Understanding Allergies: Causes and Treatments

Fix Your Allergies By Fixing Your Gut And Changing Your Diet | This episode is brought to you by Rupa Health and MitoPure

Seasonal allergies are something we’re all familiar with, whether you’re personally affected or not—and they’re rising in prevalence. Allergies occur when the immune system reacts to substances in the environment making IgE antibodies that trigger mast cells to release histamine. High histamine levels cause symptoms like itchy watery eyes, sneezing, stuffy nose, headaches, and more. Conventional treatments may help reduce symptoms temporarily, but they often include steroids which can be detrimental to your immune system, may contribute to osteoporosis, and, most importantly, don’t address the root cause of the immune dysregulation.

In this episode, Dr. Hyman discusses seasonal allergies with Dr. Cindy Geyer. They talk about how our early life informs the immune system and what steps parents can take to ensure a healthy gut flora and healthy immune system, right from the start. They also discuss ways to address the root cause of the allergy symptoms using diet, supplements, stress reduction, and more.

Dr. Cindy Geyer received her Bachelor of Science and her Doctor of Medicine degrees, with honors, from the Ohio State University. She completed residency in internal medicine at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.Y. and is triple board certified in internal medicine, integrative medicine, and lifestyle medicine. She joined The Ultrawellness Center in 2021 after practicing and serving as the medical director at Canyon Ranch for 23 years. She has served on the Board of Directors for the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and is a recently elected fellow of ACLM. Dr. Geyer has been a core faculty member at The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) for 20 years, teaching physicians and other healthcare professionals how to use food and lifestyle to address health concerns in their own lives and those of their patients. A clinician, educator, and avid hiker, she is passionate about collaborative approaches to health and wellness: from the integrative team model in working with individual patients, to community partnerships that together can affect healthy changes in the places people live and work.

This episode is brought to you by Rupa Health and MitoPure.

Rupa Health is a place for Functional Medicine practitioners to access more than 2,000 specialty lab tests from over 20 labs like DUTCH, Vibrant America, Genova, Great Plains, and more. You can check out a free live demo with a Q&A or create an account at RupaHealth.com. 

Right now, Timeline Nutrition is offering Doctor’s Farmacy listeners 10% off MitoPure, which you can get in a capsule, powder, or protein blend. Just go to timelinenutrition.com/drhyman and use the code DRHYMAN10.

In this conversation, Dr. Hyman and Dr. Geyer discuss:

• How your environment since birth informs your immune system

• Why over-the-counter allergy medications that include steroids can help in the short term, but may have negative long term implications

• Benefits of breast milk and vaginal seeding in preventing and reducing allergies

• How addressing other issues in the body can help to reduce allergies

• Why the low histamine diet is a consideration for people who have severe allergies

• Supplements to support the body and immune system

• Stress reduction techniques that help support the nervous system

• Worms as a treatment option for allergies

• Nature’s medicine to calm the nervous system and stabilize the immune system

Additional Resources

The Problem With Our Vanishing Bacteria

https://drhyman.com/blog/2019/05/21/the-problem-with-our-vanishing-bacteria/

What Does Your Microbiome Have to Do With Soil?

https://drhyman.com/blog/2019/05/17/what-does-your-microbiome-have-to-do-with-soil/

What is Leaky Gut and How Can You Treat It?

https://drhyman.com/blog/2020/03/20/podcast-hc2/

Behind the Scenes with Ara Katz, Pioneering Microbiome Entrepreneur, Mom, and Co-Founder of Seed

https://drhyman.com/blog/2019/11/26/behind-the-scenes-with-ara-katz-pioneering-microbiome-entrepreneur-mom-and-co-founder-of-seed/

Supporting the Vaginal Microbiome, the Root Cause of Acne, and Why Your Dog Has Leaky Gut with Kiran Krishnan

https://drhyman.com/blog/2019/09/12/bb-ep71/

Getting to Know Your Gut Bugs: Akkermansia Muciniphila

https://drhyman.com/blog/2021/07/26/akkermansia-muciniphila/

Books mentioned in this episode

An Epidemic of Absence by Moises Valesquz-Manoff

Missing Microbes by Martin Blaser

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.