Herbal Health

Allergy may manifest itself in the ways listed below:

a.     In the skin as eczema, contact dermatitis, or hives

b.     In the nose as seasonal rhinitis (hay fever) or non-seasonal (perennial) rhinitis

ñ     In the eye as allergic conjunctivitis

d.     In the ear as serous otitis media

e.     In the sinuses as allergic sinusitis or nose drip

f.     In the lungs as allergic cough or bronchial asthma

g.     In the gastrointestinal tract as canker sores, allergic vomiting, or diarrhea

Eczema

A skin disorder which starts at two to three months of age is called eczema. It involves inflammation and itching of the cheeks, the neck, the folds of the arms and legs, the wrists, the hands, and the back. It usually lasts about two years and then subsides by itself. Prolonged itching during this period usually causes secondary infections which make the baby fretful and irritable. Sometimes eczema may persist into adult life and cause the skin to become discolored and thick. In an adult, eczema is more difficult to “manage.”

Many doctors do not consider eczema an allergic disorder, but rather a disease of an abnormal skin (although children with eczema are likely to develop hay fever and asthma later on in life).

A complication of eczema called eczema vaccinatum may occur if a baby who suffers from active eczema is vaccinated against smallpox. To avoid this complication, the baby should not be vaccinated early, and the new method of vaccination developed by Kempe should be used. (The material for this kind of vaccination can be obtained from the Department of Public Health or from allergy clinics or hospitals.)

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Mental and emotional problems, which began long before the food intolerance, could make a significant contribution to the symptoms, once the gut has become sensitized and over-reactive. Even quite ordinary forms of stress can have an exaggerated effect on an irritable bowel. A stressful situation, such as having to catch a train or make a speech, might make a normal person’s stomach churn a little, but in the IBS sufferer it can provoke a violent attack of diarrhoea.

During psychotherapy or hypnotherapy, the patient should acquire new insights into his or her own problems, which can help to modify unhealthy ways of thinking and behaving. If the treatment is successful, imbalances between the different arms of the autonomic nervous system – the sympathetic and the parasympathetic – should be corrected. This helps to tone down the bodily reactions to mental stress, and can therefore moderate a symptom such as diarrhoea, even though the primary cause of that diarrhoea is a reaction to food.

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