My aim in writing this article was to compile available current knowledge about natural options for contending with allergies, to help my readers’ understanding of this growing problem. The information that follows is presented in a novel format, so that the issue of allergies may be perceived in a holistic pattern that allows what is often considered a complex subject matter to be made more accessible and therefore useful for implementing change where necessary in your everyday life. Ultimately, assimilating as entire a picture as possible of the issues all contributing toward allergy has a far more profound effect on the readers consciousness and minds grasp of the subject.
Allergy is the term used to describe a complex biological process involving many components of our immune system. The word allergy is derived from its Greek roots ‘allos’ and ‘ergon’ meaning ‘different activity’. Allergic reactions are unique to each person and may express differently over time. The consensus amongst some experts is that allergies are a systemic disease, and that inflammation is the core problem of all allergic disorders.
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The experience of those living with an allergy ranges from a tolerable or avoidable irritation all the way up to a rapidly fatal reaction. Inevitably, the quality of life of someone suffering from bad allergies is lower than someone living without them; stress and anxiety levels are higher, as are fatigue, feeling on edge, a varying ability to concentrate and lower than typical general energy levels.
Western allopathic medicine currently has a limited ability to ‘interrupt’ the biological pathways that drive the immune system to develop harmful reactions, which lessen the intensity in the sufferer but are not a cure.
How is it that our immune system, with so much evolved and accumulated experience and memory, doesn’t always seem to protect us fully from allergens? The consensus amongst experts documenting allergy cases is that all the many kinds of allergy have been steadily on the increase since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the early nineteenth century. This article will attempt to explore why humanity is now faced with a worldwide allergy epidemic.
All About Allergies
It is now believed that as many as forty percent of the world’s population will have some kind of allergic reaction, a shocking statistic relating to billions of people worldwide. It is feared that this could increase to fifty percent of the global population by 2030.
There seems to be no single gene, gene segment, or region of your DNA that causes allergy. The mechanisms behind allergy are very complex, and we are far behind in finding an underlying biological cause of allergy. Dr Joshua Milner, an immunologist at Columbia University in America, has worked on the genetic pathways of allergic immune response. He has found that even in families carrying the same genetic mutation, one may suffer from eczema, one may suffer repeated infections, and another may have an autoimmune disease.
It is hoped that his research and that of others will help pinpoint the specific immune pathways that cause allergic and autoimmune diseases. Genetic change is much slower than environmental change and although we cannot currently alter our DNA to control allergy, we can take steps to beneficially alter our environments as our immune cells cannot keep up with the sheer pace of human-altered environmental change.
Describing the direct causes of allergies is challenging, but a general understanding of the immune system is a helpful start. It is also important to understand that an allergy is not the same as a sensitivity, an intolerance, or an autoimmune disorder, which also trigger the immune system.
The innate immune system you are born with is the first line of defence against invaders, this is also sometimes referred to as the ‘nonspecific’ system. White blood cells, mast cells and basophils are part of this system. Produced in our bone marrow, they circulate the body and help to fight off both infection and disease by ingesting harmful and foreign material like viruses, bacteria, and cancer cells. Phagocytes engulf bacteria by scavenging them, NK or ‘natural killer’ cells can destroy any cells already infected by a virus.
Mast cells in all mammals developed millions of years ago, and yet we are living in an environment that has changed vastly over the last 200 years, to the point where the immune system hasn’t been able to evolve quickly enough in relation to the changes we have made in today’s modern world. This innate system is often enough to ward off infection, but there is a parallel system.
The Adaptive Immune System
The adaptive immune system is more relevant to this article, because it is the source of the hypersensitivity reactions triggered if the innate immune system is unable to deal sufficiently with a threat, and this presents as an allergic reaction. This system can remember specific things it has encountered before and can react accordingly using lymphocytes.
T lymphocytes are a type of white blood cell produced in our bone marrow and have the capability to attach to foreign cells in our bodies. T cells that ‘remember’ their contact with a specific foreign invader are referred to as ‘memory’ T cells – these cells allow for a quick response as needed. B Lymphocytes are another type of white blood cell also produced in the bone marrow, which can rapidly produce large amounts of antibodies and release them into the bloodstream to deal with foreign cells.
Our bodies produce five different types of antibodies: IgM, IgD, IgG, IgA, and IgE. Most allergic responses are typically mediated by IgE whereas autoimmune disorders such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis are mediated by IgG antibodies. Confirmation of the IgE antibody response is a key indicator of an allergic immune response or allergy; in the twenty-first century ‘allergy’ has come to mean any negative immune reaction driven by IgE antibodies. This is also referred to as a Type 1 hypersensitivity.
IgE, the human antibody associated with most allergic reactions, is a comparatively recent addition in the evolution of our immune responses. It is possible that we conserved this type of immune system response as a way of protecting against something new in our environment. The downside is that because of our rapidly changing environments, some people with strong immune reactions become encumbered with a host of previously unknown problems.
Margie Profet, a world-renowned American evolutionary biologist, has explored and written about the theory that allergies might be the body’s method for ejecting toxins and carcinogens, the result of research showing lower rates of some cancers in allergy sufferers.
The core question is, why have allergies been getting steadily worse globally?
Immunologists worldwide are working to understand the processes involved in allergic reactions, but the multiplicity of causes and reactions mean that evidence-based progress is slow.
This article attempts to simplify as much as possible by breaking down into topics:
ENVIRONMENT
FOOD
MOVEMENT
SLEEP
EMOTIONS
MIND
PURPOSE
SPIRIT: LIFE FORCE / DYNAMIS / VITALITY / ANIMATION
SOURCE / GREAT ARCHITECT
Each topic or ‘field’ when looked at separately has advantages – in natural medicine any ‘burdens’ in whatever form, when identified and dealt with sufficiently has the potential to elevate a patient from a reduced level of health to a more optimal level of health. When functioning at an optimal level of health, allergies, can be perceived as easier to contend with, identify and address treatment to as and when needed. It is important to bear in mind that ‘health’ is not a static point but a continuum along which we travel. Although these fields might not look related to allergies when comprehending them separately, when looked at altogether, by the end of this article you shall be better able to understand more deeply the ramifications of their connection wholistically to allergies. By attending to specific particular topics, a greater attention is afforded when looking at them as part of the picture of a much greater and more colourful whole.
Environmental Impacts on Allergies
Most of the world’s population has no choice but to live where they can afford, where they were born, or where they are allocated space and housing opportunities. They are not able to move away from environments laden with stressors that can trigger allergic reactions, some very visible but others invisible (see ‘radiation free living’ on this website).
For instance, the increase in recorded pollen allergies is thought to be as a direct result of the relatively recent, counter-natural practices of agricultural monocultures, rather than from climate change. The allergy is triggered by an onslaught of one type of pollen rather than a variety spread through the season and at a lesser density. These modified crops are also more susceptible to pests so the need for pesticides goes up, but bees and other beneficial insects are also adversely affected.
A key polluter in the environment is plastic, which it is now almost impossible to avoid. Bisphenols (BPAs) and phthalates in food and water re-enter the body almost as soon as they are eliminated, meaning that they are almost constantly in our blood and tissue. The harmful effects are cumulative, so exposure to even small amounts can increase health risks over time. They are known to be endocrine disruptors, meaning that the interference with production and regulation of hormone levels contributes to such ailments as diabetes, obesity, birth defects, neurodevelopmental disorders, some cancers, cardiovascular diseases and infertility. Growing concerns over the health risks from these chemicals have led to regulation of their use in manufacture, but unbelievably not in the production and packaging of food and drinks.
The Importance of Clean Water
The importance to health of having pure, clean drinking water is obvious and a privilege of living in a country with an existing infrastructure, but for hundreds of years, industry has been using watercourses as a dumping ground for waste and this has found its way into our drinking water. Additionally, degrading plastics and plasticisers from landfill have leached into the water and soil meaning that they are consumed directly by humans and animals, and even taken up by plants along with the nutrients they need in order to grow, so we consume them via those routes too.
Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl, known as PFAS, have been detected in 11,853 samples, taken by the Drinking Water Inspectorate, of drinking water supplied by 17 of 18 England’s water companies. Other experts such as those from Royal Society of Chemistry, reputable environmental charities and even the water companies themselves agree unanimously that this recent finding is alarming, especially as the bar is set lower in Britain than in other parts of the developed world which have stricter standards. Because of their chemical properties, these PFAS have been added to products that make them non-stick and stain-proof, such non-stick cookware and even dental floss. PFAS levels in the body can be measured by blood testing, which is how the tragic Oakdale case in the USA was eventually revealed, where 3M had been dumping the chemicals since the 1960s directly leading to an abnormally high rate of cancers in the region in people of all ages, and farm animals. 3M proposes to phase out production and use of these chemicals by the close of 2025, hopefully other companies will follow.
We are still circulating drinking water that was polluted before the standards were improved, but the persistence of these forever chemicals in the environment means that the pollution caused today will last for generations to come. Attempting to avoid these by using mineral water bottled in plastic is no remedy either. Not only do the plastic bottles contribute to further pollution of the planet, but the dissolved minerals in the water are not available to be absorbed by the human body anyway; organically bound minerals are best taken from the food in our diet. There are ways you can improve the quality and purity of the drinking water for yourself and your family – The Natural Medicine Practice can offer solutions that work and present a relatively affordable investment for just about everyone.
The Importance of Clean Air
Currently, genetics can only tell us so much about our propensity to allergy. Our genes are not the sole or primary causation of all our irritation and hypersensitivity. The detritus produced by our modern civilisation swirls constantly around our bodies, inhalation draws it deep into the lungs. This pollution is particularly concentrated in the air that circulates urban cities. Our DNA is not solely to blame, the environment is most certainly exacerbating our allergies, the most obvious of which are respiratory and asthmatic.
Air quality can vary very dramatically especially when considering those living in modern urban cities who are likely to be exposed to a far greater concentration of airborne allergens or aeroallergens as they are often referred to. Examples of aeroallergens are spores and pollen which can circulate in the air we breathe, and this can vary in intensity depending upon the season and day times of the year when it can be accentuated or decreased in intensity.
Diesel Fumes
We do know that exposure to diesel exhaust particulates can heighten secondary allergen-specific memory responses, promoting susceptibility to asthma. Diesel exhaust particles in effect can bypass our respiratory defences and lodge within the lung tissue and once habituated there stimulates an immune response that tiggers inflammatory changes, airway constriction together with mucus production, which are all the symptoms associated with asthma.
Dust Mites
House dust mite allergy is a common trigger for those people contending daily with allergic asthma – it is a myth that the mite itself causes their allergic response, the reaction is actual to the excrement matter of this creature. Every home will have the presence of these dust mites which can also potentially aggravate atopic eczema and cross-react with how the body responds to certain foods.
Since our homes are well insulated and relatively airtight, ventilation and air quality can become impacted. If heating is not what it could be, air humidity can rise which inevitably encourages mould growth. This mould growth can acerbate asthma and other allergic conditions, such as allergic rhinitis and atopic eczema.
Pet Allergies
Pet allergies may develop at any time, even when the pet doesn’t live in your home. This can often present parents with a difficult choice, when for example their child goes onto develop a clear allergy from exposure to cat dander – even if this pet is a valued and a cherished member of the family the tell-tale signs of aggravation of asthma and eczema can be impossible to ignore. Early on in our understanding of this kind of allergic reaction, it was thought that animal hair was the main cause, but it is now known that it is mainly animal dander and saliva that are more causative in the triggering of this kind of response from the body.
The Natural Medicine Practice can offer you and your family personalised and tailored advice suited specifically to the requirements of your living situation, on ways to lower these kinds of ‘burdens’ on the immune system and therefore alleviate intensity of allergic reactions and allow time to address treatment specifically to address a deeper level of causation.
Food & Allergies
Clearly, a body cannot function without nutritious, natural, nurturing food. Yet even someone who eats what appears to be a nourishing diet can in fact be malnourished, and there has been a steep rise in the number of people presenting with diagnosed food allergies. There are many causes for this, genetic and environmental, but also because of negative nutrition. This term refers to foods that either cost more than they give, or that can cause actual harm, and includes refined sugar, refined carbohydrates, coffee and tea. Sometimes, these effects can be remedied with attention to eating a better-quality diet, but occasionally food supplements can help offset some of the ill effects caused by the deficit in certain minerals and vitamins, or a weakened gut biome.
Modern agricultural practice has depleted the soil to such an extent that the content of formerly bioavailable minerals in plant crops is measurably lower than it used to be. It is preferable to get advice before treating oneself, and also worth obtaining good quality supplements rather than heavily adulterated versions from a supermarket, as more often than not they mostly consist of a bulking agent or are produced cheaply from a questionable source and in a form less easily absorbed by the body.
Sugar & Allergies
White refined sugar causes malnutrition, upon ingestion spiking a rapid rise in blood sugar leading to a sort of temporary diabetic state known as transient hyperglycaemia. This reduces the quantity of digestive enzymes available and therefore a subsequent reduction in both nutrients and protein uptake. Even a moderate intake of sugar will alter the gut biome and increase sugar cravings. We evolved to be attracted to sweet food before it became so widely available and now accept its overconsumption, which has become normalised in the West, when it would be more sensible to treat it as we now do cigarette smoking. Sugar is used in many cultures to reward or to modify behaviour, such as giving sweets to pacify children, which ingrains damaging habits and expectations from a young age. This connection with reward and comfort is why it can be found in such abundance in our food chain. Within half an hour of ingesting 75 grams of sugar, there’s a reduction of 50 percent in the scavenging activity of a specific white blood cell (neutrophil phagocytes) – this illustrates its specific and rapid immuno-depressive effect that can last up to five hours.
Sugar substitutes are equally damaging, as the body does not recognise and therefore process them, yet they migrate into the system leading to an imbalance in blood sugar. Some are even neurotoxic, so they are best avoided. To get sweetness into a diet the best sources are honey, especially if it is local as this can go some way to familiarising with local pollen triggers, or dates and fruit, but the healthiest way to stop the damage from sugar is to retrain the taste buds.
Refined Carbohydrates & Allergies
As with refined sugar, the wheat and the rice we eat today have not only been developed from wild species in order to make them easier to grow in large quantities, but they are then highly refined during the food processing stage. The result is that this allows the smaller molecules, unhampered by the fibre that has been removed, to migrate directly into the bloodstream from the digestive tract. These are recognised by the immune system as invaders rather than as nutrition which triggers an immune reaction, which could cause anything from mild fatigue to anaphylaxis, or chronic conditions such as sticky blood or irritable bowel syndrome.
Tea & Coffee for Allergies
Tea has often been promoted as a healthy drink due to having zero calories, antioxidant properties, and as a pick-me-up due to its caffeine. Tea can in fact contribute to malnutrition, as it inhibits iron and zinc absorption. Tea contains three times the amount of caffeine to coffee in bulk, although it is prepared very dilute in comparison with coffee. Caffeine is a mild stimulant in moderation, but it has downsides, which include aggravation of heart and artery disorders, and irritation of the stomach lining.
Brewed more strongly than tea, coffee has far more caffeine per cup, an excess of which leads to overstimulation of the adrenal glands. Some habitual coffee drinkers claim they cannot get going in the morning without a cup of coffee but reliance on caffeine is a poor substitute for healthy nutrition and good sleep. People who drink coffee during the working week often report having a weekend headache, which is a withdrawal symptom as the body tries to eliminate it as soon as there is a break in the supply. Overconsumption of coffee can lead to periods of manic hyperactivity, or hypersensitivity with every little touch, sound, and smell triggering anxiety or irritation. As with tea, there is the potential damage to the heart, artery disorders and intestinal tract irritation. People with heart issues are routinely told to stop drinking caffeinated coffee.
When allergies have reached a level of severity that noticeably impacts the quality of life and its direction, natural medicine practitioners will diligently work to discover ways to reduce the overall level of burden on the body. This is often referred to as the ‘body burden’ – it is the amount of undesirable chemicals that can be detected in the human body at a given time. Any conditions the patient is creating in their day-to-day life that contribute towards this burden is removed, as safely and rapidly as possible, to trigger an appropriate elimination and reduce further risk of toxic build up or even the potential for having created unwittingly a self-poisoning situation.
The way in which these pathways of elimination are engaged and enhanced on behalf of the patient will be explained later in this article (see further on in this article the subheading ‘Real Medicine – how to begin the restoration of your health’), suffice it to say, all the above-mentioned substances can disrupt the natural and healthy workings of a person regularly ingesting coffee, tea, and sugar to highlight only a small sample. Some chemicals exit the body slowly of their own accord, but others can become lodged in body tissue, blood, or bones etc. synthetic chemicals and pollutants often remain in body tissue for many years even after the source of exposure is has been removed – this further highlights the importance of working with a skilled experienced practitioner who fully understands and can work dynamically and individually with the direction of cure.
