Ah, Spring… a welcome break from the grey and cold days of winter or maybe not, for some. Many people are greeting the ‘season of allergies and sinus infections.’ How should nurses protect their health during Spring?
Some people suffer dearly, while others go about gardening and walking through nature completely unaffected by pollen and other UFO‘s floating around in the fragrant spring air. While it may be diffrent from one person to another, it is important to know how to manage this type of allergies.
It may sound a bit far-fetched at first, but diet is the primary answer. If you or someone you know struggles with these symptoms, try this little experiment for a few weeks, understanding the actual implications of what you have been or are doing to your body.
Get Rid of the Culprit
Your body is an amazing machine equipped to take on all the natural environmental changes with grace and success. You breathe in the pollen, then you produce histamines to fight off the intruders. During the production of histamines, the capillaries swell, muscles contract, and you sneeze. Sounds perfect, but when something is off in this pattern, the swelling doesn’t subside. Instead, bacteria collects and sinus infections take hold. The doctor prescribes anti-histamines, the very thing you want your body to produce! You just have to do some spring cleaning in your house along with your kids.
Bovine (cow) dairy is the number one culprit exacerbating your symptoms, creating new problems, and often leaving you with a sinus infection. The vast proportion of sufferers who give up all cow’s milk dairy, rarely if ever, with sinus infections again!
When cow’s milk dairy is ingested, the human body sees it as a foreign invader. After all, it’s not human mother’s milk, and your mother was not a bovine.) It reacts on several levels affecting many organs, but let’s concentrate on the sinus portion here. Dairy causes the sinus tissues and nasal passages to swell, in an immune response not unlike the response to pollen. As the passages swell, they block the proper drainage needed from those cavities.
Milk is also highly mucus forming – a bad combination. The mucus, now trapped in the sinus cavities, creates a warm, dark, damp environment for pollen and bacteria to camp out, colonize, and multiply. With the work your body is doing to fight off all the infectious growth, the immune system becomes further compromised.
The bacteria then creates its own bio-colonies. When antibiotics arrive in the form of injections or oral medications, the bacteria hides in its biosphere, protecting itself from the killer medication similar to barnacles or coral. The vascularity in the sinuses is so minimal that not much medicine reaches there anyway. And if it does, the sinuses are so inflamed that the resulting waste cannot drain, creating a cycle of sickness. You feel good during the course of meds due to the hibernation of the bacteria, but as soon as the prescription is up, the invaders pop out of their home and start over again.
Remember the well oiled machine I introduced you to earlier? If you remove the dairy, the nasal passages remain open and clear. The immune system, if nurses are taking care of their health in other ways, such as eating well, remaining hydrated and not smoking – stays strong. Sure, you may sneeze here and there, but you are designed to do that. You are effectively cleaning house.
The folklore and wives tales and grandma’s remedies always included clear liquids for colds and runny noses. What are clear liquids? Not milk. Did it work? Yes! So as you begin to feel better, why are you reintroducing something that doesn’t work for you? There are lots of spring health tips that can be helpful.
You may not think you are ingesting much dairy, but start looking at labels in your home. I dare you to go out to eat and not get some form of dairy in your food. It is disguised as lactose, whey, milk protein, and casein or caseinate as well as just plain cream, milk, butter, and cheese. If you love to eat out, tell your server you have a milk allergy, and the kitchen will cook around it. By the way, over 80% of the world’s population is allergic to cow’s milk. Some African cultures and Scandinavian/Nordic cultures have genetically evolved to digest cow’s milk due to their minimal agricultural climate.
If you must, go for goat’s milk yoghurt, and cheeses like goat’s milk feta and chevre. It’s make up is much closer to human mother’s milk. Begin by replacing your cow’s milk with soy, rice, hemp or almond milks and ice creams. Earth Balance’s non-GMO, buttery spread is a great butter substitute and olive oil is great on veggies. Over time the cravings will ebb, and you will feel fantastic. Look online for easy recipes for natural sour creams, ice creams, cheese cake and sauces based with cashews.
It’s great for kids too. Ear infections will come to a halt. The drippy, chapped noses will heal. You may even lose up to 15 pounds of unwanted weight! How’s that for a benefit?
- Quick and inexpensive milk. I cup water, 1 ½ T. almond butter, pinch of salt. Blend. Sweeten to taste. Strain if desired. Plenty of protein and yummy!
- Quick Ricotta cheese. Soak 1 cup pine nuts in water 1 hour. Blend in food processor or blender with 3-4 T. water, 1 T. lemon juice, salt to taste, 1 T nutritional yeast, this is optional. Nutritional yeast is found in supplement aisles and health food stores. It is a great source of B vitamins. Use in lasagna or on homemade pizza. Plenty of protein and yummy!
- Quick Hummus. 1 can chickpeas mostly drained, 1 clove garlic, 2 T. tahini (ground sesame seeds in the peanut butter section of the market) 2 T lemon juice. Blend or process in food processor. If a bit dry, add a touch of water until desired consistency. Add salt to taste. Add olive oil to taste. Garnish with Paprika. Try adding a roasted red pepper to add a little flavor if you like. Experiment!