CPH Newsletter - Volume 06 - March 2007

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Welcome to the March newsletter written by Alex Christie. For those of you who are new to this newsletter, Alex writes one every month for Cph on a different subject or subjects. You are welcome to write to her and suggest a topic, as she has several that she is gradually working through already!

Hayfever

This month I thought I would remind those of you who suffer from hayfever that you need to be taking your desensitisations to pollens now if you want to see a reduction in your hayfever symptoms this year. The Allergy Institute does a great range of pollens you can take throughout the different pollen seasons. I strongly recommend you get yourself tested so you know which pollen desensitisations you need. Below are the pollen periods:

Trees and Flowers March - May
Grasses May – July
Rape Seed May - August
Weeds & Shrubs July – August

Hayfever is a very common condition, affecting 2 to 3 million people in Britain every year. It is caused by an allergy to pollen or sometimes mould spores. In hayfever the body's immune system over reacts to the presence of external substances, as if they were something toxic. This results in irritation and inflammation.

Hayfever is such a common complaint that most people know its symptoms. You have to have had the experience though to know exactly how wretched it can make you feel. To make matters worse, treatment can occasionally make it worse. Decongestant nasal sprays and drops tend to lose their effect after several days of continuous use and may harm the delicate lining of the nasal passages, making the symptoms worse.

Certainly, not all, antihistamine drugs have a strongly sedative effect. This is the last thing you want if you are studying and needing to feel not only physically fit, but mentally alert and able to concentrate. Reckeweg do an excellent homeopathic histamine nasal spray as an alternative.

As all hayfever sufferers know, attacks are commonest and most severe during the months of late spring and early summer. This is also the time when you are most likely to be sitting examinations and wanting to study hard. The best way to see that revision time and examination performance are not marred by watery eyes, sneezing and sniffing attacks or a blocked stuffy nose, is to get to know what triggers your attacks and what preventative measures you can take.

Hayfever is a form of rhinitis, which means inflammation of the lining of the nose. It is seasonal and caused by an allergy to pollen. Approximately three million people in the UK are thought to suffer from it and there is a tendency for hayfever to run in families. Men are affected more than women although the reason for this is unknown.

Pollen allergy can appear at any age, but tends to be worse among teenagers and young adults. Some people get symptoms for five or six consecutive seasons and then never have another attack, while others suffer season after season for up to twenty years. A small minority of sufferers go on to develop bronchial asthma and/or nasal polyps (swelling in the mucous lining of the nose.)

Symptoms
Attacks generally start suddenly. Frequent sneezing is associated with an intense itch inside the nose, occasionally more on one side than on the other. The feeling has been compared to having sniffed itching powder or hot chilli pepper as the mucous membranes feel 'hot' as well as irritating. Some people even develop lines across the lower parts of their nose from habitually rubbing its tip to relieve the itching.

Soon after the irritation starts, watery fluid begins to flow freely down the nose, making frequent wiping a necessity. Even with the use of soft tissues, the repeated skin friction can make the sensitive area around the nostrils and upper lip sore, red and chapped.

Itchy, watering eyes and a tickling feeling in the throat are also frequent symptoms. Bright lights make matters worse and the tendency to rub the eyes makes them swollen and bloodshot. Soon a blocked nose and the necessity to breathe through the mouth at least partly, completes the picture.

Hayfever symptoms can last from a few hours to several days, depending upon the weather, the pollen count and other factors such as the sufferer's emotional state, stress level and the general state of health.

Causes
Strictly speaking, only an allergy to pollen can produce hayfever. This is why 'hayfever proper' occurs only during the pollen-producing months of spring and summer. Some people suffer from hayfever symptoms all the year round and this condition, known as perennial rhinitis, is considered in a later section of this article.

Every year, several thousands of tons of tree and grass pollen are released into the air during the spring and summer months. It is in this way that pollen, produced by plants for the purpose of fertilisation, is able to reach its required destination of another plant of the same species.