Food Allergies
Dr Cathryn Nagler, a world-renowned American immunologist specialising in the autoimmune response to dietary antigens, has remarked on how food allergies used to appear between the ages of two and five, but now can develop at any point in life; today we are seeing a lot more adult-onset food allergy. Milk, egg, and wheat allergies in childhood used to be outgrown, but there are many instances of them lasting into adulthood. Food allergies are an indicator of a larger problem – modern industrialised lifestyle factors have triggered shifts in our microbiome and all the ‘friendly’ bacteria that live amongst us. Nagler postulates that changes in our microbiome are driving changes in our immune function. Her understanding is that our diets are the real culprit – eating processed foods loaded with sugar and fat can starve the beneficial bacteria in our guts, as by doing this we don’t supply them with the food they need. It also allows the ‘bad’ bacteria to flourish.
Nagler’s new theory is called ‘barrier regulation’. Our gut and skin microbiomes regulate what is allowed into the body and what’s denied access. ‘Commensal bacteria’, or the friendly bacteria that live alongside us, are integral to the maintenance of barrier function. In effect, a single layer of epithelial cells is all that stands between us and everything around us. Altered gut microbiota can have a direct effect on allergy. Nagler sees Allergic disease as a barrier problem and not necessarily an immune system problem. It has been shown that the microbiome is stable by age three. Alterations before this age may be critical to the development of allergies such as early antibiotic use.
A study of babies in Finland and New York discovered that C-section births and antibiotics both correlated with altered gut microbiomes and a greater risk of allergies in infants. Vaginal birth where some of the mother’s bacteria is transferred to the infant, and months of breastfeeding, both gift babies with ‘founder bacteria’ introducing helpful bacteria into the infant’s skin and gut. The first one hundred to one thousand days of life are critical for the development of the immune system, so from a natural medicine perspective bring into serious question the administration of any vaccine during this timeframe. If a parent was considering any injection whatsoever, a precaution would be to wait until the child is 3 or 4 years of age. At this age, a child would respond better to ‘constitutional’ treatment, which delivers maximum benefit with minimum intervention – this means it is gentle yet effective and does not violate the developed and innate defensive system network. ‘Constitutional’ treatment means a singular prescription that covers temperament, mental and physical characteristics, excluding any changes brought about by acute and transient illnesses.
As mentioned already, eating honey that’s local or the country in which you are living can help your health in general, but there is no evidence to support it helping with respiratory allergies. At The Natural Medicine Practice, we recommend eating a balanced diet with plenty of natural and unprocessed ‘living’ foods. ‘Living’ foods are fresh fruits and vegetables and you can add superfoods such as chlorella and spirulina. When and if you can, try to eat foods in season, although this is not essential and not always practical. Organic and biodynamic certification can provide confidence in your food purchases, but it shouldn’t be the main deciding factor – use your senses, make shopping more fun by engaging smell, touch (where you can), what you feel and how it looks. Avoid preservatives as much as you can and read labels – sulphur dioxide is a classic example and unfortunately still widely used as an anti-oxidising agent to preserve shelf life.
Having an indoor lifestyle has its drawbacks. Autoimmune disease and allergies tend to occur at higher rates the further you live from the equator. This is thought to point to lack of vitamin D as a factor in immune disorders, in addition to the variety of diets people have around the globe.
Dental materials
Not so long ago, dental amalgam would enter a dental practice treated as a hazardous material but leave in a patient’s mouth in the form of fillings. Fortunately, dental practice has been evolving alongside advances in chemistry and dental filling materials. As far as the author is currently aware, the zirconia used to fix many dental problems is biologically compatible with the human system, according to tests conducted in Germany using biological impedance measurements. Many of you will have benefitted from the replacement with the new composites of old dental amalgam, which we now know over time can cause brain and neurological impairments, and destruction of tissue. However, these composites contain plastics and other toxins which can also prove harmful to the human system and are used on patients sometimes without full information being made available.
The following dental resin composite materials and their bonding materials can all be toxic to the human body, but of course everyone reacts differently: BisGMA, BPA, BHT, HMPB, DPCL, TPSb, HEMA, TEGDMA. BPA-free (Bisphenol A) composites are available, such as Voco Admira Fusion or Venus Pearl, but often must be specifically requested.
Fluoride
As a natural medicine practitioner, I am aware of the possible long-term unhealthy effects of the ingestion of fluoride, even in small amounts, which is why fluoride-containing glass ionomer filling materials should only be used when necessary. It is important to note that this material releases fluoride from its structure.
Fluoride is one of the most pervasive chemicals in our environment. One of the most common types is sodium fluoride, which is a synthetic industrial version. This has been introduced into some drinking water or is an ingredient in toothpaste, with the intention of preventing tooth decay. In fact, quite the opposite can happen, as it can lead to weaker teeth through fluorosis. This same chemical is used as an insecticide in the treatment of some farm animals as well as a rat poison. In this concentration, it is highly toxic when ingested or inhaled or if contact is made with the skin. The type of fluoride added to our tap waters is silicofluoride, a cheap by-product of phosphate fertilizer pollution scrubbers. There is increased uptake of this poisonous fluoride by ingesting processed foods, processed drinks, wine, beer, pre-boned chicken, fish, and use of anaesthetics, pesticides, non-stick coated pans, cigarette smoking and air pollution.
The long-term effects of the addition of this harmful chemical to treated drinking water have never properly been assessed, since early tests only assessed the purer form of sodium fluoride. 95 percent of fluoride in the body is found in the bones and teeth. Prolonged intake of fluoride slowly poisons the body, leading to discoloured tooth enamel, disorders of the kidneys, liver and adrenals, heart and reproductive system problems and central nervous system problems. Hip fractures, osteoporosis, bone cancer, dental fluorosis, thyroid cancer, IBS, allergies, decreased fertility, and neurotoxic effects in the brain have also been attributed to fluoride toxicity.
A rudimentary understanding of endocrinology is necessary to perceive the relevance to allergies of regular harmful synthetic chemical exposure. Exposure to the mouth and throat area which is in proximity to the thyroid and parathyroid glands has its drawbacks – health of this part of the endocrine and corresponding energy centre (throat chakra) is vital as on a physiological level, anything that inhibits the flow of vital energy here can impact calcium and phosphorus levels and metabolism. Any toxicity burden created anywhere in the body that affects any one of our vital endocrine gland functions has the potential to lessen the flow of life energy and therefore reduce overall health creating greater susceptibility to allergens.
Movement & Exercise
Taking regular exercise can amongst many other benefits reduce the risk of heart disease, improve brain health, and strengthen bones and muscles thus improving the performance of daily activities. Exercise sends oxygen to your tissues and helps your cardiovascular system work more efficiently. The endocrine system benefits too, which indirectly supports a positive mood and outlook.
Macro and micro circulation pathways in the human body are both vitally important, and some are restricted in the cold. During the autumn and winter months in northern climate zones, hot yoga undertaken in a heated studio room can bring many health benefits to those who tolerate this kind of exercise well, but care must be taken by the elderly or those with high blood pressure and heart conditions. The heat of the sun is most closely mimicked by modern infrared radiation heaters – this heat penetrates deeper into the body and its tissues, in contrast with convection heaters that only warm up air mass, dry out the air and can circulate dust and other particulates.
When the blood travels unobstructed around the body, life-energy can follow – the accumulation of pain can be reduced in a body that has more of an uninterrupted harmonious flow. Acupuncture for example, works directly with fourteen energy channels. When these channels are activated appropriately for an individual, then all the channels can work together in a more harmonious manner – just clearing the correct channels and activating specific acupuncture points can lessen the sensation of pain and inflammation. When this concentration or block of flow is released, health can follow much like an organ starved of blood that is then reinvigorated by an optimised flow. Reducing inflammation naturally lessens this burden to the body, created by it having to generate an inflamed response in the first instance.
