Welcome back to my series on responding to acute care symptoms naturally. In the first two weeks I shared the dangers behind suppressing symptoms and what to have on hand to be prepared for the coming allergy, cold, and flu season.

While June through August can be a reprieve for seasonal allergy sufferers in Austin and along the southern states, the symptoms all return again in the fall. There is no doubt that those affected really struggle and life is miserable with clogged throbbing sinuses. Imagine, however, that this doesn’t always have to be the case. Understanding the why behind your symptoms and making a few lifestyle changes can rid you of this annoying pattern for the rest of your life.

The Root of the Problem
Because symptoms are merely messages from the body alerting you of a deeper imbalance, let’s take a look at what’s behind the always irritating itchy runny eyes and stuffed sinuses. The root of this problem is surprisingly not in your head. It is in your digestive system, including your liver! When the digestive system has to work overtime to break down food that our body was not designed to digest, our elimination slows. When elimination slows, the lymphatic system looks for emergency exits to clean the body. The most common emergency exits are the sinuses and skin. These are followed by the eyes, ears, mouth (cold, canker sores) and for women the vagina (candida). An important point however is that the sooner you begin to address your symptoms the better the more improvement you will see this season. So get started now with the following course of action.

The Plan
So if the root of the sinus symptoms exists in the digestive system what are the steps to resolve the inflammation experienced?

1. Eliminate foods that are difficult or impossible to digest, causing inflammation, at the very least during allergy season. The number one food source to avoid is dairy products. That includes all products made from milk (cow, goat, or sheep). Alcoholic beverages are next on the list to trigger allergy symptoms and that is because of the toll they put on the liver causing the lymphatic system to search for emergency exits to clean.

2. Further support your digestive system with probiotics. I recommend Lifybiotic. Be thoughtful regarding your purchase as there is no regulated testing of probiotics proving whether the item you purchase delivers what is on the label. Purchase from a knowledgeable practitioner or a natural pharmacy only.

3. Take the specific Gemmotherapy protocol for sinus congestion daily during allergy season to improve the adrenal response, resolve inflammation, and support lymphatic drainage. I recommend the following:

Morning & Midday
Common Alder, Black Currant, Dog Rose

Evening
Hornbeam

Adults & School Children
25 drops of each extract per dose

Toddlers- School Age Children
10 drops of each extract per dose

Babies
5 drops of each extract per dose

Here’s an allergy symptom case story I shared a few years back you might enjoy.

Our allergy combination is one of the most popular Gemmotherapy protocols we offer and that is because it works. Gemmotherapy can offer the body something no other natural therapy can- the ability to clean, drain, and fortify the affected organ tissue. This powerful action is due to the inclusion of the plan meristem cells in each extract. Gemmotherapy is the youngest plant based medicine and is fascinating to study as a home user or as a practitioner.

While you can find many more acute protocols in my blog you can now read them together in my newly released, Gemmotherapy for Everyone: An Introduction to Acute Care. In this first book of the series you’ll learn Gemmotherapy history, fundamentals, and find 36 proven, reliable protocols for acute symptoms.

Want to dive a bit deeper? Check out this online self-paced Acute Care with Gemmotherapy course or join me live next week for the start of my fall webinar series.

Ready for a replacement to that drippy bottle of calamine lotion? There is actually an answer with Gemmotherapy! Gemmotherapy extracts are the perfect replacement for a host of OTC supplements and medicines that fill many home first-aid kits. Calamine lotion is just one more product that you can live without.

From ant bites to wasp stings, Black Currant Gemmotherapy provides a solution. While calamine may offer some topical relief, the use of Black Currant Gemmotherapy goes much deeper. Used in a wide array of acute protocols, Black Currant raises the adrenal response needed in an acute situation, reduces inflammation, and has an antihistamine affect. Black Currant provides such quick action that relief to a swelling bite or sting can be felt within minutes. It’s been known to take the sting out a wasp bite seconds after application.