The wind is responsible for much pollen transport however, and it is windborne pollen that causes hayfever. Highly coloured and strongly scented flowers rarely play a significant part in this process. This is because they attract insects and are pollinated by the insect population that visits them. It is the lighter and more buoyant pollen of trees, grasses and weeds that are more likely to cause symptoms.

Plantain and other common weeds are often responsible for hayfever symptoms. Once one of these pollens causes you allergy problems, the rest are likely to do so as well. That is why hayfever often starts as early as March and continues until July or August.

Spring hayfever is caused mainly by tree pollens and the more severe summer variety by grass pollens, with weed pollens triggering symptoms in the late summer and the autumn. Pollen (and mild spores) follow a seasonal pattern year after year, but vary with the geographical location.

The quantity of pollen produced depends on the weather, symptoms tending to be worse on hot, dry, windy days. This is the reason why hayfever tends to affect suffers most severely during June and July. These are the months when the grass pollens are most abundant, responsible for four million working days lost per year in the UK. This is about twice the number of working days lost as a result of industrial injuries.

The weather, in fact plays an important part in the production of pollen grains. In 1986, the pollen counts were higher than they had been for twenty-one years, registering over a thousand in contrast to the average of 190. Experts believe that the very cold spring firstly delayed the growth of flowers and that the subsequent mild weather made many species of flower bloom simultaneously, thereby releasing masses of pollen grains.

Perennial Rhinitis
This is a closely associated condition, producing much the same symptoms as hayfever. In all, it is estimated that about six million people in the UK (that is a tenth of the population) are affected. Sufferers complain of having an almost permanent head cold but it is necessary only to experience symptoms for an hour or more out of twenty-four on most days of the year for perennial rhinitis to be diagnosed.

So distressing can the perpetual sneezing, nose blowing, eye irritation and nasal stuffiness become that it is understandable that sufferers feel as though they are never free from them.

The most prominent symptom in perennial rhinitis is nasal blockage, affecting five out of ten sufferers. Sneezing and watery nasal discharge affect three out of ten sufferers, but eye symptoms and itchy throat are less common in many cases of this condition than they are in pollen-allergy hayfever.

Hayfever can cause perennial rhinitis during the spring and summer months. Allergic rhinitis due to causes (allergens) other than pollen also accounts for many cases. These include fungal spores, animal dander, house dust and chemicals. Do get yourself to an allergy practitioner if you suffer from this as you can find quick relief if the culprit allergen can be identified and you are given the homeopathic desensitizing remedy for this.

There are a number of things you can do to alleviate your symptoms in a natural drug-free way.

Lifestyle Hints
For allergic rhinitis, including hayfever, prevention is in most cases better than cure. Here are some ways of avoiding some of the more common allergens.

Keep a daily record of your symptoms and compare this with the pollen count. You will soon get to know whether your hayfever is really due to pollen allergy.

If your are affected in this way, avoid open fields and freshly mown lawns, however inviting!

Try to stay indoors when the pollen count is high. Wearing dark glasses if you must go out on dry, warm breezy days will help to protect your eyes.

If animals affect you, avoid visiting friends with cats or dogs and if you have pets yourself, keep them out of the bedroom at all times.

House dust may be your problem - dust and vacuum daily, not forgetting soft furnishings and curtains which should be washed or dry cleaned monthly. Take homeopathic house dust mite drops for three weeks.

The minute animal called the house dust mite, living within house dust, is responsible for much allergic rhinitis. They are too small to be seen and tend to inhabit mattresses, pillows and other bedding. A sheet of plastic film over your mattress may help. Always air beds daily too, stripping them right back and exposing the bottom sheet to the fresh air. Keep bedroom windows at least partly open always, unless pollen is your problem.

Deep freeze your pillows! The house dust mite dies at temperatures lower than 10 degrees Centigrade. Simply rotate the pillows you use, through your freezer, allowing several hours for them to thaw before you re-use them. Probably not the best of ideas though to sleep straight on them after freezing...

Never use feather mattresses or duvets.