Sleep
Living with an allergy can have a direct influence on sleep. Not only do the symptoms affect waking hours, but this disruption to the sleep pattern, then further affects the ability to function fully due to lack of sleep and the brain not having rested and repaired sufficiently. Tests on sleep-deprived subjects show that they perform at an equivalent level as someone under the influence of alcohol. The effects of sleep disruption are particularly noticeable in children and can have a negative impact on their learning. Amongst many recent advancements in the brain sciences, we now know that how you sleep affects the rate at which you age, as well as how you perform during your waking hours. There are five types of bioelectrical brain waves as measured by an EEG device – delta, theta, alpha, beta and gamma – and it is shown that whilst the brain can run concurrent frequencies, there is often a frequency range that will predominate at any one time. Delta waves are more frequent during sleep.
- Delta 0.5 to 3 Hz Sleep: Delta waves are large slow waves with the brainwave pattern in a sleeper indicating a deep and dreamless sleep. Delta waves predominate as much as 70% of the period spent asleep, as the body actively uses this time to make repairs to itself from the day’s activities and give the brain time to rest. Many factors in the immediate environment, both visible and invisible, can strongly influence the quality and depth of your time in delta during sleep.
- Theta 4-8Hz Sleep: An increase in theta waves indicates the early stage of drowsiness. It takes as little as fifteen minutes in theta 4-8 Hz to experience mental refreshment, although the brain uses this state primarily to exercise itself and release tension. REM or ‘rapid eye movement’ is the outward expression associated with this kind of activity, and normally equates with dreaming.
Clearly, being able to regularly access relaxing and rejuvenating brain states along with deep sleep is essential for health and a feeling of wellbeing. There are many different brain states and brain skills worth familiarising ourselves with, unfortunately meditation is not widely taught in general education and must be sought after if you want to bring its many benefits into your life. Certain lifestyle habits can negatively impair our ability to access and sustain these beneficial states of awareness.
Emotions
This is a complex field and one that has to a certain extent been ignored by the western allopathic tradition as a factor in disease, but the more research that is done the less dismissive is the thinking, and traditions from other cultures that honour the importance of a patient’s state of mind are now deemed worthy of consideration, as long as they don’t fly in the face of the science. In my clinic I see many eczema patients attributing daily stressors and their overall mental health to an increase in their allergic reactions and or worsening of symptoms. I also hear many allergy patients talking about a relationship between their mental and physical well-being and allergy. Patients who report feeling well and happy with a sense of immune strength frequently say their allergies are less severe and attacks less frequent. Anyone suffering from an allergy can attest to the fact that if they are under mental stress, their symptoms can worsen. Whereas at one time this might have been dismissed as attention-seeking, it is now known that elevated cortisol and the increased levels of histamines in the blood stream can cause allergies to flare up. Hayfever causes inflammatory proteins called cytokines to be released into the system, and it is now believed that this has a negative effect on brain function which triggers feelings of sadness, irritability, reduced concentration and even depression.
Understandably, the prospect of living long-term with an allergy is an emotional challenge, but some sufferers choose to investigate this emotional state, either channelling their feelings into creative pursuits or in questioning their own reactions and those of other people. The social unacceptability of emotions deemed ‘negative’, such as anger, frequently leads to their suppression, but if left uninvestigated can be stored as incoherent build ups of energy until triggered. This has a draining effect on personal energy resources resulting in a corresponding lowering of immunity.
Anger is a classic example of an energy in motion, even if it appears incoherent; the purpose may be to bring change, show displeasure or move something away from one’s vicinity that is not wanted. One of the challenges in dealing with emotions is to become as aware as possible when and where and why one is experiencing them. The ideal is to have our emotional body communicating in tandem with our physical body. By adopting a ‘route for enquiry’ method, using your mental focus and attention, you can actively trace both feelings and thoughts back to their origins, which often reveals useful insights and opportunities for strides forward in personal growth and evolution.
The Mind
The ‘mental body’ is a subtle body existing around the physical body. In holistic natural medicine, negative thought patterns and core beliefs are both held in what is termed the ‘lower mental body’. The more open, clear, and balanced this ‘lower mental body’ becomes, the more the individual has the capacity to receive inspiration, guidance, and ideas via their ‘higher mental body’. A process of refinement needs to be begun consciously as this facility is very seldom simply gifted upon a person – the process is activated by ‘working upon oneself’, self-reflection and self-enquiry that traces back the origins of both thoughts and feelings, as the ‘emotional body’ requires active involvement too. This in turn can increase awareness and access to higher consciousness achievable as a permanent and fully integrated daily functioning state.
Many people would agree that it is important to be open to new experiences, people, and the possibility of having ongoing perceptual shifts. A healthy questioning of traditional standards and beliefs is important, especially these days, where almost everyone wants to live a life that is fulfilling, liberating, and has meaning. This can involve examining mental prejudices that have been accepted as standard for a long time, such as when a person has already made up their mind about something or someone without ever having witnessed this thing or person first hand. Sustaining a mental prejudice can close the heart and shut off the growth, acceptance and clarity that come through greater awareness. Even ageing doesn’t have to be the grim experience that many people manifest for themselves through their negative expectation. Societal beliefs and assumptions are often that, as we get older, we will experience worse health, less energy, and a decline in mental sharpness. The facts are that after midlife we lose only 1 percent per annum of any of these if in good health. Letting go of negative expectations, opening the mind to something new and developing new ways of perceiving are all essential qualities to adopt when striving for a healthy and resilient mind that won’t break so easily when under stress.
As distinct from imagery, memory and cognition, the imagination is a poorly understood yet fascinating cognitive ability of the human brain. Cultural psychology views imagination as a higher mental function, involved in a number of everyday activities both at the individual and collective level, that enables people to manipulate complex meanings in both linguistic and iconic forms as part of the process of experiencing. Imagination creates reality. Imagination is the eye of the soul. Albert Einstein’s famous quote, ‘Imagination is more than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination circles the world,’ although often quoted out of context, in fact was referring to his intuition about an experimental result – his imagination sufficiently informed him to take a leap forward in scientific understanding, this accurately demonstrates the power of the imagination.
Purpose
A sense of purpose can guide the decisions we make in our lives, influence behaviour, and give form to our goals – this gives direction and meaning to your life. It is not necessary to have or adopt a belief system, although many if not all human beings are brought up in one early on in life, and they may choose to continue with this system, to find something better, or maybe hold no rigid beliefs at all. Purpose is meaning in action.
Retirement from work, whether expected or early, can result in a sense of loss of purpose or reason for being. Arguably, for some people, work or following one’s vocation gives a sense of purpose, something to aim towards, a feeling that life means something and collectively that we are adding to the betterment of society and the whole.
Spirit
This is the very thing that animates us, the immaterial part of our existence. Much natural medicine is spirit-focused first, or ‘vitalist’ and self-healing is affected on this level first before filtering down to the physical vehicle. Spirit transcends materialist paradigms; humans can’t simply be ‘ghosts in a machine’. It is our spirit that animates our body, the word psychosomatic describes the psyche (in the mind) working in tandem with soma (in the body). In a normal, untraumatised state we will encounter intelligence, zestfulness, an enjoyment of challenges with spontaneous and creative problem-solving capabilities. Unfortunately, this ‘normal’ state is not commonly encountered, especially as many patients present with chronic illnesses and have been searching a long time for natural medicine practices that really offer lasting and curative results.
In good health a ‘spiritual power’ or ‘vital force’ animates the human organism and keeps it in a harmonious order – Dr Hahnemann, the founder of modern-day homeopathy, makes this observation and shared it with the world in his book the Organon, which clearly defines the principles of homeopathy. The ‘vital force’ is in essence the energetic spinning vortices of the chakra system. A ‘block’ within this system creates disruption or dis-ease or incoherent energy patterns within this subtle electromagnetic or biofield, that once removed can return the vital force to its normal power.
The ‘life force’ or biological intelligence permeates the entire natural world, it displays an extremely high degree of both organisation and co-ordination and is inherently creatively adaptive and responsive. Similarly, our body has an innate biological intelligence that co-ordinates everything from our, digesting, breathing, circulation, and the removal of wastes from the body. Simply put, appreciation and fundamental respect for life as an intelligence rather than mechanical, dramatically differentiates holistic modern natural medicine from western medicine and its often harsh practices. By addressing only the physical symptoms, western medicine can make a person more deeply sick and their quality of life could suffer, especially if this approach is continued as a long-term solution.
The concept of ‘life force’, prana, chi, dynamis, vitality, animation: this is at the cornerstone of all systems of natural healing and is universally recognised throughout all cultures and world epochs. It is only by working with this concept that health is perceived more completely, as is illness and the possibility of a natural cure. The immune, nervous, and hormonal systems are key segments of our body’s intelligent control and response network systems.
