Environmental Medicine:
Healing Management Thru
Types Of Alternative Medicine

Environmental medicine takes into consideration the treatment of three major groups of allergies with this newer field of types of alternative medicine. These are:

• Inhalant Allergies-any kind of substance in which you breathe it in or smell it. The difference here is it is not something you eat or touch. This type of allergy can be spring's hay fever, dust, mold spores, the family pet or even a jar of peanut butter,perfume or even bath soap. The allergy itself is in the body's reaction to the compounds in the air from the offending source.

• Food Allergies- After testing for inhalant allergies turns up negative, commonly food allergies are tested next. These are much more difficult to diagnose because your body could be reacting to one or any number of allergens. Often the final diagnosis is determined by the patient keeping a daily log of all foods consumed. From studying this, a practitioner of environmental medicine many times can find correlations between foods you eat and the symptoms you describe.

• Chemical Allergies- most doctors in both conventional medicine and alternative medicine do not consider chemicals to be an allergy. But pesticides, herbicides, gas and car exhaust, new car leather upholstery, glue from a newly-laid vinyl floor, new carpeting, fresh paint...as you can tell this list can go on forever. Add to this then the preservatives, additives, dyes, chemicals and pesticides which are used in our toiletries and food supply every day, all of this can be attributed to chemical allergies also.

After all typical tests have been performed during an environmental medicine procedure, the practitioner now has a good foundation of what he needs to be treating you for.

Symptoms or Signs In Your Body Of An Allergy

• Allergic Arthritis is quite simply just joint pain.

• Asthma- is one of the most stressful conditions any person must endure. Not having the ability to get air into your body leads to panic, which then triggers an even more stressful reaction. Preventative measures in conventional medicine tend not to be a priority. Conventional medicine generally just treats the symptoms after symptoms are shown. In environmental medicine though, therapies are based on finding the cause and treating it. By using nutrient therapy, stress management and environmental controls- most food allergies can be reduced or eliminated, thus relieving many of an asthmatics symptoms. Remember though, all of this is based on the continuing care of an experienced practitioner of alternative medicine. Do not ever start a program of this severity at your home without expert opinion.

Because of on-going research, it is now commonly thought that every asthmatic does have an allergic predisposition to one of the three main forms of allergy (inhalant-food-chemical).

• Brain Allergy- the central nervous system, of which the brain is the most important part, is always a major part of many of the symptoms shown in most allergic reactions. Depression, hyperactivity, fatigue, brain fog, headaches and even mental illness are all outward signs of a brain allergy. Generally by finding the offending food(s), many people can and do show a reversal of their symptoms.

• Autism-although it is infrequent, some children actually diagnosed as autistic actually just have an undiagnosed food allergy If your child seems to be sensitive to some of the foods they ingest, check with your doctor to confirm this diagnosis. Even if the odds are only 1 out of 100 children- if your child is that one- it will seem as if miracles can and still do exist.

• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome- often this can be helped by an herbal therapy regimen as the patient has time for the immune system to "rejuvenate".

• Dementia- is a very controversial sign of allergies. Many experts do not agree on the causes or treatments of this condition. But it is a documented fact that many people diagnosed with dementia have shown considerable improvement after their allergy triggers have been identified.

• Epilepsy- to date, no direct link has been found relating epilepsy to food allergies but it has been documented many times when an allergen has been identified and taken away- the seizures do stop.

• Fragrance Sensitivity/Allergy- Popular perfumes, colognes, lotions and shampoos, soaps and body wash, plus many other types of beauty aids and toiletries are showing an increasing amount of sensitivities for many people on a recurring basis. The reason, it has been shown that up to 14 different chemical additives can be present in these products but it is not required combination ingredients be listed individually on the ingredients label.

  Many of these combination ingredients have been proven to induce asthma attacks, wheezing or coughing, headaches, stiff muscles and joint pain plus other innumerable "nuisance symptoms" in many people.

  Currently, to avoid these types of products, products made from essential oils or natural ingredients on the ingredient label will help you to avoid these chemicals in your personal health and maintenance routine.

Avoiding The Common Inhalant Allergies

Because the inhalant allergies are the most common, it's in the very air we breathe every minute, some strategies to try to lessen the burden on your body can often help by doing the following:

• Remove all the carpets in your home or office. Change to wood floors and use throw rugs if desired.

• Keep your windows cracked, especially during the winter, so you can always get a minimal amount of fresh air circulating.

• Use air conditioning units during the spring/summer/fall months to keep the humidity and moisture levels in your environment stabilized.

• Remove all living plants or trees in or around your immediate area to prevent the wheezing and sneezing attacks

• Keep your nose and mouth covered during extreme conditions. Use a medical/contractor's mask, a tissue etc.. Do not use your bare hands because the pollen, animal dander, dust etc. can be all over it also.

Currently, by medicines' standards, environmental medicine is a relatively new field of allergy research, just now showing any dominance at all during the second half of the twentieth century. Because of extensive testing in the field though, the medical community is realizing sensitivity reactions to anything we come in contact with during our daily lives can be a trigger for many allergic reactions. To date, very few doctors in conventional medicine have realized the importance of this. This is slowly changing though as information is spreading and patients are demanding better answers than "just live with it".

Return to "Environmental Allergies" from "Environmental Medicine".