Turn the central heating off in your bedroom at least during the night. Try increasing the humidity in various rooms you use during the day by placing a bowl of water in them.

Experiment with ventilation too, to find out what suits you best.

Diet
A change in diet is found by many sufferers to help. A balanced whole food diet which avoids junk foods and additives will improve your overall state of health and resistance to stress, whatever the allergen causing your attacks. When the chemical additives in processed foods or other dietary items are themselves to blame, improvement is often dramatic.

Many natural therapists recommend hayfever sufferers to drink mineral water and diluted freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juice for the first two days of an attack and a light diet to be followed for several days thereafter. By this they mean fresh fruit and raw vegetables, with herb tea or spring water to drink.

The avoidance of mucous forming foods is also thought highly of as a form of hayfever treatment. These include white flour, white sugar and their products, refined, processed foods, including 'doctored cereals', fried food, animal fat, dairy products, chocolate, cocoa, salt, tea, coffee and alcohol.

Emphasis should be placed upon raw or lightly cooked fresh fruit and vegetables, whole-wheat flour and its products, nuts, eggs, fish and white meat.

Natural therapists also recommended certain food supplements for hay fever, including garlic capsules, vitamins A, C and E and seaweed products.

The majority buy over the counter remedies such as decongestant nasal drops and sprays, several million of which are sold by pharmacists annually. These are fine for a short-term relief, however you may find that their effect wears off after three or four days. In addition "rebound congestion" can sometimes occur with over use, causing swollen nasal mucous membranes similar to the condition you used the product for in the first place. Long-term use of any drug should be avoided wherever possible and if the side effect is drowsiness it is a serious impediment if you are sitting for exams or trying to study hard!

For homeopathic remedies for hayfever please see my March 2006 Newsletter. I tend to use combination remedies and then turn to the individual ones for any remaining symptoms. I either use my favourite combination of

• Cortisone
• Euphrasia
• Psorinum
• Carcinosin all in 50M potency taken as often as needed
• Wyethia
• Suc ac

Or Vital Homeopathics do a combination spray and calendula nasal cream (you apply with a cotton bud and any pollen particles you inhale tend to adhere to the cream in your nostrils). If the symptoms are clearly one remedy just prescribe this one remedy. If not try these combination remedies or the Reckeweg histamine spray.

Underactive Thyroid

There are thousands of people, especially women, suffering from one or several of the following symptoms:

Depression and Exhaustion
• Constant tiredness, worse mornings, mid-afternoon fatigue
• Exhaustion, just can’t get enough sleep
• Desire to take daytime naps (adrenal function, hypoglycaemia)
• Feel depressed, down, sad and may be diagnosed with depressive illness, or SAD

Circulatory Disorders
• Constant coldness when others are not feeling cold, especially in hands and feet
• Unexplained weight gain
• Difficulty losing weight despite proper exercise and diet
• Losing hair, especially frontal hair and from the outer part of the eyebrows. Thinning of your hair
• Nails are breaking and splitting

Oxygenation and Nutrient Delivery
• Muscle and joint pains and aches, possibly diagnosed with fibromyalgia
• Diagnosed as having chronic fatigue syndrome
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Tendonitis in arms and legs

Oestrogen
• Puffiness in the eyes, face, arms or legs
• Low libido
• Heart palpitations
• Unexplained infertility
• Recurrent miscarriages with no obvious cause

Cardio-Vascular
• High cholesterol levels
• Cholesterol management is unresponsive to diet and medication
• Heart attack or clogged arteries
• Mitral valve prolapse
• Headaches, worse in the mornings

Ovarian
• Heavier than normal menstrual period
• Period is longer than it used to be
• Periods come more frequently
• Menopause with troublesome symptoms
• Painful periods
• PMS

Adrenal
• Allergies
• Itching, prickly hot skin, rashes, hives, urticaria
• Stomach and abdominal bloating

