Seasonal Allergies and Gut Health
Allergy Symptoms
It is not uncommon to know someone, maybe yourself, who suffers from seasonal allergies with symptoms like red, itchy, watery eyes, sneezing, coughing, asthma symptoms, and skin rashes.
But seasonal allergies are not merely the cards you’ve been dealt (1). While it’s true there can be some genetic factors involved, most of my clients’ seasonal allergy reactions to things like mold or pollen are reduced when we address gut health and especially liver health.
Sure, you could take antihistamine medication and that might help improve allergy symptoms for a time. But you may also be making the problem worse over time.
You don’t have to suffer. You can reduce allergy symptoms and eliminate dependence on antihistamines. The solution is simpler than you think, and can be done easily and naturally with the right support.
Put simply, seasonal allergies are a strong indication that the liver is overburdened (2).
Your liver is responsible for hundreds of functions in the body, including preparing toxins for elimination before they can cause harm, breaking down fats, regulating blood sugar levels, manufacturing cholesterol, regulating hormone balance, and more.
For many decades, our modern lifestyle of increased stress and processed foods has increased our toxic burden drastically, which increases the burden on the liver to eliminate such toxins.
Pair it with our increased tendencies toward Leaky Gut, or intestinal hyperpermeability, and the toxic burden increases even more.
Learn more about Leaky Gut: How Your Chewing Technique is causing Leaky Gut.
When the liver is over burdened, toxins build up and trigger an immune system reaction in effort to deal with the threat. Our immune system becomes overreactive and begins reacting to things that are not actually a threat (such as pollen, grass, or even foods).
This is the beginning of seasonal allergy symptoms.
Bottom line:
Addressing liver health is the key to seasonal allergy relief.
That said, the liver is not the only causative factor in your allergy symptoms. In order to effectively support the liver and improve its function, it’s important to also look at digestion and gut health (3, 4), as each factor affects the other.
When working with clients to address seasonal allergies, the liver is one leg of a three-legged stool approach to achieving hormone balance:
What does it mean to support liver health?
Supporting liver health does not necessarily mean an intensive liver cleanse or liver detox, although some practitioners may recommend that.
Depending on the severity of symptoms and lab reports, it may be as simple as implementing dietary changes and balancing your blood sugar. It may also require the use of nutrients known to support liver detoxification and clearing of fatty deposits.
An individualized assessment from a qualified practitioner will help determine that.
Factors that can add to toxic burden of the liver are:
medications, prescription and OTC (including antihistamines)
processed foods (artificial colors, emulsifiers, preservatives, and binders all need to be dealt with by the liver)
refined sugars and grains
alcohol
excess hormones (when stress or reproductive hormones are out of balance, the liver is responsible for eliminating them)
poor quality fats
endotoxins produces by stealth pathogens, such as candida (5), bacteria (6), and potentially parasites (7)
Benefits of supporting the liver are:
improved cholesterol
fewer allergy symptoms (food and environmental)
improved blood sugar management
improved digestion
clearer skin
balanced hormones
So, why is addressing gut health also essential to allergy symptom relief?
When referring to “gut health” in this article, these are the factors involved:
digestion - organs, enzymes, and muscle tissues involved in digesting foods.
mucosal tissue - tissue that lines the intestines that acts as part of our immune system, but also allows nutrients to be absorbed into the blood stream once broken down fully.
microbiome - “beneficial” bacteria strains meant to live in the large intestine and feed off of undigestible foods (fiber) to produce short chain fatty acids that maintain the integrity of mucosal tissue.
Compromised digestion often leads to leaky gut, pathogenic infections such as candida, H. pylori, or bacteria, inflamed and damaged mucosal tissue (further exacerbated by antihistamines and NSAIDS).
Learn more about digestive health: Digestion, Back to Basics
Increased toxins and heightened immune activity due to pathogenic infections and leaky gut are common contributors to seasonal allergy symptoms.
So, allow me to revise my earlier statement:
Addressing gut health and liver health are essential to allergy symptom relief.
Here’s the juicy part you came here for…
Lifestyle changes you can make today to support liver function and gut health:
Eat more richly colored fruits and vegetables: There is evidence to show that polyphenols found in richly colored plant foods are very effective at reducing histamine response (Murray, M. T., & Pizzorno, J. E. (2014). The encyclopedia of natural medicine. Simon & Schuster).
Eat more quercetin-rich foods: Quercetin is a potent and natural antihistamine. Foods high in quercetin include onions, sage, parsley, citrus, nettle, and apples (Murray, M. T., Pizzorno, J. E., & Pizzorno, L. (2006). The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods. Time Warner International.).
Balance your blood sugar: The conversion of excess sugar into storage as fats can cause fatty deposits in the liver. Eating a diet of whole, single ingredient foods, with a focus on protein and green leafy vegetables each meal will go a long way in helping balance your blood sugar and improving liver function. Learn more: Balancing Blood Sugar.
Eat more bitter herbs (especially before meals): Consuming bitter herbs and foods before meals, such as arugula, dandelion greens, horseradish, or grapefruit, will stimulate digestive enzymes, hydrochloric acid (stomach acid) production, and bile flow, thus improving digestive function (and liver health!).
Chew your food: Healthy digestion will stimulate good quality bile from the liver, and ensure your body is able to absorb and use the nutrients you are getting from your foods. Chewing your food is an important part of that process, and something we often don’t do adequately. If you feel the need to “wash down” your food with a beverage, chew more!
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