Have you ever tried any alternative allergy treatments to help relieve your worst seasonal symptom? Some people with hay fever and other allergies find that traditional Chinese medicine techniques can be quite effective.

Alternative Allergy Treatments that Make a Difference

When traditional allergy medications make you feel tired, drugged, or cause you to build up a tolerance so that they don't work well anymore, it may be time to try alternative allergy treatments that can control your immune system response to common triggers without fear of experiencing side effects.

To this end, traditional Chinese medicine takes a two-pronged approach—combining acupuncture and herbs to help fix what ails you. Here's how it works. First, the practice of acupuncture can provide relief for your discomfort and help your body achieve a balanced state. By using a personalized blend of Chinese herbs over time, this treatment can strengthen your immune system and ensure your body's systems are all working to their full potential.

The Basics of Traditional Chinese Medicine

To understand why these strategies are so effective, it's important to have a basic knowledge of the principles of Chinese medicine. According to Chinese practitioners, when you experience allergies, this is caused by a disruption in the flow of energy that travels throughout your system. In the simplest terms, the goal of the treatment is to get things back into sync.

While there's been increasing interest in using acupuncture and Chinese herbs together to treat allergies over the past few years, it's interesting to note that each of these practices has been effectively used on its own to treat various allergic symptoms for centuries, according to a study in the September 2004 issue of Allergy. Yet this research effort, which was led by scientists from the Charité University Medical Center in Germany, was one of the first to look at the effectiveness of both of these treatment techniques used in conjunction with each other.

Understanding the Effects

The researchers found that the combination of weekly acupuncture combined with herbal remedies did make a significant difference in treating allergies. Participants reported fewer allergy symptoms over time while undergoing the traditional Chinese medicine treatments when compared with a control group. In addition, use of allergy medication also decreased among people undergoing the herbs and acupuncture treatment combination.

Finally, the researchers concluded that further attention should be paid to exploring the benefits of traditional Chinese medicine to treat peoples' allergy symptoms and help them feel better.


Sources:

Acupuncture Today
http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=29045

Allergy Journal
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118767848/abstract

Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,263787,00.html