Do
you suffer from bouts of continuous sneezes and running nose? Do you
often wake up sneezing every morning or get affected after washing your
face? Is this accompanied with itching of the eyes and nose along with
headaches? Do these symptoms crop up only during the rains or during a
sudden change in weather? Smelling fresh flowers or strong perfumes
causes frequent sneezing that completely drains your energy making your
face flushed and tired? If you have some or all of these symptoms you
may be suffering from ALLERGIC RHINITIS.
ALLERGIC RHINITIS is an allergic inflammation of the nasal airway. It is an allergic reaction of your body to certain foreign substances known as allergens that trigger your immune system to bring about a sudden outburst of symptoms. These allergens are mainly pollen, dust particles, dust mites, animal dander, etc that enter the upper
respiratory tract on breathing and bring about an allergic reaction.
Allergy is nothing but hyper sensitization of our defence system
(Immunity), which means that our immunity starts reacting to substances
which otherwise are harmless to our body. There could be an underlying genetic factor or a low immunity factor that causes this type of a reaction.
Signs and Symptoms of ALLERGIC RHINITIS:
- Frequent or continuous sneezing
- Excessive nasal discharge
- Itching of the nose
- Itching and redness of the eyes
- Burning and watering of the eyes
- Nose block
- Swelling of the eye lids
- Swollen nasal turbinates
- Sore throat
- Post nasal drip
- Ear ache occasionally.
Diagnosis and Treatment:
The
disease will be easily diagnosed by a doctor after seeing the signs and
symptoms, however if the symptoms are severe your physician may advise
you to go for an allergy test. This will reveal
the specific allergens to which an individual is sensitive. Skin
testing is the most common method of allergy testing. This may include intradermal, scratch, patch, or other tests.
According to modern medicine there is no complete cure
for allergic rhinitis. It can be only suppressed or controlled by
either staying away from the allergens that cause the disease or by
taking antihistamines
and treating the disease symptomatically. But even after all these
efforts; the bouts of sneezing will still continue to recur with every
change in weather or exposure to pollen or dust. So basically it would
be a lifelong effort to cure the disease which will only overdose you
with chemical drugs and in return weaken your immune system.
Permanent cure with Homoeopathy:
Allergic
rhinitis involves over-responsiveness of the immune system, and is
therefore not limited to a local problem with the nose, but a system
issue. Since Homoeopathy directly acts on the immune system it is the best and most remarkable treatment for any allergy. Homoeopathy
is based on the principle of “likes cure likes”. This means that if a
substance in its crude form produces a diseased condition, then it also
has the ability to treat similar symptoms of the disease when given in
diluted and potentized form in minimal doses.
Remedies like Phosphorous, Allium Cepa, Euphrasia, Sabadilla, Dulcamara, Nux Vom, Calcarea Carb, Arsenic Album etc. are very effective in allergic rhinitis, however these medicines should be taken only with the doctors consent. Self medication can be very dangerous and hence Homoeopathy is best carried out by an experienced clinician. Unlike the other systems of medicine, homeopathy is not used to treat a disease but to treat the patient; hence it requires a detailed case history to understand the patient as a whole and to give individualized treatment for the removal of the disease in its whole extent from the root and bring about complete and permanent cure to the patient.
Article written for GOENKAR Magazine August 2013 publication
For any health related queries, you may contact:
Dr.Millisha Silveira on +91-9923417775 / dr.millisha@hotmail.com
