 It's estimated that more than 50 million Americans suffer from allergies each year. Allergies are the 6th leading cause of chronic illness in the United States. Chances are, your doctor wrote you a prescription to manage your symptoms, or directed you to an OTC medication, but will exert zero effort to find out WHY your body reacts in this way or how to support your body so the allergies don’t happen in the first place. A way to stop allergies before they start? You betcha. You see, most of us think, "I have allergies. whomp, whomp. Nothing to see here". But that is so far from the truth. The alergens blow in and we surrender to our bottle of Zyrtec or Allegra. If we're lucky, we manage our symptoms with a synthetic medication until the attack passes. If we are not so lucky, we develop an infection. Sinus infections, upper respiratory infections, bronchitis, and asthma can almost always be traced back to allergies.
Gradke Case Study no 1: Our oldest son, now 21, has suffered from terrible allergies for most of his life. At age 7, he was tested for 50 allergens. Ya'll, he was allergic to 49 of them! So we did what any red blooded American would do. We fed him a concoction of prescription nasal sprays and medications for a few years. This was back in the day that even Zyrtec required an Rx. Around age 11, we decided to go through the 5 year allergy shot process. After 5 years, his allergies were nearly gone. But guess what, they came back full force about a year later. Argh! (I'm not bitter for all those hours wasted in the allergy doctor office. promise.) You guys, my son is not a small guy. At 6'5" 220lbs he consumes 3-4 Zyrtec a day to keep him just above miserable status. A few summers ago when he was home from college, I started him on essential oils. I filled capsules with equal parts of Lemon, Lavender, and Peppermint. He started with 2 in the morning; 2 at night. By day 3, he was symptom free so we went down to 1-2 per day for a few days just to make sure. After a week, he was still symptom free so we stopped taking the capsules. Throughout the remainder of the summer, he didn't take one single allergy pill. He would occasionally need a capsule for maintenance but his symptoms had all but disappeared. ** Side note: We use only Young Living Essential Oils. I would NOT recommend ingesting any other brand of essential oil because purity standards vary greatly. Gradke Case Study no 2: I also have allergies. For most of my adult life, without fail, I could count on getting bronchitis at least once a year. It would start as allergies, turn into a sinus infection, then leave me flat on my back with full blown bronchitis. Insert essential oils and no more annual bronchitis parties for me. I keep a roller ball with equal parts lemon, lavender and peppermint and rub on my feet and neck daily for maintenance. Ok, so you're probably thinking, "My Allegra is working just fine, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.". But are you aware of what that little pill is doing to your body over the long term? Our bodies were designed to ingest and absorb naturally occurring compounds. Allergy medication is far from that. Sure, the antihistamine will provide short term relief for that runny nose. But the liver, kidney and rest of your body systems are taxed to filter out the chemicals in that pill. Your body wasn't designed to process synthetic medication and treats it as a toxin, taxing your liver and other major organs. Side effects of antihistamines:
So I don't know about you, but I'll take the side effects of Essential Oils any day. Your resident hippie public service announcement is now concluded. Stay oily my friends!
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Heather GradkeI'm BASI Faculty and Certified Pilates Instructor by day, somewhat competent mom by night. I am married to the love of my life and somewhat charismatic Rustin Gradke. I have 4 kids that are wonderful sometimes but mostly they just eat a lot. I'm a lover of God and movement and the occasional bowl of queso. Archives
October 2024
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