To become healthier as a culture, humankind must reclaim the invisible. Medical reductionism cannot explain what natural medicine practitioners work with and directly encounter within their patients. In the West we often encounter prejudice when talking about ‘invisibles’, yet important interactions between people who care deeply for each other are invisible, and we can observe this in the significant interactions between the invisible living systems of the earth. Western medicine has attempted to reduce healing to a sophisticated intellectually ‘clever’ manipulation of matter.
Many disciplines in natural medicine emphasise the importance of ‘flow’. In likening a person to a river with the Source at the very top of the mountain, the flow down through to the foothills represents a kind of demonstrated vitality. Somewhere downstream, a dam can be constructed that unwittingly causes a build-up of stored energy, causing the river’s flow to begin to backup – removing the dam and any other obstructions will result in correcting the flow and harmony through the mind-body. A human being displaying health, is far less prone to the development and susceptibility to allergies in the first instance. Health on one level can be seen as an absence symptoms both chronic (long-term) and acute (immediate).
Source / Great Architect
You may be asking yourself, why on earth is this field present at all given this article is addressing allergies, yet all of this takes on more meaning when everything is understood in context. Its inclusion really emphasises the importance of alignment on every level and the ramifications of that alignment when firmly in place – from the highest of levels down to the physical matter of our body. It is not necessary to have a belief in God, to fully appreciate the relevance of this kind of holistic coherent thinking and the effects it inevitably brings, filtering as it does from above to below. Let’s call this thing (Source), that something beyond you or could be described as transpersonal or beyond your personality.
Self with a capital ‘S’ pertains to that which is higher or greater than self with a small ‘s’ – this pertains to aspects or masks of the personality and in this sense is lesser. You may be familiar with the path of the seeker or aspirant, who when presented with the many paths leading to the top of the mountain, eventually realises that they all converge towards the same pinnacle at the top.
Real Medicine – How To Begin The Restoration Of Your Health
In natural medicine, a ‘process’ of self-healing is begun by carefully chosen natural therapeutic agents that don’t present with side effects or dependency. This ‘process’ of healing follows very specific and defined pathways that are recognised and actively assisted.
It is openly acknowledged that in modern natural medicine that the body does not make itself healthier or potentially ‘cure’ itself in a haphazard or meaningless manner. This healing process has been both studied and observed since remotest antiquity. This lineage follows the natural healing tradition of Hippocrates, Paracelsus, and Avicenna.
It was in modern day Homeopathy, that Dr Constantine Hering who reaffirmed and with clarity restated the facts of how a human being would cure itself of any disease. He famously coined this the ‘Law of Cure’. This law is as follows:
- From above downwards (from the spiritual and subtle levels to physicality)
- From the centre to periphery, or from within, outwards (centrifugally imbalances are thrown outwards, often to the skin)
- From more important and essential organs to less important ones (e.g. from kidneys/bladder to the outside and extremities of the body)
- In reverse chronological order of the onset of the problem – as current symptoms improve, so old previous and unresolved symptoms often arise, rather like the layers of an onion peeling away
Providing this ‘Law of Cure’ is enacted appropriately and in the proper sequence by the natural medicine practitioner on behalf of the patient, it is then inevitable that a curative action will be evoked. At times there may be a recurrence of symptoms that can be an intensified expression of those experienced earlier, often of a shorter duration and most significantly these symptoms leave not to return.
There is a biological intelligence within the body that clearly prioritises protecting the health of tissues that are most crucial for our survival. The skin is an example of a less important organ or eliminatory organ which is why it often shows on its surface eruptions if something is not quite right inside the body.
This hierarchy can be laid out in the following simplified flow diagram format, starting from utmost to least:
SOURCE / GREAT ARCHITECT > – MIND/EMOTIONS – SLEEP – BRAIN – NERVOUS SYSTEM – HEART – THYMUS GLAND > – LUNGS – LIVER & GALLBLADDER – STOMACH & SPLEEN – KIDNEYS & BLADDER – INTESTINES & COLON – SKIN >
The flow of life energy begins from the source and flows in the direction outlined above >, towards the skin. Whenever western medicine intervenes and reverses the flow of this river <, there are consequences as disturbed life-energy is then driven more deeply inside < and in the wrong direction as laid out above <, this is termed suppression and often mistaken for an allopathic curative ‘event’. Natural medicine practices intentionally working with this direction of cure, aim to encourage and unblock this flow of vital energy >, thereby restoring ever greater health via its more gradual and respectful process that works from above SOURCE > downwards to SKIN > outwards elimination together with the colon route and or urine route (refer to the ‘Laws of Cure’ 1-4 above).
For an in-depth explanation of the thymus gland mentioned above with relevance to allergies and grasping the whole picture, see the addendum at the end of this article where vaccination is given necessary attention also. It is known that high stress levels maintained over time can weaken the adrenal glands, thereby predisposing you to greater inflammation in the body and more restlessness in the mind. Less is known generally amongst the public about the thymus gland – the immune system is complex, and every cell plays a crucial role.
The thymus gland works to both inform, teach and train special white blood cells called T-cells, that help the immune system to fight disease and infection. NK or Natural Killer cells destroy anomalies, Helper or Effector cells enhance immune system response, Cytotoxic T cells can destroy disease and cancer, Memory T cells can recognise specific unusual material and Suppressor T cells can suppress the immune reaction. Should the Thymus gland become dysfunctional, the immune system can literally go off the rails.
The thymus gland and the state of its functioning is therefore, very important to assess when thoroughly addressing and contending with allergies due to that fact that it is a gland that helps to protect your immune system.
Treatment of Allergies
Modern allopathic medicine works at suppressing symptoms, giving palliation and relief from acute and emergency illness, but modern medicine’s ‘Achilles heel’ is that it has in fact never cured anyone of an allergy, instead creating dependency on drug prescriptions which allow the giant pharmaceutical companies to make huge profits for themselves and their shareholders. More seriously for the patient, their state of health is worsened by the continual driving inwards of symptomatic energetic disturbances.
Antihistamines
These are widely recommended in western medicine for coping with ‘milder’ allergic responses. In natural medicine, this is seen as disturbing the natural histamine pathway of our body that has its own intelligence to act according to its prior coding. Histamine is an organic compound that is created by our bodies and a key part of normal immune response. Histamine is like the bodies chemical alarm system, and once triggered, alerts your entire immune system to go into action by acting on receptors in your organs, causes inflammation, flushing, itching, hives, and swelling.
Proton Pump Inhibitors
Dr P Guerrerio a food allergy expert, has highlighted the use of proton pump inhibitors that control the level of stomach acids, and IgE sensitivities to food in adults. These medications lower gut acidity, permitting food in our stomachs to get absorbed in a more immunological intact form. Because the levels of stomach acid is directly connected to both our diet and stress level, this highlights just how our modern lifestyles and the convenience of over use of western pharmaceutical drugs impacts our immune system to its detriment. However, overuse or prolonged use can be counterproductive, as it must be remembered that the acid in the stomach is also an important defence against harmful pathogens such as yeasts and bacteria.
Asthma
For asthma, oral steroid use was the prevalent treatment seventy years ago, but today this has moved on to inhaled steroids. In the past, oral steroid use caused serious damage to the body’s tissues. The inhaled steroids on the other hand which are locally better targeted, don’t cause the same extent of damage. Bronchodilators can force open breathing in the event of an attack but, like much western medicine, the drugs can cause side effects such as tachycardia or throat irritation in both short and long-term use.
Typically, the standard treatment for respiratory allergies and asthma caused by extrinsic allergens, remains avoidance. Removal of the allergen from the patient’s environment means their immune system will not be triggered due to the absence of exposure. Cat dander for example is a difficult allergen to avoid, due to its ubiquitous nature and the fact that it is difficult to remove entirely from a home. Cleaning is another line of defence against allergic disease. Air filter devices, individually recommended to patients of The Natural Medicine Practice, often combined with internal treatment can deliver immediate and noticeable results to patients suffering from pollen and dust allergies for example. Our approach is to offer support and eventual replacement of the conveyor belt of drug prescriptions that only offer symptom control and ultimately dependence.
Anaphylaxis
As defined by the World Health Organisation, anaphylaxis is ‘a severe, life-threatening systemic hypersensitivity reaction characterised by being rapid in onset with potentially life-threatening airway, breathing or circulatory problems.’
