Allergies

Friday, 31 October 2008

Home Remedies For Allergies

Do you suffer from allergies? If you do, you are not alone. When it comes to allergy relief, many individuals head right to their medicine cabinets. While this approach is successful for many, what should you do if your medicine cabinet is empty and you are unable to visit your local drug store?

What many people do not realize is that there are many home remedies for allergies. Although these home remedies do work for many, they are not guaranteed to produce results. That is why you are urged to keep allergy medications on hand at all times. But, if you ever find yourself in a bind, the remedies for allergies outlined below may be able to provide you with relief.

Many allergy sufferers have great things to say concerning the use of lime. Although you may need to experiment a little bit, it is recommended that you squeeze half a lime into a cup. Added should be warm water. You may also want to add a few drops of honey for flavor, although this extra step is not required. In addition to helping with allergies, there are a number of other health benefits to consuming citrus fruits, such as lime.

Consuming other fruits and vegetables, namely those with antioxidants, have a number of benefits when dealing with allergies. They can help to improve your immune system, making it easier for you to fight off allergies or even avoid them in the first place. Fruits that you will want to try include apples and bananas. Although fruits and vegetables are easy to consume at home, you may also want to visit your local health store or drug store to examine their selection of healthy fruit juices, (such as goji, mangosteen, and noni) which have many of the same benefits.

The above mentioned steps are just a few of the many that you can take to lessen or completely eliminate the symptoms and inconveniences of allergies. As a reminder, if you cannot seek relief from a home remedy or another similar method, be sure to visit your local drug store or schedule an appoint with a healthcare professional.


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Allergy Air Purifier - 7 Features to Choose For an Effective Allergy Air Purifier

If you have allergy, regardless of the pollutants that trigger a reaction, an allergy air purifier will effectively help you manage your allergy indoors. Choosing these 7 features will insure that you have a cleaner that will really make a difference in your indoor air quality and quality of life.

1. Removes Your Triggers
This seems like a point that doesn't need to be made, but think about it for a moment. If your allergy is triggered by smoke, and you choose a cleaner (unknowingly) that is not effective with smoke, you have wasted your money. Be sure to check the list of pollutants that the purifier is effective in removing, and make sure that list matches the allergens you want to remove.

2. Sub-micron Size Filter
Pollutants come in all sizes. In terms of microns, here are a few examples-animal dander (approximately 2.5), pollen (10-100), spores (10-30), bacteria (.3-30). So choosing a filter that is able to remove pollutants smaller than a micron means it will be able to remove your airborne triggers effectively.

3. Steel Housing
This is an important feature to choose for several reasons. Many plastic air purifiers off-gas harmful fumes as a by-product once the motor heats it up. Steel housing helps insure that only fresh clean air is produced as a by-product. And secondly, choosing steel housing means that it would be almost impossible for a baby or pet to break or chew off small pieces of the cleaner that could cause choking or worse.

4. Powder Coat Finish
An air purifier with a baked on powder coat finish that is free of harmful chemicals such as lead and zinc insures that your air purifier is safe for babies and pets that might lick it.

5. Consumer and Environmentally Safe Raw Products
The United States government imposes very high quality standards in terms of materials used in the manufacturing of all products-including air purifiers. Choosing a purifier that is made in the United States is more likely to insure that it is made of materials that are safe for the consumer and the environment. There are certainly very fine air purifiers produced in countries other than the US, just be sure to research the paint composition, motor capacity, and composition of the housing before making a decision.

6. Is a HEPA
HEPA is an acronym for High Efficiency Particle Arresting. By definition it eliminates airborne pollutants that are .3 microns or greater with 99.97% efficiency. This means that if there are 10,000 allergy triggers suspended in your air, 99,997 will be removed.

7. Variable Speed Control
Having this feature allows you to quickly reduce airborne pollutants when life happens, such as a visitor that smokes, or pollutants that your dog sends airborne after an ambitious walk outdoors during pollen season. Being able to reduce triggers quickly by using the high setting, or maintaining a good air quality on low means more flexibility and control for you and your allergy.


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Thursday, 30 October 2008

Why You Should Go Gluten Free

Grains and dairy products, on the most part have become so processed that they are no longer good for our health. In traditional cultures such as in places such as Africa, Ethiopia and India, grains are fermented for days if not weeks before being prepared into a meal, the quality of grains in these cultures are far from being at the same level of quality that the grains we purchase in a plastic bag at the supermarket are. Grains contain anti-nutrients, Gluten and Lectins, all which are harmful to our health.

Gluten allergies are one of the most under-diagnosed, yet chronic diseases in society at the moment and is continually on the rise. Coeliac disease is an auto-immune disease, which means that your immune system starts attacking itself, this can affect many parts of your body, including muscles, nerves, hormones and the digestive system.

Although coeliac disease is extremely common, around 4 out of 5 people who do have coeliac disease don't know they have it. In Australia, around 1 in 100 people have coeliac disease, in America it's estimated to be around the same. Most grain and dairy products are not suited for our genetic composition; our bodies aren't designed to recognize foods which are processed far from their original form. So how can these foods good for our health and quality of life? Especially if we eat the food-pyramids recommended 8-14 serves every single day of both grains and dairy combined!

People on a Gluten free diet will definitely find it hard to run off a diet recommended by the government's food pyramid. The food pyramid emphasizes a lot in including these modern day foods, maybe it's because the billion dollar grain industry created the food pyramid that is why gluten rich grains are pronounced as such importance towards our health, or maybe it's just a sheer misunderstanding of nutrition....

