Allergies in Hillsborough are a sign that your immune system is working in overdrive. Congestion, sneezing, and itchy eyes can make you feel awful and disrupt your quality of life. According to the Centers for Disease Control, allergies can’t generally be prevented, but allergic reactions can be.

Many allergy sufferers are unaware that their lifestyle habits may be influencing their body’s immune response to the allergen.

Here are 4 things you can do to supercharge your immune system:

1. Improve Gut Health:An estimated 80 percent of your immune system is located in your gut, so supporting your digestive health is essential to also supporting your immune system, which is your primary defense system against all disease. Eliminating inflammatory foods like grains, sugar, dairy and processed foods is crucial to improving gut health and lowering your immune response to your allergies.

Dr. Joseph Mercola states that eating a healthy diet based on unprocessed, ideally organic and/or locally-grown foods, including fermented foods (sauerkraut, Kombucha, and apple cider vinegar) along with optimizing your vitamin D levels and correcting your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, will form the foundation upon which your immune system can function in an optimal manner.

In addition, taking a broad-spectrum probiotic can also support a proper balance of bacteria in your gut which is essential to a healthy gut.

At our office, Wellness Solution Centers, we offer a 10 Day Nutritional Detox that can improve the health of your gut which can improve the function of your immune system. Ask us how!

2. Optimize Vitamin D Levels: According to Amy Myers, MD, autoimmune diseases and allergies occur when the immune system attacks the body. Autoimmune diseases arise when your immune system is confused or overly stressed and begins attacking your own tissues instead of outside pathogens. Vitamin Dprevents this by promoting regulatory T cells, which are responsible for accurately differentiating between outside invaders and “self” cells. When active Vitamin D promotes them, it essentially makes your immune system smarter, teaching it to not attack itself and preventing the development of an autoimmune disease.

It is estimated that 57% of US adults are deficient in Vitamin D. If you suffer from allergies and haven’t had your levels checked, simple bloodwork can let you know if you are deficient or not.

3. Managing Emotional Stress: When you’re healthy, your body will be able to tolerate more of the allergen before a reaction occurs. Therefore, stress relief is so important. Chronic stress weakens your immune system. Research shows that people with persistent emotional stress have more frequent allergy flare-ups. According to the Mayo Clinic, the following relaxation techniques have been known to reduce stress: Deep breathing, Hypnosis, Massage, Meditation, Tai chi, Yoga, Biofeedback and Music and art therapy.
4. Chiropractic Adjustments:According to an article written in Natural News, the nervous system and immune system are hardwired and work together to create optimal responses for the body to adapt and heal appropriately. Neural dysfunctions due to spinal misalignments are stressful to the body and cause abnormal changes that lead to a poorly coordinated immune response. Chiropractic adjustments have been shown to boost the coordinated responses of the nervous system and immune system. Been a while since your last spinal check-up or never had one? It’s time to schedule an appointment!

At the Living Well 4 Life Center in Hillsborough our approach is to treat the person, not the symptom. We incorporate chiropractic, massage therapy, yoga, vitamins, exercise and a healthy eating program to boost some ones immune system naturally

Schedule a consultation with us to see if we can help enhance your immune system!

Don’t let allergies get you down.