Anaphylaxis in Greek means ‘backward defence’, describing the immune system being catastrophically over-sensitive in misrecognising a non-fatal substance as a threat. This can occur in those allergic to bee, wasp, and hornet stings, as well as from ingesting certain foods or medication, the main culprits being nuts, peanuts, wheat, soya, seafood, eggs, dairy, some fruits, and antibiotics or anti-inflammatory drugs, or coming into contact with an allergen such as latex. It cannot always be predicted how severe the reaction will be, and once anaphylaxis is triggered it is very difficult to stop. Evidence also points to the unfortunate fact that anaphylactic reactions can worsen with each exposure.
The efforts a patient has to make in order to avoid a specific allergen and potentially an anaphylactic event can be exhausting for them. If anaphylaxis is triggered, the patient may administer adrenaline via an auto injector called an EpiPen. What this does is delay the biological processes leading to anaphylaxis and, in the worst case, death. The natural supply of adrenaline secreted by the adrenal glands is rapidly supplemented, stopping the process of anaphylaxis by halting release of histamines, constricting blood vessels to raise blood pressure, increasing heart rate, and relaxing the airways. Timely administration of adrenaline can allow for access to proper medical care that can prove lifesaving, but the effects wear off after about half an hour, so no time can be wasted.
Due to the severity of this condition, in an ideal world these patients would have the option of both allopathic and natural treatments, and having recourse to both it should be explained that if the emergency scenario is repeated too frequently, then the deeper underlying causes would ideally need to be addressed to bring a lasting halt to this ‘backward defence’. From a modern natural medicine perspective, to prioritise safety treatment would initially work alongside western medicine’s interventionist style, but eventually supersede it by finding a resolution to the susceptibility to anaphylaxis, essentially by switching off the patient’s body’s propensity to this kind of reaction.
Eczema
There is much debate on the causes of eczema, but it must be remembered that the skin is an organ of elimination and driving the symptoms back inwards by the use of topical corticosteroids, as often prescribed in western medicine in persistent moderate cases of eczema, would seem to be illogical. Generally speaking, if used on children the ‘aggressive’ (meaning actively suppressing through their action) external treatment options used for eczema treatment increases the likelihood of that child going on to develop asthma.
Unfortunately, due to the barrier dysfunction of the sore skin, it is also not uncommon for eczema patients to develop bacterial skin infections as well, for which antibiotics may then be prescribed. The immunosuppressants sometimes prescribed can also have a negative side effect, by partially turning off general immune response they increase infection risk. It is important particularly for parents to realise that many of the western medicine options are doing more harm than good and to look for options that will prove healthier in the long run.
The triggers for eczema are usually: allergens in the diet; stress; airborne allergens such as those produced by house dust mites; staphylococcus colonisation; lack of sunlight; and textile intolerance. Often, personal solutions are reached through trial and error, and examination of personal history, after which the existing evidence can be used to devise the most effective treatment.
The immunotherapy treatment option of western medicine often fails to yield results for patients, even after much longer and extensive treatment duration – patients experiencing environmental allergies such as hayfever are a testament to this observation.
In contrast, here at The Natural Medicine Practice, patients hypersensitive or allergic to certain substances frequently find benefit from Isopathy, a term derived from isos meaning ‘equal’. To effectively use this natural medicine approach, skill and experience is required on the part of the practitioner. Tautopathy, a variation of Isopathy, can be used when a patient reports that they have never been well since taking a certain drug or have had some kind of adverse reaction following vaccination or poisonous chemical exposure, for example.
The Natural Medicine Practice views western allopathic medicine’s expertise as being primarily in the areas of diagnosis and emergency medicine. Modern natural medicine’s strength is its ability to weave together the latest developments of the many diverse medical disciplines, with particular importance given to the natural sciences. This treats the whole person as an individual and with respect, preventing future disease by administering timely treatment and addressing the constitution and temperament of the whole person.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that individual genetics can play a role in allergies – modern natural medicine has specific targeted therapeutic agents to address this, as and when the indications and time for the patient are right. We have access to a veritable natural medicine treasure chest, many of these medicines are complete and without side effects when their integrity and natural synergy of inherent ingredients are left intact.
A ‘one size fits all’ approach to healthcare just does not work and cannot hope to offer an effective solution that delivers meaningful and appropriate treatment to an individual seeking help with their health issues and concerns and anxieties. This is even recognised in allopathic disciplines, where tailored dosage is now seen as a preferable way forward.
The scientific community, concerned by the worldwide increase in allergies, is at the beginning of its journey to understanding the causes, due in part to poor-quality data and rudimentary treatment options. Skin-prick and intradermal test results may often prove unreliable for many reasons yet can deliver indicators of allergy. Presently there is no accepted standardised system for interpreting skin tests or recording and collating results. Tests mustn’t rely too heavily on IgE as a sign of true allergic response, as these reactions don’t always indicate allergy presence. IgG also plays a role in some allergic disorders. Often there is insufficient evidence for, as opposed to evidence against a certain therapy, and this also applies to natural medicine. Researchers are actively working to develop new molecular tools that can help diagnose allergies.
Modern allergy detection and treatment is available at The Natural Medicine Practice.
Western medicine’s treatments can only manage symptoms and don’t last, with treatments frequently costly and needing to be maintained for life. Preventative treatments are an option available from The Natural Medicine Practice – you don’t have to risk experimental new drugs, often at great cost and with unpleasant side effects. As a very general rule, for every year you have been unwell you might expect one to two months of natural medicine treatment – it is important that the ‘direction of cure’ is followed as closely as possible, with your medical/family history helping to display a kind of medical trail to lessen the effects of the allergy, or even remove it completely.
All disciplines can agree that it is time to take allergies seriously, and not sideline them because of the often-inaccurate perception that they are not life-threatening. It is necessary to reduce the use of petroleum-based and synthetic man-made products and chemicals, chlorinated water, harsh detergents, and deliberately make a conscious effort to live and eat differently. The increase in allergies cannot be simply explained by humankind simply becoming ‘cleaner’, although antibiotics and sanitisers indiscriminately kill ‘good’ as well as ‘bad’ bacteria.
Proponents of the hygiene hypothesis take the view that people who are ‘too clean’ develop allergies, and that by encountering in early life a wide variety of germs in a farm environment for example, is protective. It advocates that exposure to a little ‘dirt’ is good for us, just as mothers’ milk is essential for a newborn to be able to go on to develop its own immune system responses. There is consensus that our gene-environment interactions or epigenetics have a large role to play in the rise of allergies, as does the makeup of microbiomes present in our nose, gut, and skin.
Being kind to our microbiome through diet and doing things outdoors more often may both be factors in contributing to a lessening of external and internal irritation and allergies. A studied group of babies that have allergic disease display different gut microbiome from those without allergic disease – the gut microbiome has a key role in regulating our immune system.
‘Old friends’ is a hypothesis that propositions that we are more at risk of inflammatory diseases like allergies and autoimmune disorders since we no longer regularly encounter some of the micro-organisms we evolved alongside for millennia. It is implied that these ‘old friends’ significantly assisted the regulation of our immune function. By responding to these ‘old friends’ our immune response system could become more robust and adaptive to its environment. This perspective would lead us to understand that if our immune system doesn’t get early training to better self-regulate, then it has the potential to overreact to otherwise harmless airborne pollen and minuscule dust mite faeces for example.
Many consider the changes in the way we now grow and prepare food have altered our gut microbiome, thus fuelling allergies. As discussed already, other theories point to the possibility that man-made chemicals, and plastics we are in contact with daily, actively cause our immune system to become more stressed. Air quality overall is decreasing globally, with air pollution at high levels and high pollen counts making even just breathing an effort. Climate change, our relationship to the natural environment changes in food production, diets and overreliance on antibiotics are all factors contributing to higher rates of allergy everywhere. In addition to this, it may be sensible to consider the fact that whilst some ‘germs’ are our friends i.e. we need our microbes, on the other hand, most importantly it would be sound to acknowledge, that some perceived friends (vaccines) have the potential to be our enemies, especially when used too frequently and relied upon in excess.
For western medicine, allergy diagnosis is often complicated and inconvenient for the recipient, as too is the process of allergy treatment. Up until very recently, western medicine has been stuck with the same options for treatment – none of which provide complete, lasting relief. Modern natural medicine on the other hand, can instead offer helpful contemporary and convenient diagnosis and treatment that works for you.
