Reprinted from issue 1 of Naturally Good Magazine.

What Allergies Really Are and Their Relationship To A.D.D./A.D.H.D. Symptoms and Other Diseases

Allergens are a common problem in this era, as are the pharmaceutical drugs that are designed to help us deal with them.  An allergy prone individual has to take a pill every twelve hours endlessly if he trusts orthodox medicine to treat him, and this is merely treating the symptoms.  Allergies are technically incurable because they are actually symptoms of a greater problem within.  The allergic symptoms are attempts by the body to defend itself, so it is impossible to stop these histamine reactions, and it is unwise in the long term to try, but such is orthodox medicine.  Alternative medicine deals with the root causes of problems, instead of merely symptom suppression, and so there are vastly better options available with holistic methods.

Allergies are caused by the overgrowth of Candida Albicans.  This is a type of yeast that thrives in the gastrointestinal tract whenever the body is acidic.  There will always be some of this yeast, but it is balanced by healthy bacteria known as intestinal flora.  Intestinal flora helps in the digestion process, and in neutralizing toxic materials.  The flora is beneficial bacteria, while Candida is a parasitic yeast, which robs the body of nutrients, and it increases the toxic waste products the body must eliminate.

With ideal health, the flora bacteria vastly outnumbers and persistently overwhelms the candida.  The job of the flora is to provide additional immune system support to the dirtiest parts of the human body, where the normal immune system cannot compete with all the pathogens, and to aid in proper digestion. Your life depends on those little guys protecting your body.

When an overgrowth of yeast overwhelms the flora it causes various health issues.  Excessive yeast creates a toxic state for the digestive system from its wastes, which ultimately trickles into the rest of the body triggering allergies from an immune system made hyperactive from the presence of the fungal invaders.  The result is the symptoms of illness, as well as preventing the body from absorbing useful nutrients.  The impaired absorption of nutrients combined with an onslaught of candida waste products with its related allergic and immune responses begins the vicious cycle of declining health, and infections.  The results include fatigue, headaches, mood swings, depression, poor memory, lack of concentration, sweet cravings, carbohydrate cravings, and the further weakening of the already compromised immune system as the issues snowball.

Ironically, candida usually undergoes a massive growth spurt after taking antibiotics.  This is partly due to antibiotics being more fatal to the good bacteria which usually keeps candida somewhat in check.  Unfortunately, when antibiotics are discontinued, the immune system is left weakened which places the candida in the position of advantage.  For someone who has just stopped taking antibiotics, the best thing that he could do for his body is to begin eating large amounts of plain yogurt.  Flavored yogurts contain lots of sugar, which can feed the yeast, and therefore may actually cause the the condition to worsen.

Our Over Driven Immune Systems, Bastardized Sugars, and Toxicity

Because sugar fuels candida, the people who eat a diet high in carbohydrates are most likely to experience allergies and immune system problems.  The worst of the sugars are the white refined sugars (which have been bleached and otherwise chemically bastardized), and the high fructose corn syrups.  It is the sugar loving yeast that is additionally the main cause of both dental cavities and bad breath.  People with strong immune systems rarely get cavities or bad breath, for instance.

Treating candida through diet is a surprisingly easy task.  For any person wishing to cure his generalized allergies, the reduction of his carbohydrate intake is the first step.  The results can make a person's life significantly easier, and even eliminate the depressions of some people.  It involves the avoidance of foods which are based on yeast or refined carbohydrates such as white bread, white rice, mushrooms, and beer.  Note that whole wheat bread and brown rice are fine, because foods are naturally good until they are altered by the chemical industry.  These foods are never white in nature, and never existed until the 1950's, when the chemical industry decided to “enhance” and “enrich” our foods with chemical processing, including the use of chlorine bleach.  The food remnants of bleaching are incredibly bad for the body as well as being quite toxic to flora: hence the issue with “white” products such as white flower, white sugar, and white rice. Whitey really is keeping us down.

Eliminate refined sugars, and replace with fruits whenever cravings for sweets occur.  Honey is a great sugar substitute that has compounds to help balance blood sugar levels, and what is even better is that honey has naturally occurring antihistamines that are produced by bees to protect themselves from pollen, since they spend most of their lives being covered in it.

Soft Drinks Are Even Worse Than You Were Told

Avoid soft drinks, and this is the most important of all the suggestions overall.  Soft drinks majorly lower a body's pH and thereby its oxygen content.  They even release carbon dioxide (from carbonation) into the body, furthermore flushing out the body's critical oxygen.  The artificial sugar of soft drinks, high fructose corn syrup, is an abomination so bad that it will require a separate article just to discuss it at some future date.  Both the sugars and the carbon dioxide feed the fermentation that the candida uses for fuel.

Especially avoid soft drinks with sodium benzoate, because sodium benzoate directly attacks the immune system to trigger allergies.  Tests conducted in 2005, and paid for by a concerned soft drink industry whistleblower, showed that certain sodas and juices had benzene levels up to ten times higher than the U.S. drinking water limit of five parts per billion.  Benzene is classified as a known carcinogen by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and is directly linked to leukemia.  Benzene can form in beverages that contain sodium benzoate or potassium benzoate, combined with either ascorbic acid (synthetic vitamin C) or erythorbic acid (also known as ascorbic acid), according to the F.D.A..  (Leave it to the chemical industry to find a way to make vitamin C dangerous.)  Heat and light exacerbate benzene formation in sodas with these ingredients.  The benzene limit for drinking water does not even apply to soft drinks, which have much less stringent quality standards.  Thus, sodas with high benzene content are perfectly legal in the U.S..

