“allergic load” and detoxificationneath my nose in the shower to catch the water and snort it. Oc-
casionally I get that sting, but it helps. It’s the “lazy man’s” sinus
flush. It doesn’t sound impressive, but it works for a busy guy like
me.
An additional “allergy trick” is to take one-quarter to one tea-
spoon of vitamin C powder (usually this equals 1,000 to 4,000 mg)
just before bed and as soon as you wake up. Start with one-quarter
teaspoon at night and in the morning. As long as your stools don’t
get loose, you can increase up to a full or rounded teaspoon at
night and in the morning. This little pearl obviously works better
if you have a clean bedroom environment, have flushed your sinus-
es, and haven’t eaten offending foods the night before. But it will
help you feel better in the morning even if you haven’t done those
common sense things to reduce your morning allergy symptoms.
Vitamin C taken orally has been shown to reduce histamine levels,
and one of its highest concentrations in the body is the adrenal
glands, which are the almond-size glands on our kidneys that put
out anti-inflammatory hormones.^1
Remember:
“Allergic load” equals food plus environment plus internal sys-
tems (adrenal, liver, gut) plus mind-body.
How Does Our Gut Affect Allergy Development?
The internal milieu of the body is critical to the outward mani-
festation of allergy. There are more micro-organisms (bacteria)
in the gut than there are cells in our bodies. If you compacted all
the micro-organisms in the gut, they would weigh approximately
the same as your liver. These micro-organisms do many things,
including affecting your overall immune system by affecting your
gut immune system. Healthy gut bacteria are critical for reducing
your allergic load. If you enhance the normal bacterial flora with
such probiotics as Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, or Lactobacil-
lus rhamnosus, you can make sure other competitive organisms,