Stop Spring Allergies Naturally (Before They Start!) - Dr. Barrett Deubert

Welcome back to another episode of the Real Health Podcast. Today, we're diving into everything about springtime and allergies. Right? So spring's around the corner, that means nose are gonna start to drain and we're gonna have itchy ears and we're gonna try to figure out, hey, what to do, but the problem is we're already one step behind. We're in it, right?

And so today we're gonna be very clear and concise talking through strategies to help with the allergy season ahead. This will be a jam packed fifteen minute episode that's gonna help you and your family set you guys up for success in the spring. So when we think about spring allergies, it's not just bad luck with pollen or it's not just Knoxville has a valley and, you know, it's full of pollen and where our air quality is so low. Those things aren't the cause. They represent, really spring allergies represents a few things.

One, loss of immune function. Two, histamine issues or overreaction of histamine. Three, you can have impaired detoxification pathways. Other causations are that the intestinal barrier and even the mucosal membrane of the nose, that barrier has been, broken down or is dysfunctional and nervous system dysregulation. These are root causes behind why there are allergies.

And today, on today's episode, we are going to solve those problems and help set you up for success with spring. If you are new to our podcast, we try to give you jam packed information that's gonna add value to you and your health journey. If you don't mind, we'd love for you to share the episodes, like it, subscribe to our YouTube or podcast channel just so that we can continue to create content and add value to those that are around. So we're coming out of Knoxville, Tennessee, but you may be somewhere else in The United States or Australia and dealing with sinus allergy issues. So today, let's talk through the key concepts and how to set you up for success for spring.

Allergies aren't just an exposure problem. It's not just because you're exposed to an allergen, it's really a reactivity issue. Your body is reactive to the allergen. For instance, dairy. Not everyone's reactive to dairy, only certain people are.

Although that's a high allergenic food, not everyone reacts to dairy. Not everyone reacts to gluten. Not everyone reacts to XYZ. And the difference between why some people react to pollen and why others don't is not an issue really of genetics. It's an issue of immune system and nervous system dysregulation.

When we look at pollen, when it hits the nasal mucosal membrane, immediately it can signal a part of the immune system, these cells called mast cells, and these mast cells release histamine. And when histamine is released, it causes what we call vasodilation, which is blood flow increases, or these blood vessels increase in size, this can cause swelling. And when that swelling occurs, it increases mucus production and now we're just draining all the time. When you look at these nasal sprays, they're designed, like the medication like Afrin is designed to actually shrink the vessels of the nose. It's to create vasoconstriction.

So that's why it is such it has such rapid relief is because they're cutting off that blood supply, and, it significantly reduces the amount of production of, within these mucosal membranes. But you can do this naturally. And so we're gonna talk through those strategies because either you can suppress the immune system, right, suppress it with antihistamines, suppress it with Afrin, or you can get to the root issue and stabilize the terrain. So I'm gonna give you some concepts here to immediately start to apply. Number one, reduce the allergenic load.

There is a reality of exposure that too much can heighten the response. So hey, we do. We want to minimize how much we're being exposed to. And so one of the things that you can do, and it just makes so much sense on so many levels, is get a HEPA air filter. So that would be my first recommendation, get a true HEPA filter that captures particles down to point three microns.

So that's a HEPA air filter. And just run it. Run it continuously. I run one continuously in my bedroom all day, just pulling out that pollen, that allergenic load, the dog hair, mean, you name it. It's it's pulling it up.

And it's really helpful for kids. If you wanna help your children, get an air filter, HEPA air filter, $100, right? Doesn't have to be the fancy molecule which we have. That's 7 to $809,100 dollars. Just get the HEPA air filter, get it off Amazon, put it in your kid's room, put it in your bedroom, put it in the main house, get three, four, five of them and just run those babies all day long.

There's another option too and you can actually replace your HVAC filters with more of a kind of HEPA style filter but make sure you're replacing your air filters every thirty days when it comes down to spring. This will help significantly, okay? Number two, to reduce allergenic load, we wanna make sure we are showering at night to reduce the pollen in your hair for instance, on your body. I know that sounds silly, but every time you shower when you come from coming from outside, it will decrease the pollen. And make sure you change your clothes immediately.

I know in Knoxville, it's like a green dust that gets on cars. And so it's gonna be on your clothes, it's gonna be in your hair. So take your clothes off, throw it in a hamper, close it up and take a shower. This will help significantly. Number three, have a humidifier.

The ideal indoor humidity is about 50%. And so if it's too high, it can cause mold. If it's too low, it can dry out your mucosal membrane. So make sure you have either a humidifier during the winter or a dehumidifier during those wet months. And this will help because if we can keep mold down, those mold spores can be a major factor behind chronic sinusitis.