Testosterone
• Impotence
• Leg pains
• Soft layering of body fat

Other symptoms
• Anaemia
• Excess of iron or “hemachromatosis”
• Difficulty concentrating
• Memory problems
• Slow thinking
• Constipaton
• Swelling in the neck area
• Worse in the morning
• Erratic bowel function, IBS, leaky gut, bloating, wind etc
• Malabsorbtion of glucose from the GI tract, which can sometimes manifest as reactive hypo-glycaemia, fatigue or ME.
• Sudden changes of personality
• Craving sweet drinks

These symptoms are all caused by an underactive thyroid, which despite being widespread, with possibly 30% of the population suffering from this, is a notoriously under-diagnosed condition. The thyroid gland is a butterfly-shaped gland situated either side of your trachea, just below your Adam’s apple. It regulates metabolism and energy levels. The thyroid gland is critical to health because it controls the metabolic rate and is responsible for the proper working of almost every cell, organ and bodily process. It is essential for health and wellbeing. When it is under functioning it causes the symptoms mentioned above.

You may have gone to your GP and either been told that your symptoms are simply the result of getting older, typical of the menopause, symptomatic of depression and why don’t you take an anti-depressant. Or you may even have had the standard thyroid test done with completely normal results.

They thyroid produces two very similar hormones:- T3 and T4.The thyroid gland’s function is to take iodine from what you consume and convert this into thyroid hormones T3 and T4. Thyroid cells are the only cells in the body that can absorb iodine. The thyroid cells combine iodine and an amino acid called tyrosine to make T3 and T4. T3 and T4 are then released into the blood stream and are transported throughout the body where they control metabolism. Metabolism is the conversion of oxygen and calories into energy. Almost every cell in the body depends on the thyroid hormones for regulation of their metabolism.

A healthy thyroid gland produces about 80% T4 and 20% T3. However, T3 possesses about four times the hormone strength of T4. T4 circulates in the bloodstream until the tissues need it, when a hormone 5-diodase changes T4 into triiodothyronine or T3, which enables it to stimulate the body’s essential functions.
The thyroid also produces a small amount of T3.

The amount of thyroid hormone the thyroid gland makes changes constantly according to need, illness, activity, surrounding temperature, sunlight and other factors. Thyroid blood analysis should therefore be considered as relevant only to that particular day and time.

The T3 required for cell activation is formed from the mostly inactive T4 by a process called T4 to T3 conversion. This takes place in the thyroid and other organs such as the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus in the brain released Thyrotropin-releasing hormone (THR), which tells the pituitary gland to release TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone). TSH circulating in the bloodstream is what triggers the thyroid to make thyroid hormones and release them into your bloodstream.

Causes of hypothyroidism include:

• Stress
• Illness
• Surgical procedures
• Viral infection
• Dental treatment
• Divorce
• Moving home
• Genetic tendency

The thyroid is paired with the adrenal glands, which in turn are governed by the pituitary gland. When you suspect a thyroid problem always look to these other supporting glands as they may be affected. Indeed, in adrenal burnout it may be the adrenals that are bringing the thyroid down. Low functioning thyroid is common but hugely overlooked. This is mainly because most doctors are looking for blood pathology (low thyroxin and TSH levels) and do not consider T3.

A TSH of less than .5 is considered hyperthyroid – i.e. overactive. A TSH or more than 5.5 is considered hypothryoid – i.e. underactive. Some laboratories use levels as low as .35 to 5. The American Academy of Clinical Endocrinologists decided in March 2003 that the old .5 to 5 normal range was obsolete and introduced the new range of .3 to 3. (Do you remember that the same happened with cholesterol levels?). This means that more people can be considered to have a thyroid problem and prescribed drugs.

Sub-clinical hypothyroidism will not generally show on standard diagnostic tests. The best way of evaluating the thyroid function is the Barnes Axial Temperature Test (thermometer is left in the armpit on waking and before rising for 5 minutes). As thyroid function increases, so does your temperature. If your thyroid function is low, so is your temperature.

