Austin Texas Chiropractic
Allergies

What Are Allergies?

An allergic reaction occurs when the immune system overreacts to an allergen (dust, pollen, milk, dog or cat dander, peanuts, etc.) and produces too histamine to counteract it. Millions who have suffered from a wide variety of allergies, have benefited from chiropractic care even though chiropractic is not an allergy treatment. Chiropractic helps the body to function at its best. This is vital if you suffer from allergies.

Bacteria,* viri, pollutants, dust, pollen, drugs, tumors, dead pieces of your own cells, and even artificial hearts and donor organs.** (Metal and plastic, however don’t trigger an immune reaction.) A healthy immune system means high resistance to disease and infection, better ability to deal with stress, and greater health and well-being.

Immunological Diseases

Your immune system is influenced by your nerves and hormones, by your diet and by emotional stress. If unhealthy, your immune system may fail to recognize and remove abnormal cells (such as cancers); may not overcome infection; may overreact to foreign substances (bee stings, penicillin, foods or drugs); become depressed (as in AIDS) or even attack itself!

What Causes Allergies?

There is no definitive answer to this question. As writer Walene James has stated: “Vaccination lays the foundation for autoimmune diseases and other disorders of the immune system such as rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatic fever, lupus erythematosus, scleroderma.... It is reasonable to assume that our contemporary ‘epidemic’ of allergies has at least some of its roots in the practice of vaccination.”1

The Orthodox Medical Approach To Allergy Treatment

Antihistamines are the most common treatment for allergies. Orthodox medicine has no cure for allergies, only treatment, and, according to Robert Mendelsohn, M.D., “You can depend on most doctors to largely ignore the cause...unfortunately, their treatment is often worse than the disease, especially since the relatively safe folk-measures of yesteryear have been replaced by the sophisticated, dangerous drugs of modem medicine.”2

Since most of the allergy symptoms are caused by histamines3, (runny eyes, irritation, redness, and fullness in the sinuses), antihistamines are often prescribed to dry mucus membranes. However antihistamines can cause serious heart problems4 and should not be used with alcohol, sedatives or tranquilizers.
More recently, Canadian researcher Lorne Brandes, in an article published in the May 1994 Journal of the National Cancer Institute, has produced research showing that certain antihistamines (ClaritinTM, HismanalTM and AtaraxTM) make cancerous tumors grow faster in lab rodents.

Breastfeeding

Clinical studies have shown that breastfed babies also have a lower incidence of more sever infections5. Breastfed babies also have fewer allergy problems than formula-fed babies.

The Chiropractic Approach

Chiropractic permits the immune system to function more effectively by releasing stress on the nervous system - something all allergy sufferers need. A stress-free nervous system functions more efficiently. Chiropractors correct a basic cause of body malfunction to improve the function of your immune system. Freed of nervous system stress, your body will work more effectively to neutralize the allergy-causing chemicals in your environment. As Dr. Kurt Donsback has said: “A healthy body is capable of neutralizing these toxic substances and a body which has malfunctioning defense mechanisms cannot. The emphasis on allergies must be on building a healthy body, not on trying to use evasive tactics by eliminating all the allergens9.”

* Bacteria normally live in some pacts of your body (i.e. your gut and skin). When bacteria travel to places they shouldn’t be, then your immune system will attack them.
**Organ recipients must take drugs to suppress their immune systems so these “foreign” organs are not rejected.

1. 1. James, W. Immunization, the reality behind the myth. Boston: Bergin & Garvey, 1988, p. 71. 
2. Mendelsohn, R. The People’s Doctor, 3(9). 
3. Hensen, P.M. Mechanisms of tissue injury produced by immunologic reactions. In J. A. Bellanti (Ed.), Immunology II. Philadelphia: Saunders Co, 1878, p. 282. 
4. Science News, July 18, 1992, 142(3), p.46. 
5. Mendelsohn, R. The People’s Doctor, 3(9). 
6. Fidelibus, J. An overview of neuroimmunomodulation and a possible correlation with musculoskeletal system function. JMPT, August 1989.  
7. Denclka, W.D. Interactions between age and the neuroendocrine and immune systems. Fed Proc, 1978, pp. 1263-1267. 
8. Korr I.M. The neurobiologic mechanisms in manipulative therapy, New York: Plenum, 1978, pp. 229 268. 
9. Donsback, K.W. Allergies. Huntington Beach, CA.: Int’l. Inst. Natural Health Sciences, 1980, pp. 8-9.