Why Does Stress Reduction Help Allergy?

Persons who have used my book , Stressed? Anxiety? Your Cure is in the Mirror for their allergy tell me how the book has helped their own allergy problems. Why does stress reduction help allergy?

Wait, you say. What has stress got to do with allergy? Allergy is diagnosed objectively by skin tests and measuring immunoglobulins. Jack S argues, “I get stressed because I have allergies, not that my stress causes my allergy.”

Jack is correct that allergies can be measured by blood and skin tests. But, why does Mary take one Zyrtec and work in the garden and run with the butterfly like the TV ad, but her twin sister, not only doesn’t respond to Zyrtec, but hasn’t been helped by the allergy shots? In other words, allergy can be a runny nose as far as Mary is concerned, or it can be a full time stressor with the attendant lower immunity. Mary’s sister thinks of her allergy as being a tiger attacking her. The more she identifies a stress, the weaker her resistance.

In my book, Stressed? Anxiety? Your Cure is in the Mirror, I give the example of Alice R, who had terrible allergy in June. So she spent six weeks in Arizona to get away from her local pollen. There she was fine and didn’t have to take any allergy medication. But when I checked her location on the Pollen map, I found that the pollen in Arizona was actually higher than in her home town those months. One reason Alice felt better was that she was relaxed, and was away from the stress caused by her job.

Further proof of the effect that stress has on allergy; read any of the scientific papers related to allergy treatment. In every instance, for example, 75% got relief with the real pill, and 40% got relief with the fake sugar pill. Why did those 40% get relief when the pill had no possible medical benefit?
a. They were relaxed, not stressed. They felt that they were getting a treatment, getting cared for, therefore they relaxed.
b. They used the brain. The brain remembers and knows that the green pill stops allergy symptoms. So, the brain released the good products that relieve these symptoms.
c. Unconsciously, they did some allergy prevention behaviors such as avoiding soap powders and perfumes and not getting chilled.

When they reported to the doctor, they honestly said that the green pill relieved their symptoms – yet that was the placebo!

The same thing happens when Doctor A is very enthusiastic about his own therapy. He earnestly tells that patient that this red pill is great and will relieve their symptoms. And the patients honestly report that the pill works. Yet when other doctors use that pill it doesn’t work! It’s not that Doctor A is dishonest or tricky or unprofessional; Doctor A’s enthusiasm and belief was imparted to the patients so that they relaxed, the brain took over and they did get well.

The reverse is also true. My patient called me totally stressed out. She had read the side effects of a pill I prescribe daily and was developing ALL of them!

How to apply this to your allergy? The more you visualize that this medicine/treatment will help you, the more you engage your brain. Knowing why the treatment works enables more of your brain power to be engaged.

This really shows up when persons use the Hydro Pulse® Nasal/Sinus Irrigator for allergy relief. They know that the pulsed irrigation washes out the pollen and dust from the nose and sinuses. They know that the pulsation washes out the IgE and chemicals that react with the pollen. They know that pulsatile irrigation restores natural cilia movement so that these cilia/brushes and act to remove pollen and bacteria. Also they remember the good relief they got with the Hydro Pulse last time they used it. Does bringing in the brain to the healing really help?
One patient, July T. tells me that sometimes she is in a real rush and can’t stop to do her morning Hydro Pulse irrigation during the pollen season. She will see the Hydro Pulse on her bathroom sink, recall how the irrigation helped her, and how good it felt. With that kind of recall, often her nose opens up and she has a good allergy day!

There is no question that reducing stress and anxiety helps reduce your allergy symptoms by increasing your immune response. If you have allergy I recommend that you practice the proven allergy reduction methods in my stress book. For only a few minutes a day, you can improve on your allergy symptoms and reduce your medication..