This question is from the September Yogi Blog that did not get posted to the site:

Let’s start with a working definition of allergies, then we will look at what we are able to do from a Yoga perspective for those allergies that are considered to be simple.

 An allergy is an abnormal response by the body to a naturally occurring substance in the environment, a synthetic substance made to mimic a naturally occurring substance, or a naturally occurring substance grown under unnatural conditions.  The body sees this substance as foreign, it responds by creating inflammation in order to get rid of the substance. 

 There are allergic responses that are life threatening for some individuals such as to a bee sting, peanuts, or a medicine (like penicillin).  Not all people will have a life threatening response to these allergens.  But some do.  Although these substances are naturally occurring in our environment, someone over time may have developed such an intolerance to the substance that the body’s response to these allergens can be deadly within minutes of exposure.  Most of the time, people know if they are allergic to one of these substances; they do what they can to avoid the substance, and / or carry an “Epi. Pen” to be used immediately upon exposure along with getting to the nearest emergency room as soon as possible. 

 Once in a while, someone is exposed to something that throws them immediately into a life threatening situation without knowing they are allergic to the substance, or even what that substance is.  The symptoms that are life threatening are:  closing down of the throat, swelling of the tongue, difficulty swallowing, difficulty breathing, full body swelling or redness, and an inability to think, move or respond to those around us. 

If we see this in a friend, or notice it beginning in ourselves – get thee to an emergency room STAT!

For most of us, we experience allergies as a runny nose, itchy watery eyes, a scratchy irritated throat, hives, gastrointestinal upset, headache, joint pain, etc., etc., etc….  The symptoms are many and varied depending on the allergen.  The symptoms are a bother, but not life threatening.  They may be related to a food, a season and the pollens associated with that season, or dander from certain animals.  We as well for the most part know what we are allergic to and know just how miserable we are going to be when the Juniper begins spitting out pollen, the Ragweed is in bloom, or we visit our best friend and her beloved cat. 

These symptoms are how your body is trying to get rid of what is bothering it, and in a way getting you to avoid exposure to the allergens.  Ayurveda would say you are having a very Kapha experience (taking your response and making it “bigger, badder, and better”) to the allergen.  It works to a certain extent, but after that, the mucous (thick or runny) becomes the problem.  There are several things you can do Ayurvedically to see if you can lessen the allergic responses to some common allergens.  This does not pertain to those individuals who have the overwhelming response to bee stings, peanuts, penicillin, strawberries, and the like.  For those individuals it is best for them to continue the practices they know will help.  For the rest of us, the following may work.

 Begin to slowly clean up your diet.  Be easy on yourself, do things one at a time and do it slowly, so that if you have a good response to the reduction of a particular food and you know it is good for you to not use this food, it will be easier for you to stay away from it once it is out of your normal stream of nutrition.  Reduce the amount of simple sugar in your diet, reduce the amount of caffeine you take in, reduce the amount of bovine dairy you ingest on a regular basis.   If you are not vegetarian, reduce your consumption of red meat, chicken and fish until you can be assured that these dense proteins come from animals that are clean, healthy, and well cared for.  Sometimes it is what the farm animals are fed or given that we are reacting to rather than the animal protein itself.

 If possible, eat a cleansing monotonous diet of organic basmati rice and organic vegetables for a week or two.  For protein utilize legumes that are organic and not genetically modified.  Think of spices that are used to balance the three doshas (Vata, Pitta, and Kapha) in these recipes like Cumin, Coriander and Fennel.  Incorporate fresh vegetable juices into you diet for their added cleansing effects, but again go slowly.  If you get into a situation of creating diarrhea you have aggravated the Pitta part of your self and that is not what we want to do.  The idea of a simple monotonous diet is to gently cleanse the digestive tract with high fiber food so that it can work at peak efficiency.  The more efficient our digestion is, the more efficient all systems within the body are and that will help us handle the world around us without being so allergic to it.

When your particular allergy season is about to begin be more diligent about having an active yoga practice – perhaps each day.  Wash well each day.  Wash your clothes on a more regular basis.  Clean your home and office area more regularly.  Utilize your neti pot each day if you can.  Oil the nasal passages with sesame oil (coconut oil if you know that your Pitta dosha is high).  The oil will be a barrier between your nasal passages and the allergen particles.  The neti pot will help to clear particles from passages and sinuses.  Practice Pranayama each day in order to actively remove particles from the lungs and nasal passages.  It will also warm up digestion so that ingested particles are more completely digested.  Make sure that the food you eat is clean and high in fiber so that the digested particles can be eliminated from the body by the large intestine and not caught alone the walls of the intestine to form an irritation of the gut.  Combining all of these practices should help to ease your body’s reaction to those pesky allergens that appear to be a natural part of where we live.