Our food pyramid should really run off what we should eat as humans to obtain good health, and what our body needs in order to stay healthy. The Paleolithic diet is simple and it is gluten free; eat what was available to the hunter gatherer, In other words, eat meat (chicken, beef, etc), fish and seafood, eggs, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. With these ingredients, you can create many tasty gluten free recipes like these Gluten Free Recipes


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Allergies - The Difference Between Bed Bugs and Dust Mites

We get a lot of calls concerning Dust Mites and how they affect you. Some clients even ask the question, "What is the difference between a Bed Bug and a Dust Mite? We also received that same question yesterday so I figured it was best to put it in print so the whole world can see it and understand.

The definition of a Bed Bug according to Wikipedia: A bedbug (or bed bug) is a small nocturnal insect of the family Cimicidae that lives by hematophagy, or by feeding on the blood of humans and other warm-blooded hosts.There is definitely a big difference between the two just by reading this definition. Wow, sounds like a Vampire to me. Imagine having little vampires in bed with you sucking the blood out of you.

The definition of a Dust Mite according to Wikipedia: Dust mites feed on organic detritus such as flakes of shed human skin and flourish in the stable environment of dwellings.The good thing here is they do not suck the life out of you, only eat your dead skin after it falls off your body. Dust Mites are microscopic bugs that primarily live on dead skin cells.

Now that we know the difference, lets get into a little detail. Bed Bugs basically will bite you and take a little blood from you. Bed Bug Infestation can be cured but Dust Mite infestation can be only controlled. The current information on Bed Bugs is they are not believed to carry infectious diseases but that could change tomorrow. My first question with that idea is if they suck in blood, why would they not carry some form of disease from an infected person. The jury is still out on that, so don't worry till they discover a new disease that Bed Bugs transmit. Bed Bugs are most active at night and bite you when you are sleeping.To get rid of Bed Bugs, you have to call an exterminator.

Dust Mites on the other hand are in everyone's house. They are microscopic and live off you and your pets. Everyday, we shed skin cells off of our bodies. That is one of the reasons why everyone should have a high quality HEPA rated vacuum cleaner like the Miele. They live in your mattress, pillows and carpet. I remember one house that we tested for Allergens and the level of Dust Mites was very high in the carpet and mattress. We recommended the client remove the carpet and install tile. They also bought a new mattress and pillows. Six months later, we performed the same test and the the level had dropped to minimal.

Also, do not make your bed first thing in the morning, (my mother would cringe if she read this) pull the covers back and let the body sweat from the night before evaporate before making the bed. I do this myself and it works fine. I also put the pillows in the dryer for 20 minutes on a weekly basis. This works for me, but remember to do what your Doctor recommends first. I also have a high quality mattress cover and pillow covers too. l

In conclusion, if you have Bed Bugs, call a Natural Pest Control Exterminator and discuss your least toxic method of getting rid of the Bed Bugs. If you have Allergies or a Compromised Immune System, be sure to discuss this with your Doctor before doing anything with the exterminator. Dust Mites can be controlled by lowering the humidity below 50%. Others say higher, but our success rates have been better with the 50% level. Keep your house clean using a HEPA rated vacuum cleaner such as the Miele. Do not forget to change the vacuum cleaner bag on a regular basis. There are different chemical treatments for Dust Mites but they tend to make Allergies and Asthma worse. We do not recommend them at all due to this fact. Discuss this option with your Doctor also before using any chemicals for Dust Mites. The real key to keeping Dust Mites under control is cleaning your house once a week. If you have any questions, feel free to call us at Safe Homes Environmental Consultants (954) 531-6476 or visit our Website.


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Treat Your Food and Drink Allergies

Certain food and drink allergies can make you very uncomfortable in few situations, keeping you always suspicious of what you are about to eat or drink. This can affect a human in a many different ways. Just think about it! How easy it is to have the same food every day you are already bored with? Well let me give you a clue, ''It's NOT Easy.''

Even worse factor is, in some of the cases when you were able to enjoy a certain food or drink, but in the meanwhile you have developed an allergic reaction to it. It surely is very unpleasant to hunger after a certain food and to resent it at the same time because you anticipate the disagreeable effects it will have on you.

Food and Drink sensitivity

The way you get allergic reaction is when a specific enzymes in the product you are having can not tolerate some chemical or natural substance of it.

The main symptoms are: gas, constipation, diarrhea, IBS, skin rash, headaches, and cough.

From another point of view, allergy is an immune response to some allergens, or food proteins that generate the allergy, and has a partially different symptomatology: soft tissues (tongue, lips, eyelids, etc.) swelling lesions itches vomiting culminating anaphylactic shock.

Most common Food generating allergies include milk, eggs, seafood, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, and wheat.

Aloeride effectiveness

Now there is a easy way to regain the possibility of using food and drinks banned for long time from your diet. Few cases reports an increased tolerance to substances you could never even think to ingest again after undergoing terrible reactions to them. The fact that Aloeride performs on the immunity system guarantees that allergic reactions, as immunity responses to some mixtures found in food or drinks, can be dealt with. Using Aloeride for drink or food allergies doesn't really mean you should go and grab everything you had allergy before with. It would be really irresponsible from your side, however Aloeride may actually surprise you, it offers you an opportunity to learn simple things like rightfully appreciated food, especially after a period of constant prohibition and frustration.


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