Clinically recognized hypothyroidism is treated with thyroxin, one of the hormones produced by the thyroid gland. Usually, synthetic thyroxin is prescribed, even though this may not suit all women. And many women are sub clinically hypothyroid, which means that their thyroxin levels are not so low as to warrant drug intervention. The symptoms still make their lives a misery however.

A vegetarian diet is not ideal for people with a thyroid problem. Some food can interfere with the absorption of iodine. These foods are called goitrogens. Goitrogens are destroyed by cooking, which is one reason why some people feel very tired on a raw food diet. The most common goitrogens are:

• Broccoli
• Brussel sprouts
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Sauerkraut
• Soya beans
• Peanuts
• Pine nuts
• Millet
• Turnips
• Radishes
• Cassava
• Millet
• Kale

Soya products which are naturally high in isoflavines are also implicated.

All thyroid hormones are conjugated in the liver, so liver function should always be taken into consideration in all thyroid problems.

If you suspect your thyroid is not functioning properly you can have a test done by IWDL. This laboratory will send you a kit and the addresses of centres where you can go to give blood. They also send your results with explanations of how to interpret them. The tests to ask for are Total Thyroid Screen (£80) and possibly Reverse T3 (£60). These are well worth doing if you suspect either an over or under active thyroid. Treating a subclinically hypothyroid patient in time can avoid a lifetime sentence of thyroxine.

References

1. Dr Caroline M Shreeve www.goodnessdirect.co.uk Hayfever
2. Dr Roderick Lane ND, Sub-clinical Hypo-Thyroid, seminar notes

Stockists

• Reckeweg Remedies (Histaminum Compositum) phone: 01942 811444
• The British Institute for Allergy and Environmental Therapy (for the names of Allergy Therapists in your area who can test for allergies and prescribe the appropriate desensitizing remedies for you. Phone 01974 241 376
• Nutri West. Phone 0800 952 0400
• Vital Homeopathics phone 01484 540925 (Hayfever spray and Calendula cream)

Recommendations

• Metabolics (for the names of kinesiologists in your area who can trace the thyroid and energy pathways and prescribe the supplements required by you) Phone 01380 812 799.
• The British Institute for Allergy and Environmental Therapy (for the names of Allergy Therapists in your area who can test for allergies and prescribe the appropriate desensitizing remedies for you. Phone 01974 241 376
• Acupuncturist (acupuncture can help with allergies and endocrine inbalances) Stephanie Wright, Fulham, 07963 974627
• Books: Your Healthy Child with Homeopathy by Tricia Allen, Metro Publishing (available from Amazon.co.uk). This book will enable you to treat the whole family for most common ailments and injuries.
• Helios Remedy Kits: Available from Helios Homeopathic Suppliers, 8 New Row, London, WC2N 4LJ . Phone 7379 7434, or from Neal’s Yard Remedies, or www.helios.co.uk <http://www.helios.co.uk>
• Vaccinations: Become Informed. The Informed Parent will let you know the dates and venues of talks on what vaccinations really do to your children. If you have or are going to have children and you want to find out how to safeguard their health this is an absolute must. Contact them before your child is born if possible as you will come under huge pressure to conform once your baby is born. Phone 01903 212 969.
• Spectrum Therapy Organisation for highly skilled person-centered, dynamic psychotherapy 020 8341 2277
• Barnes Basal Temperature Chart can be obtained from this link: www.drrind.com/forms.asp#tempgraph
• Alex Christie is a qualified Homeopath (LCHE), a member of the Alliance of Registered Homeopaths (ARH) and a member of the British Complementary Medicine Association (BCMA). Alex specializes in Candida and Allergy relief treatment and can be contacted or visited at her Barnsbury Studio or Neals Yard Practice in London. E-mail Alex for a consultation , Phone 020 7609 1352 or visit her web site for more information.

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Once again may I take this opportunity to thank you for your continued interest, and I look forward to staying in touch with you regularly. Remember, if you would like me to cover any specific topic, please e-mail me and I will try and do so in one of our future newsletters.

Yours in health,

on behalf of
the College of Practical Homeopathy
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