It's actually the number one cause of chronic sinusitis is fungus, fungal infections, mold as being the root issue. All right, so number one strategy, reduce allergenic load. Number two, sinus hygiene, sinus irrigation, nasal irrigation. When we look at nasal irrigation, this is a game changer. It can be used for both adults and kids, and you just use a neti pot, or there's electronic ones called sineugator, and even more fancy ones where you can put it up both nostrils and it just sucks it out, pours it in and sucks it out.

Science irrigation, regardless how you do it, is a game changer. Okay, Just use distilled water, okay? Heat it up to about 98 to 100 degrees, add a salt packet in there, and then boom, irrigate every day. When should you do it? Right when you wake up and right before bed.

Okay? Clean out your sinus passages from the night before and throughout the whole day as you accumulate, do it right before bed. Game changer, absolute game changer. It reduces pollen load. It thins the mucus.

It reduces inflammatory cytokines or chemicals, and it improves the actual function of the little like hair in your nose. And again, this can be done once a day, but even in like the high pollen times, can be used a couple times a day. Another way to improve nasal health through irrigation is just use a nasal spray. A Xylitol nasal spray is fantastic. It hydrates, reduces the Xylitol will reduce bacterial load and it can even break up these little guys called biofilms.

So between Neti pots and Xylitol nasal spray during the day, you're really stepping up your game here for sinus hygiene. Hepa filter, sinus hygiene, number three supplementation. There's some amazing supplements out there that can really move the needle. One of which is called stinging nettles. So stinging nettles is a natural antihistamine, and so it can immediately help with allergenic symptoms.

You can look at a formulation we use in the office called DeHist. DeHist, it's from a company called Orthomolecular, and it contains it's a chewable, contains stingy nose, but also it also has bromelain in it, vitamin c, and quercetin. And those are just four powerful ingredients to help if kids are especially struggling with allergies, DeHist is a great formulation. So DeHist Junior for kids and DeHist, the regular one for adults. It's a great supplement.

And you can use that even starting a couple weeks before allergy season. Okay, other functional medicine strategies, omega-three fatty acids, fish oil. Fish oil is proven to decrease the Th2 dominant effect in allergies. So allergies is usually an excited immune system, particularly we call it the Th2 immune system. If you increase omega-three fatty acids, fish oil, it will significantly reduce the inflammation associated with your diet or potentially with obviously the allergenic load and the inflammation associated with it.

Here's another functional medicine strategy. Okay? Eliminate dairy, gluten as two major food allergens. If you're trying to decrease mucosal membrane swelling, eliminating dairy is a game changer. Okay.

Regardless of you if you think you're reactive to it or not, removing dairy can definitely decrease mucus production. The last one I'm gonna recommend for supplementation is check your vitamin D levels. D as in David, check your vitamin D. This would be something you check a couple times a year, but coming out of winter, it's really important to check as vitamin D is critical for immune tolerance. Low vitamin D has been correlated with asthma, allergic rhinitis, and eczema.

So making sure you're looking at that vitamin D level before you get into spring and supplement accordingly. Okay. The next item, right, strategy is get adjusted chiropractic care. Chiropractic care is incredible at its ability to help immune tolerance by affecting the nervous system. So by making specific chiropractic adjustments, we can do many things.

One, we drainage open pathways for the lymph system. We improve the nervous system's ability to regulate the immune system, and we call that the parasympathetics. And even a healthy, mobile mid back, we call that the thoracic spine, is really important at at at maximizing your drainage systems. So when it comes to the ribs and the mid back, getting that mobile and adjusted can really help with your drainage system. Most people after adjustments notice immediately when they come off the table, hey, my nose is draining.

My ear is cleared or clogged out. I mean, we even literally adjust ears in the office and open up drainage pathways that way. So chiropractic care is so cool at its ability to help immune system regulation. And so find a local chiro, get in with them, start getting adjusted and you can see some major, major changes. And the last one is if you're still struggling and you're doing all those things, look at the liver.

The liver is your detoxification organ, okay? And histamine breakdown occurs in the liver. If your liver is backed up, you're not efficiently metabolizing histamine. So things to look at is like B vitamins and magnesium, making sure you have adequate protein intake, and hydration is really important. But in essence, looking at the liver is a great strategy to improving allergies as this helps the histamine metabolism.

So, if you are under care with a practitioner or interested in functional medicine, this would be a great time to do it. Connect with a local provider and get in with them and talk about your liver before you start having allergy issues and maximizing the function of your liver can help so much with histamine breakdown. So when we look at allergies, it doesn't have to happen to you. You can be intentional with supporting your immune system today by getting HEPA filters, getting adjusted, reducing allergenic foods, and supplementing properly, irrigating those sinuses, you can make a major impact to your immune system and thereby making an impact to all those springtime allergies. Again, doesn't to you.

You can be intentional with controlling your health. And so these are some cutting edge strategies that just help you start to move the needle in your health. I pray it's helpful for you. And gosh, everyone loves spring. So welcome to spring.

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