate) is overloaded, you are either consuming too much histamine and it can’t break it down fast enough, or your body is struggling to break down normal amounts of histamine. Histamine intolerances are not considered allergies or sensitivities although it can produce many of the same symptoms. Histamine intolerances tend to get worse throughout the day as your consume more histamine containing or histamine producing foods and your ‘histamine bucket’ starts to fill up. Histamine intolerance is often related to stealth pathogen and/or poor gut function.
Symptoms are a nuisance can vary from person to person, and with different degrees of severity.
Symptoms for Allergies, Sensitivities & Intolerances:
- Itchy eyes
- Watery eyes
- Sneezing
- Itchy nose
- Shortness of breath
- Itchy skin
- Rashes
- Digestive disturbances such as bloating, changes in bowels, nausea, cramping
- Fatigue
- Joint Pain
- Brain Fog
- Headaches
- Mood changes
- Swelling of the throat, lips
- Anaphylaxis
- Itchy mouth
Identification / Diagnosis
The first step to addressing your allergies, sensitivities or histamine interlace is to determine which of the three you have. I can do this a couple different ways:
- Analysis of current presentation of symptoms and past medical history. During our initial evaluation I spend up to 90 minutes with you going through our in depth consultation. This often unroots patterns that will probe us to look further into specific foods and environmental for suspected allergens, sensitivities and intolerances. This is particularly helpful when determining a histamine intolerance and then determining what triggered it so I can set up a protocol for healing.
- Allergy and Sensitivity Testing – this is done via functional labs. I may send you home with (or mail you) specific lab test kits to determine what your triggers are. Through a finger prick blood spot the lab is able to analyze IGG and IGE sensitivities and allergens. You can also request blood serum allergy testing from your PCP and bring us your results.
How addressing your allergies is DIFFERENT at Balanced Healing:
I don’t simply recommend an anti-histamine or refer you for allergies shots. What I do is get to the root issue behind your allergens. Do you a true allergy to a substance which needs to be treated? If so, I use NAET allergy elimination to treat the allergen, so you’re not longer allergic to it.
If you suffer from sensitivities I will work towards identifying them, then support your system to alleviate the sensitivities. This may look like using supplements and other modalities such as lifestyle and diet modification.
Lastly, if you have a histamine intolerance, I will help you get to the root to find out what triggered this, so I can help you heal. You can also refer to our free histamine intolerance PDF found in our resources page for additional information.
Healing:
There are different modalities in which I can utilize to help you heal. First, as mentioned, I need to determine the triggers. Once determined I can heal them through NAET allergy elimination, working on healing the gut and supporting liver function, eliminating the trigger if applicable causing histamine intolerance such as mycotoxin exposure, and/or supporting your immune system to have appropriate histamine responses.
Call us today or book directly online to schedule your initial consultation!