Allergy

Functional medicine approach:

Seasonal allergy symptoms, such as a runny nose, itchy eyes, and congestion, are caused by your immune system responding to something in the environment, such as pollen in the air. The reason your responses to these environmental allergens are heightened is often because your immune system is on high alert due to chronic inflammation. Your overactive, over stimulated immune system becomes  hypersensitive to seasonal allergens, and the response manifests in symptoms such as congestion, coughing, itchy eyes, and sneezing.

And, as you probably know by now, your gut plays a huge role in your immune system health. In fact, nearly 80% of your immune system is located in your gut. It’s the place in your body that interacts with the outside world more than any other, taking in nutrients from food and keeping out bacteria, pathogens, and undigested food.

That’s why the key to reducing seasonal allergies is to calm the inflammation in your gut in order to restore your immune system’s balance.