At the Natural Medicine Practice, merely taking the time, to sit and effectively and carefully listen to a patient’s history and allergy symptoms, can help a great deal to understand that there’s the possibility of a way forward into a better quality of life than faced at present.
The truth is that our immune systems are overtasked and therefore overworked in the twenty-first century. We need to rethink how we live our day-to-day lives and what information and sources we are to trust and have our best interests at heart. Questioning what we are told and what we are expected to go along with by an outside ‘authority’ is essential at this time – remember, you are an authority in your own life, especially concerning your own health. Allergies show we are vulnerable human beings, and their existence proves we’re all in an increasingly irritating world together!
Addendum
Your attention may have been drawn above to the ‘THYMUS GLAND,’ about halfway or in a fulcrum point of the flow diagram – it is indeed a critical gland (see the heading ‘Real medicine – how to begin the restoration of your health’). The Thymus Gland lies behind the sternum in the centre of the chest above the heart. It is intimately connected with the immune system and nerve functioning. It is crucial to the stage of maturation in the human body and triggers puberty changes. It can be damaged in childhood by accident, physical trauma, by western medicine drugs, antibiotics, steroids can cause it to retrogress from its usual size. It is also susceptible to severe and sustained emotional trauma and abuse. By far and amongst the largest onslaught on the Thymus Gland is from vaccination.
Contrary to western medical opinion, in natural medicine philosophy both children and adults require the physical presence and activities of a healthy functioning Thymus Gland when considering health at the level of body, mind and the subtle levels of existence. All the parts that have evolved to make up our entire organism are needed for its healthy and smooth functioning – simply because current western medical practice cannot yet, identify a role for a specific part of the body, does not mean that it is wise practice to remove it surgically.
Our Thymus Gland has its energetic component – the Thymus chakra, which is an energy centre often referred to as the ‘Upper Heart chakra’, and ‘Spiritual Heart’ in the wisdom traditions. Within this energy centre is stored information about your life’s work, deep self-identity, buried memories and pain etc. The closest analogy of it is the flight recorder present in airplanes.
As a result of vaccination, this chakra is often left confused and in disarray, and this resulting state of disconnection can also inhibit our alignment with Source.
The ‘elephant in the room’ that many don’t want to even talk about let alone acknowledge, is vaccination and its contribution to the development of allergies over the longer term i.e. over your lifespan up to the present day. Allergy usually occurs strongly in those patients with chronic or long-term disease, although it can also occur as an ‘acute’ or in acute disease that requires immediate treatment.
The initial fundamental flaw of vaccination via hypodermic needle injection, which involves injecting the vaccine material under the skin via hollow needles, is that it involves puncturing a line of defence in place for the protection of the body and all the vital organs under the skin. Added to this first offense i.e. puncture trauma, is another more serious one, that is the deliberate bypassing the mucosal immunity, which has evolved specifically to be a first line of defence from harmful antigenic structures and infection, also regulating appropriate immune response to pathogens. The nasal mucosa and the upper respiratory tract, a primary defence membrane, is there for a very good reason, and that is to prevent the invasion of microorganisms and harmful foreign substances from entering the body. Vaccination, therefore, by its very method and nature, violates your body’s innate defensive mechanisms by transgressing this natural pathway of defence.
Bret Weinstein a former professor of evolutionary biology when he was interviewed early 2024 by Tucker Carlson on his channel, eloquently explains in layman’s terms how the Covid pandemic response revealed the game of ‘big Pharma’. One of its technologies involves the use of whole sequences of a pathogen that can be entered into a machine to produce a vaccine, even though there has been no thorough testing of this platform. The mRNA transfection platform is wrongly referred to as a vaccine as it does not use the same mechanism, and should more accurately be referred to as a jab.
An important question is, how do you get an adult human with 30 trillion cells to automatically transcribe this information? Lipid or fat nanoparticles are used, the intention is that these fats are taken up by cells and the encoded message is transcribed. This groundbreaking technology comes with a terrible safety flaw, in that there is no targeting of these lipid nano particles. (Bret Weinstein)
The Covid jab was to be delivered by injection into the deltoid arm muscle, but this injected matter did not stay there, it leaked out and circulated around the body. A cell that produces an antigen (protein) that it doesn’t recognise, the body will destroy it as it perceives a viral infection. mRNA transfection technology does exactly this, it tricks a person’s cells into producing foreign antigens which the immune system recognise as a symptom of infection and kills those cells. (Bret Weinstein)
If this transfected nanoparticles escape from the muscles in the arm (at the injection site, the arm would often feel ‘dead’ or weakened in power) they can then be circulated around the body and get taken up haphazardly and then whichever tissue starts producing these foreign proteins will as a consequence be attacked by the immune system. (Bret Weinstein)
Proper injection of this mRNA transfection jab should involve NOT injecting intravenously – it is important to not aspirate the needle, proper injection involves pulling back on the plunger in the syringe to see if there’s blood – this indicates that the vaccinator has landed in a circulatory vessel and the person giving this shot should back off or plunge the needle further so as not to inject it into a vein. In the case of the Covid shots, the advice was not to do that, as the needle would be required to be in a person’s arm for longer with possible extra pain creating vaccine hesitancy; also the procedure would take longer, therefore be less efficient and incur higher costs to administer. (Bret Weinstein)
A big bolus of this ‘material’ may be flowing right through a person’s heart and then taken up by a bunch of these cells. Globally jabs were administered in the billions directly involving this mRNA technology. Safety testing was radically truncated – long term harms were impossible to detect, and big Pharma used the pandemic to both sneak it by and normalise an incredibly lucrative technology that has many other profitable applications. A harmful product can hurt a lot of people. Pfizer found a 1 in 800 per shot not per person of serious harm to health. (Bret Weinstein)
It’s estimated by Bret Weinstein, that as many as 17 million deaths have occurred globally from the Covid jabs – equivalent to the death toll of a global war. Many people formerly optimistic about the potential of traditional vaccines then decided to become anti-vaccine because of big Pharma’s behaviour during the recent Covid global pandemic. The Covid pandemic caused questioning amongst many of us, precipitating a heightened awareness of many of the structures that had become built around them, the ‘key’ was turned. mRNA technology was not a vaccine but was labelled as a vaccine to lend more credibility.
Dr Michael Nehls describes his research and findings on the effects of mRNA on cognitive function, including damage to the autobiographical memory – this topic is discussed in detail in his book ‘The Indoctrinated Brain’. If you experience repeat injections with this kind of jab your brain will be inflamed – this can cause cognitive, personality and memory problems, this is because index neurone production is stopped by continuous neuroinflammatory processes. If you inject interleukin one into a mouse the production of index neurones in the hippocampus is completely stopped. The natural potential of the hippocampus is to grow by a few percent each year – our archive (hippocampus) must grow but it requires a natural lifestyle. If you are not allowed social discourse or are isolated, then the hippocampus shrinks.
Clearly, the issue of vaccines is a small yet highly significant part of an enormous picture that is challenging in the extreme, to fully grasp. This is why it has been chosen to isolate and hone in on the nine fields (environment, food, movement, sleep, emotions, mind, purpose, spirit, source) and discuss these, thereby allowing the reader the means to make more sense and their own mind up about the whole issue aside from the mainstream narrative.
Vaccinations: Early immunologists were attempting to induce immunity artificially, introducing vaccines directly into the test subjects blood stream, containing altered microbes and disease fighting antibodies as an attempt to elevate and better appropriate, the hosts immune response. Ample evidence conveyed by Dr Sam Bailey of New Zealand, points to the fact that vaccines are ‘not a great public health achievement’ as claimed by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Her view is that the problem is with bogus modelling, stemming from the Imperial College and disingenuous data manipulation, the purpose of which is to place vaccines in a ‘false light’. The CDC did just this with tetanus shots. Much is dependent upon accepting premises such as pathogens and the immune systems role on a molecular level as a way of explaining what is thought to happen – these are basically, theoretical models upon which to structure thought, and speculate as to how things might work, rather than proven.
