Not a day goes by in our Integrative Medicine office that we don’t see a “unexpected”  manifestation of allergies.  Most patients think that allergies are something that many people get because things like pollen, dust and other environmental allergens are unavoidable. What they don’t always know is that having an allergy problem is having an immune system problem. For example, if you are allergic to dust, your body’s immune system overreacts, or is ‘hypersensitive’, to dust.  This means that when dust contacts the lining of your nose, your immune system goes into a ‘panic attack.’  It thinks (because it has developed a unhealthy memory from the past) that the dust is dangerous and harmful to you.  So, it starts a cascade of immune-mediated attacks trying to block the evil dust from getting any further into your body. The secret weapon of the immune system is inflammation, more commonly noticed by you as snot and congestion.

Here comes the first big ah-hah!!!  If you are allergic to “foreign’ things in
the environment like dust, pollen, cat dander or whatever else you can
breathe in, you are equally likely to be reacting to something in your
environment that you just put in your mouth, swallowed and brought all the way
down to the digestive lining of your body.  It’s all connected!

Let’s explain further.  Your immune system is a bunch of soldiers constantly patrolling your body by traveling all about the bloodstream.  If you are an allergic, or ‘atopic,’ individual, your soldiers are just more trigger-happy than those of a non-allergic person’s! So, if your allergic, hypersensitive, trigger-happy soldiers are on their routine patrol route and pass through the digestive lining neighborhood, aren’t they still going to be allergic, hypersensitive, trigger happy soldiers there as well?  Of course!  When they see an ‘intruder,’ (common ones being wheat, dairy and soy but the list can be any food- healthy or not), the soldiers behind the digestive lining also attack with snot and congestion.  You might feel that as bloating, diarrhea, constipation, acid reflux or a multitude of other symptoms.

Once you recover from thumping your head, let me really blow your mind!  When the soldiers fire their weapons, I just explained how they can cause symptoms in that specific neighborhood, BUT the pollution and the soldiers caused by that attack can continue to travel to other areas in the body through the bloodstream and cause snot, congestion and pollution in remote neighborhoods as well.  Imagine this.  If someone is burning a campfire 3 doors down, you still might start coughing once the smoke reaches your backyard- even though the fire is not at your house- especially if you are ‘hypersensitive’ to the smoke.  That’s why you never just get snot and
congestion with an allergy attack- you get feverishness, fatigue,
nausea, headache, dizziness, hives, etc.  Sooooo….the snot you have in your nose everyday could very well be caused by the food you eat everyday. 

Integrative Medicine physicians get this amazing concept of connection within the body and are continuing to piece more parts of the puzzle together for you.  Food allergies are a prime modern-day example of this in action.  If you suffer from digestive issues and respiratory allergies, you might think twice at your next meal.  See if you notice a relationship between certain foods and your respiratory allergy symptoms.  Many of them will actually be the primary cause of your snot!

I will surely get into this topic more in future posts but be sure to communicate with me on your questions.  I would love to use them as a starting point to new discussions.  Look out for the post where I will describe how to do the provocative food challenge test to see which foods might be your triggers.

Until then, may your spirit be free and your nose be clear!