s Fido making you sneeze?  Does your friend bring over her cat’s dander to your house each time she visits, leaving you with itchy eyes?

Every spring seems to get more virulent than the previous in terms of allergies.  People who are not normally bothered begin to sniffle, sneeze and generally feel miserable. 

Allergies of all types, be they seasonal, food, environmental, pets, etc., seem to be a motivating factor for clients to seek homeopathic treatment.  

From a homeopathic perspective, allergies are a sign of an imbalance in a person’s immune system.  It can cause significant disruption in a person’s life.  Rather than simply suppress the allergies, as would happen with over the counter or prescription antihistamines, homeopathy seeks to balance a person on the mental, emotional and physical plane.  You don't have to merely push the allergies back into the body. 

Generally with chronic allergies of any sort, a constitutional remedy is the best course of treatment.  Constitutional treatment means that the entire person is treated, not just the symptoms that are flaring at the time.  Seasonal allergies can be temporarily treated successfully with acute remedies, but generally the allergies will reappear the next season in full force. You may get a similar positive response to the same remedy the next season, or you may not, especially if the symptoms have changed over the course of the year. 

Homeopathy changes a person’s susceptibility to all types of dis-ease.  This can be acute dis-ease such as a cold or flu, or it can be chronic dis-ease including allergies, depression, menopausal symptoms, or other things that supposedly run in the family. 

The goal in homeopathy is to treat the whole person so that the allergies aren’t causing problems any more—to change the level of susceptibility to the allergen.  The goal is not to merely get a person through the allergy season.  When treated with a well-chosen constitutional remedy, a person generally notices the next season that the allergies aren’t quite as bad.  The following season, he may forget he ever had it.  If the allergies are quite persistent, it sometimes requires three or four seasons to completely eradicate the allergies. 

This is also true of all types of allergic reactions.  A common example is Poison Ivy.  Some people react to it and others don’t.  An acute outbreak can be treated successfully with remedies, but the next time you encounter it, you will likely be just as sensitive to Poison Ivy as you were before being treated acutely. 

Food allergies can be even more limiting than seasonal allergies.  They tend to be present all the time, rather than for a few months of the year. 

ood allergies and sensitivities, even those that develop in adults, can be successfully treated with homeopathy.  However, it will take time to eradicate the allergic reactions.  It is best to avoid the foods that cause the reaction while you are being treated.  It can be difficult to assess whether a remedy is working if the offending agent is still present. After several months of success in elimination of other mental, emotional or physical symptoms, a homeopathic patient can, at their own discretion, try some of the suspected allergen.

Homeopathy seeks to find what is unique about each person rather than what is similar.  In doing so, we are able to present an individual plan of treatment from over 2,000 remedies, rather than prescribing one of the five main antihistamines on the market.  Because of this individualization, it is impossible to predict how long it will take.  After completing a homeopathic interview, your practitioner may be able to give you a better idea of what to expect. 

If you are interested in eradicating the dis-ease in you or a loved one, contact us at 651-748-1556 for more information.

Click here if you would like to download a report on research and remedies for Homeopathy and Allergies. 

Kathryn Z Berg, PCH
Woodbury, MN