I recommend my clients apply Black Currant topically to the bite or sting in question immediately after affected using their finger tip and then take doses internally as well. The same advice can be true of any topical allergic reaction whether it be from plants or a non-toxic substance. As with all allergic reactions, always monitor carefully for more serious signs of distress and seek advice from your health practitioner.

If you or your family members tend to spend any time out and about in nature you may consider adding a bottle of Black Currant Gemmotherapy to the field first-aid kit.

Many of my clients have used this protocol with success over and over again. How about sharing your story with us? We’d love to hear from you!

Are you a practitioner and would like to learn more about using Gemmotherapy with your clients? Take a look at my online training modules including my latest one on Acute Care. You might also want to join me in Boston for one of my live teaching seminars. The next one is scheduled for February 27, 2016. The more of us out there trained to use effective and affordable therapy, the better.

The Allergy Story

Doug experienced seasonal allergies for as long as he could remember. In reality he had always had some form of post nasal drip, but come fall in Austin he was miserable. He woke with his head in a fog, the sinus pressure at times felt unbearable, body aches prevailed and naturally it affected his mood, making him both irritable and a bit hopeless. Of course he had tried everything—or at least what most allergy sufferers in Austin have tried—acupuncture, a neti pod, herbs, and even rounds of antibiotics for reoccurring sinus infections. He finally resorted to taking his daily dose of Zyrtec, which still only minimized his symptoms.

It is important to note here that addressing chronic allergy symptoms in individuals at the peak of the season is challenging, and like all protocols, the success is very dependent on the compliance.

As I listened to Doug’s story and took his case history these things stood out:

• He had suffered from frequent ENT infections as a child.
• He experienced digestive difficulties that ranged from sluggish bowels to bloating and loose stools since his early twenties.
• He often woke feeling exhausted and with aches in his joints.
• While he had eliminated gluten from his diet, he still consumed dairy products.

These are the steps I believed we needed to take:

1. Fix the output by supporting and cleaning out the digestive organs, including the liver.
2. Improve the input by eliminating further inflammatory foods.
3. Restore healthy gut bacteria.
4. Give relief to his ears, nose, and eyes struggling with the secondary symptoms.

Here’s why:

The root of Doug’s problem was actually a bit of a distance from his sinuses. It originated in his digestive tract. I know that because when the bowels are not able to eliminate and clean the body at least twice a day with normal formed stools, the acid must go somewhere. Most often that is up in search of the next emergency exit—the sinus cavity.

Take a look here at our graphic and note that 40% of the lymph nodes are actually in this abdominal area and all the lymph fluid from the body’s clean-up process empties right here. If the elimination organs are compromised in any way, this creates quite a traffic jam of acidic waste. Your body is well designed and it compensates by employing emergency exits when the primary ones are slacking on the job. This scenario repeated day after day, year after year can create quite the chronic condition. Allergy season exacerbates a situation that is really going on all year long.

In Doug’s case, because we were in the midst of allergy season, I decided to address both the root and the secondary symptoms at the same time with these steps:

• Improve the output with a gemmotherapy protocol supporting bowels and liver.
• Remove dairy products from the diet.
• Take a 14 day course of intensive probiotics followed by a daily dose throughout this season to re-establish good bacteria in the gut.
• Offer an acute gemmotherapy formula for the sinus symptoms as needed.

Within the month Doug was symptom free—not only with his sinus symptoms but the body aches and foggy head as well. His improvement was so dramatic I actually did not see him for some time. When I did finally, he told me he continued to keep dairy and gluten out of his diet and hasn’t had an allergy symptom the past two seasons.

Though I might like to pat myself on the back for helping Doug, he really did the heavy lifting by being open to making the dietary changes needed. Not all of my clients have such immediate and lasting results. I’ve learned over time while following similar cases that homeopathy and gemmotherapy protocols open up the body to clean, but filling it back up with inflammatory foods leads to an endless battle of symptoms. If you are still struggling with yourself about dairy and its place in your diet, you’ll want to watch for my post about that next week.