Ellen Potthoff, DC, ND

 Ellen Potthoff, DC, ND

I noticed the first sheen of yellow/green almost fluorescent material on my car yesterday.  Yes, it is that time again when Mother Nature renews herself, bursting forth with blossom, bloom, and POLLEN.  Now on the face of it, pollen grains, which are so small you have to use a microscope to see them clearly, would seem like an innocuous sort of thing.  But, not to immune systems that are sensitized to them. 

Your immune system protects you from internal and external invaders.  Internally, metabolic wastes, toxic products of gut bacteria, pre-cancerous and frankly cancerous cells are constantly being sought out by the surveillance mechanisms of your immune system, and destroyed.  Externally, the immune system neutralizes the effect of bacteria, viruses, and any other foreign invader. 

                Your immune system is made of many components – lymphatic tissue (lymph nodes, thymus, spleen, and tonsils), white blood cells, specialized cells (macrophages, mast cells, etc.) and specialized chemical factors.  The lymphatic vessels drain metabolic waste products from the tissues to the lymph nodes where pac-man like macrophages gobble up foreign materials including bacteria and cellular debris. The spleen and the thymus release many potent immune-system enhancing compounds.

                T lymphocytes (i.e. killer T cells) are a type of white blood cell that is partially responsible for cell mediated immunity.  Cell mediated immunity is particularly important in the resistance to infection by mold-like bacteria, yeast, fungi, parasites, and viruses (like Herpes, Epstein-Barr and Hepatitis causing viruses).  This form of immunity is critical in protecting the body against the development of cancer, auto-immune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis, and ALLERGIES.  B lymphocytes, the white blood cells that initiate antibody production in response to viruses, bacteria, yeast and other micro-organisms, are also part of the cell mediated immunity system. 

                Allergies, like hayfever, occur when the body encounters something foreign, antibodies are produced by the B lymphocytes, and when that substance is contacted once again, the antibodies mount a defense of the body, histamine is released from the mast cells, and your allergies are off and running.  Why would your immune system respond to something as innocuous as a grain of pollen?  Because it is already so overloaded that it starts to hyperfunction.   

                Proper functioning of your immune system is critical to your good health.  Conversely, your good health is critical to supporting the immune system.  Stress management, appropriate lifestyle, exercise, wholesome diet, nutritional supplementation, glandular therapy and the use of plant-based medicines are all part of a comprehensive approach to restoring immune function.  In addition, your mental state has everything to do with your immune function.  According to the new branch of medicine called psychoneuroimmunology, the mind has a profound effect on the health or disease state of the body.  A positive mental attitude can be useful in improving the function of the immune system.  

                There are two ways to reduce the allergic threshold:  reduce exposure to airborne allergens (things one is allergic to), and, reduce intake of food allergens.  In addition, adopting a healthy lifestyle can significantly reduce allergies.  In a recent study of 706 Japanese factory workers, it was demonstrated that a healthy lifestyle reduced IgE (allergic antibody) levels, while unhealthy lifestyle increased IgE levels.  Lifestyle factors that tended to increase IgE levels included poor dietary habits, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, and increased feelings of stress.  

                You can take an anti-histamine to suppress the release of histamine in response to having hayfever.  That will work in the short run.  But what are the consequences in your body?  Essentially you are suppressing the normal function of your body.  The naturopathic point of view would be to improve the function of your immune system by the steps listed above, reduce exposure to airborne allergens and reduce intake of food allergens.  In that way you would improve the function of the nervous system by unloading it. 

                Fortunately, there are some herbal and supplemental medicines that can be very useful in a hayfever situation.  They are not magic bullets that “get rid of” your hayfever, but they are helpful.   The first is Urtica dioica (stinging nettles).  It has been found in scientific study to  reduce or eliminate the experience of hayfever symptoms in 60% of the people involved in the study.   In addition, vitamins B6, B12, C, and E, magnesium, and flavinoids, carotenes and selenium can be useful.

                The most important thing, in working with your allergies, is to improve immune function and decrease the likelihood your immune system will even respond to pollen in the first place.  Have a wonderful Spring and enjoy all the beautiful flowers! 

Ellen Potthoff, D.C., N.D. is available to help you with allergies or any inappropriate function of your immune system.  Please call her at (925) 603-7300 or e-mail her at Natdoc@jps.net.