The assumptions about actual vaccine efficacy need to change. The whole point is that the damage vaccines have done from the very earliest days of your entry into this world and right up to the present, perhaps for many, this has not been yet fully appreciated – the key problem lies with accurately identifying a causative event i.e. an administered vaccine that resulted in the beginnings of a gradual decline of your health. When the number of vaccines received over a whole lifetime mounts up, or even before this tipping point, there will be an inevitable decline in health – the immune system can only take so many specific tasks as to what it should and shouldn’t do and how to treat invaders – any ‘over-tasked’ immune system will ultimately break down sooner or later. The best image to present you with is the ‘master-vaccine’ ‘slave-immune system’ dynamic. The empirical evidence from vast numbers of natural medicine practitioners, homeopathic clinicians, and astute observers whom after seeing countless patients, has been that vaccination when used without enough consideration about individual reaction, and largely unconsciously, is that they cause an observable phenomenon in those suffering from vaccination poisoning. This phenomenon is referred to as ‘vaccinosis’.
The way in which pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine researchers have researched vaccine efficacy is statistically, by looking at ‘morbidity’ and ‘mortality’. The book entitled ‘Dissolving Illusions’ published in 2013, completely refutes the notion that vaccines have any significant role in preventing illness or death. Vaccines are not the reasons for the vast improvements we have seen in both morbidity and mortality. Another well researched book of note is written by Dr Viera Scheibner – ‘Vaccination – 100 years of orthodox research shows that vaccines represent a medical assault on the immune system’.
Dr Sam Bailey on her channel poses an important question for everyone to ask, ‘are you absolutely sure you should be supporting vaccines?’ Many people who were ‘neutral’ are now turning against supporting the vaccine concept. This is often due to personal injury or a loved one taking the Covid shot and suffering the ill effects. Much virological, germ, and other theoretical models have purposefully been used in support of pro-vaccine propaganda. Gaslighting and the propaganda recently witnessed during the pandemic was so intense, it’s no wonder that many opted to get the experimental jab. A century’s worth of bogus medical models has been perpetuated, primarily to benefit the medico pharmaceutical industry and its ‘other’ interested parties. According to her around 6,700 doctors in New Zealand endorsed the Covid injection in 2021 – most of these doctors were under informed about any vaccines including the Covid jabs. She is of the opinion that as a medical doctor, their education consists of a very limited indoctrinated programme e.g. childhood vaccination protocol, possibly travel vaccinations and how to deal with anti-vaccine occurrences. In short, they are often not the best people to seek advice from as to the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.
A landmark legal case of the 8th of November 2023 is highlighted by Dr John Campbell on his channel – Oxford AstraZeneca Covid jab was ‘defective’. Claims of efficacy were ‘vastly overstated’ – in layman’s terms, it didn’t have what it said it did in the tin! Taking the AstraZeneca jab resulted in a significant group of individuals suffering catastrophic injury and bereavement, a fact evidenced by reports of clinicians, medical experts, and coroners across the UK. Estimates are as many as 80 damages claims totalling £80 million over a new condition, known as vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT). The evidence is that the risk of receiving the jab outweigh the harm posed by Covid. Dr Campbell reminds us, that this is very likely the first of many cases, of which many other complications shall emerge over the course of time.
Researchers have only recently, drawn a attributable link between AstraZeneca jab and development of Guillain-Barre syndrome that leaves its victims paralysed by seriously affecting the nerves, mainly affecting the feet, hands and limbs, causing problems such as numbness, weakness and pain – it would be fair to assert with confidence, that we have only seen the ‘tip of the iceberg’ in terms of the damage from the pandemic rollout of the recent Covid experimental jabs.
Here at The Natural Medicine Practice, we have seen more than a few of cases with these symptoms but without the ‘official’ diagnosis. Imagine for one minute, the sheer volume of people globally, who have decided not to step forward for whatever personal reasons, simply not wanting to officially report on the damage that they had sustained following the recent spate of Covid pandemic jabs.
Ted Macie a US Navy lieutenant and medical officer for the defence department exposed in early December 2023, shocking statistics pertaining to serving officers following their Covid-19 jab. Many statistics concerning new coronary conditions emerged around July 2023, one of which sees a myocarditis rise of 151 percent. The following relates to a five-year average compared to 2022 amongst specifically, fixed wing and helicopter pilots in active service – hypertensive disease up 36 percent, ischemic heart disease up 69 percent, pulmonary heart disease up 62 percent, and heart failure up a staggering 973 percent. Other forms of heart disease up 63 percent, cardiomyopathy up 152 percent – all following Covid-19 injection receipt.
Arguably, profit seems to be the highest priority, not patient safety. The UK government granting indemnity to the manufacturer AstraZeneca says much about all vested interests in maintenance of the status quo. Compliance and normalising control of a population was the order of the day – how can confidence in mass vaccination remain in place? ‘Excess-deaths’ and the consequences of lockdown have not been touched in significant detail here, nor the impact upon young people, children, and the elderly. Legacy media big Pharma, politics, and unscrupulous scientific advisors were actively in collusion with each other during the Covid pandemic.
Conflicts of interests were at such glaringly obvious levels, not previously witnessed before on such a scale in the history of mankind. Bret Weinstein summarises this situation that emerged during the pandemic accurately and refers to it as the game of big Pharma. I would like for you to recall the very apt story of David and the Goliath – natural medicine in its entirety is ‘David’ and the ‘Goliath’ is the conglomerate collusion mentioned earlier – the philistine giant big Pharma, shall eventually be defeated by the young David, in a long and drawn out single combat.
Severe ‘total allergy syndrome’ (TAS) dubbed a twentieth century disease, involves a hypersensitivity to the environment, so serious in many cases, that the patient is incapable of living in the modern world – rather strangely within allopathic western medicine this is placed in the broad classification of psychiatric illness. MCS or ‘multiple chemical sensitivity,’ is classed as a chronic recurring disease whereby a person loses their ability to tolerate environmental chemicals or foreign chemicals.
The ‘biological personality’ or instinct is distinctly different from a person’s personality structure – this instinct is very ancient, and through this vehicle there is attunement to the earth and has been in place for aeons. Offenses perceived by this part of a person may arrive in the form of antibiotics, steroids, pharmaceutical drugs (iatrogenic disease – which is doctor introduced pharmaceuticals and other treatment), surgery, anaesthetics, injections which include immunisations, dental and orthodontic works, or any procedure done to the body that involves physical force and which has consequences.
There may also be accumulations in the body of viruses and toxic pollutants which, when not permitted to leave via the usual non-suppressed/diverted pathways of elimination can build up from inoculation serums, autointoxication and acerbated due to retentive bowels, bladders, distorted and inefficient foreign cell recognition and destruction. All these can lead to TAS or total allergy syndrome a wholly man-made condition!
From my personal and experienced point of view, the results in positive treatment outcomes made available through The Natural Medicine Practice speaks volumes in and of itself. Hopefully this is encouraging news to those wanting to explore the vast world of natural healing. Do not hesitate to reach out to the magnificent blue-green world around you. Your planet needs you! Why not resource more completely your planets natural gifts and gain greater understanding, appreciation, and respect along the way.
DISCLAIMER: This article presents the views and direct experience of the author only, and this is informed by his clinical experience and perceptions. I have been as careful and meticulous as I can possibly be, in ascertaining the validity and usefulness of all the information contained here within – I shall not be open for personal comment or interview based on this information, other researchers using the information here as a resource will just have to do their own research to either approve or disprove the content presented if they so wish. Importantly, if you or someone you love, should find yourself in a situation requiring emergency treatment, do not hesitate to get to the nearest medical accident and emergency department – once you are over the worst of a crisis situation, in the longer-term you may then want to consider a deeper and more lasting solution to your allergic situation with effective ways of managing your immediate symptoms, such as those offered by The Natural Medicine Practice. Up to date scanning, analysis and whole health treatment is available here. The results in positive treatment outcomes will speak volumes for themselves and hopefully encourage those on the fence, to dip their toe into the world of potential for natural healing.
About the author
John M Rawlings BA (Hons) DIHom PgDSHom HMD MHMA Lic Ac AAC
John runs a multi-discipline natural medicine practice in Hove offering among other treatments Five-Element Acupuncture, Homeopathy and Allergy Testing. It was his own experience and recovery from early eczema, asthma and allergies that informed how he would establish a safe place for his patients to discuss their experience of ill health, and thereby support them back to a state of wellness. His enduring love and respect for nature is reflected in his interest in harnessing its healing potential – from his worldwide travel, John has brought together knowledge about the natural medicine practices from many countries, including India, Japan, China and Thailand. He has developed a comprehensive, holistic approach that effectively treats and prevents a wide range of health issues.