“Environmental factors can also be big supporters of candida albicans’ proliferation.  Exposure to pollutants such as pesticide residues, car exhaust, industrial chemicals and heavy metals (particularly those found in mercury/silver amalgam dental fillings) may encourage the growth of these ‛bad’ bacteria.”

― Leigh Erin Connealy, M.D

How To Cure Yourself

Eat plenty of protein, with an emphasis on white meats (preferably organically raised), nuts, and beans.  As always, include as many vegetables in your diet as possible.  They provide core nutrients that are needed by the body in order to fully recover, and synthetic vitamins are no substitute for vegetables.  For sugar cravings, it is okay to cheat with fruits and pure fruit juices without guilt, because the body can handle the natural sugars much more efficiently than the engineered sugars, so fruit sugars do not generally fuel candida growth significantly.  One general rule of thumb is that if an ingredient is made in a chemical laboratory, then it is toxic, and eventually there will be an incredibly high price to pay for consuming it.

The protective and inflammatory properties of omega-3 fatty acids will also help with any allergy problems.  For consuming omega-3, our Staff recommends taking flax seed oil supplements daily for both allergies, and to help gain optimal health.  You will find omega-6 throughout the modern diet, but there is very little omega-3 in comparison.  Omega3 was once in our foods before chemical fertilizers depleted the farmlands of it, and again, this is yet another problem caused by another chemical industry “solution”.  Taking flax seed oil supplements helps to correct the imbalance in omega oils, as a body will convert the oil from flax seeds into the two primary omega-3 oils as needed, which means the body will create exactly the amount of omega-3 that it needs from flax seed oil.  Using flax seed oil instead of pure omega-3 (from fish) furthermore eliminates the risk of mercury contamination.  We recommend using cold pressed flax seed oil in individual light resistant capsules to ensure that the oil is not rancid.  Rancid flax seed oil is not only useless; it is actually a carcinogen.  Eating flax seeds in foods is not recommended, because the essential oils become rancid when exposed to heat and light.  Unfortunately, many organic or health based companies are unaware of this.  Rancid oils create free radicals and are carcinogenic.  Because of this, taking pill based supplementation is by far the safest way to go.

For maximum absorption of omega-3 supplements, eat some sort of sulfur protein alongside them.  Most commonly, cottage cheese is used to provide it.  Although, plain organic yogurt is a better option than cottage cheese.  Sulfur proteins are the reason for eggs having their yellow color, so eggs are an excellent choice for complimenting flax seed oil too.  Omega-3 combined with sulfur proteins are the main components of the Nobel Prize winning anticancer diet known as The Budwig Diet.

“Over time, candida grows from a yeast form into a fungal form and starts creating waste products known as mycotoxins.  Among the mycotoxins produced is acetaldehyde, a poison that is converted by the liver into alcohol.  As alcohol builds up in the system, symptoms associated with alcohol intoxication develop.  This is why one of the most common symptoms of candida is brain fog.  ...In its fungal form, candida also grows long roots called rhizoids that puncture the intestinal lining, leading to a condition called leaky gut syndrome.   This creates holes in the digestive tract, allowing candida [and its wastes] to pass through into the bloodstream.”

― Brenda Watson, Naturopathic Doctor

In our original article, we forgot to mention the benefits of cold pressed organic coconut oil.  It has seemingly endless benefits, so that it is in the same category as apple cider vinegar.  A little coconut oil every day will speed the metabolism, provide enormous energy, be a tonic for the thyroid, and attack yeast in both the mouth (i.e. plaque), and in the gastrointestinal tract (candida).  Everyone should supplement with a small amount of cold pressed organic coconut oil every day, and of course, it can be added to foods.  Just be wary of its inability to withstand high heat when cooking with it.

The chances are that sooner or later, you will slip up and eat a Hershey bar.  This is not the end of the world, and it is no reason to give up.  Continued efforts will provide results in dissipating allergies, strengthening your immune system, and increasing your energy levels.  These things should provide you with plenty of encouragement to keep going.

With a healthy diet low in sugar and synthetic chemicals, most allergy problems can be eliminated.  These therapies, in addition to commonsense remedies, such as using higher quality air filters, will yield very favorable results in the long term.  Allergies are not normal, and neither is sickness.  We have been trained to believe that they are normal.  The germ theory behind modern medicine has convinced us, and the establishment, that illnesses are more-or-less random events that may strike anyone at anytime, so that the causes of illnesses are either never fully explainable, or as is becoming the belief nowadays, illnesses are a result of genetics.  There is a reason for everything that happens, and this rule includes events of the human body.  Illness symptoms are your body's way of telling you that you are doing something terribly wrong, and most often, it is the diet that is the most wrong.  The establishment always ignores the most important factors of health, such as the immune system, which depends on the diet.  Allergies and illnesses are in reality the results of weakened immune systems, and they can usually be easily corrected without drugs.  Following these recommendations will also help to remove toxins from your body, and will help with other illnesses you are suffering from.