Understanding Allergies and Treating Them With Chiropractic Care 

 Sometimes your body just doesn’t respond well to something, and it lets you know. When your immune system rejects something, whether it be a food ingredient or an unavoidable part of nature, it’s known as allergies. 

Having allergies is extremely common, affecting more than 100 million people in the U.S. every year. However, knowing that many other people have similar experiences doesn’t make it easier when the allergies can impact your quality of life. If you have an allergic reaction, the symptoms can affect your ability to carry out your day-to-day tasks. 

The good news is that chiropractic care can play a significant role in your allergy management in a natural, nonpharmaceutical way.  

What Are Allergies? 

 Even though many people have different types of allergies, they all stem from issues in the immune system. While there are things that are harmless to many people, some people have immune systems that can overreact to certain substances. The immune system perceives the substance as a threat to the body, leading to symptoms that can range from mild to severe. 

The most common types of allergies are: 

 Food (milk, eggs, peanuts, shellfish) 

  • Pollen (trees, weeds, grass) 

  • Mold  

  • Dust mites 

Pollen, mold and dust tend to be seasonal allergies; reactions are more likely to occur during certain times of the year when the allergens are more prevalent. For instance, pollen will likely cause more reactions in the spring than in winter. Reactions to environmental allergens are also known as hay fever or allergic rhinitis. 

An allergic reaction can make it difficult to carry on throughout your day. Not only does it cause physical symptoms, but it can also affect your overall mood and motivation. 

Potential symptoms of an allergic reaction include: 

  • Skin rashes or eczema  

  • Congestion 

  • Runny nose 

  • Watery or itchy eyes 

  • Coughing 

  • Sneezing 

  • Fatigue 

  • Nausea 

 

Treating allergies often involves taking allergy medications, such as oral antihistamines and nasal sprays. Some people may benefit from immunotherapy, or allergy shots. In addition, chiropractic care is a nonpharmaceutical option worth exploring alongside primary medical treatment. 

The Nervous System-Allergy Connection 

While the root of allergies stems from the immune system, the nervous system also plays a large role. Essentially, your nervous system controls your immune system’s response to outside substances. If your nervous system isn’t functioning properly, it can affect its communication with the immune system, which increases the likelihood of having allergy symptoms.  

Your spinal cord works as a hub for messages that are sent between your nerves and the other parts of your body. When you have poor spine health, such as misalignment, it can disrupt the communication, starting a domino effect. Without proper alignment, the nervous system can’t always send signals to the immune system, meaning, it’s not able to naturally handle allergens. This can lead to a reaction. 

Your nervous system is responsible for handling many of your everyday functions, such as stress management. If your system is compromised from misalignment, it can make it difficult for you to gain control over stressors.  

Stress can actually increase the likelihood of having an allergic reaction or worsen the symptoms, as the immune system is already sensitive from being in a stressful state. 

How Chiropractic Care Helps With Allergies 

Chiropractic care does more than just break up tight muscles and alleviate pain. For people with allergies, proper alignment can help improve the function of their immune system.  

When you have an adjustment done by a chiropractor, they’re reducing pressure that’s being placed onto your nervous system, creating a positive impact on its communication with your immune system. As your signals are being transmitted properly, your nervous system is improving your immune response by managing the amount of stress hormones released as well as your histamine levels, which can increase when an allergen tries to make its way in.  

Your spinal health, including proper alignment that’s achieved through chiropractic adjustments, helps to keep your nervous system functioning. When you’re working to improve your spinal health, you're helping your nervous system send signals to your immune system to reduce the severity of your allergies and frequency of the symptoms. 

Chiropractic care for allergies can involve improving relaxation to reduce stress that may be contributing to the symptoms. Other benefits include: 

  • Decreased inflammation for less severe symptoms 

  • Opened pathways from the respiratory system to boost its ability to withstand allergens 

  • Reduced congestion by clearing sinus passages from alignment  

Our Natural Approach to Allergy Management 

At Jireh Chiropractic, we always want to treat people as holistically and naturally as possible. Our goal is to help every aspect of your health and wellness so that you can work toward the lifestyle you want.  

Your treatment will be as tailored to your needs as possible. It will center on gentle alignments to reduce nervous system dysfunction, improve stress management and strengthen your immune system.  

Along with chiropractic care, we also incorporate complementary recommendations into your plan, which often focuses on lifestyle adjustments and nutritional advice. Not only do we want to help you with your current challenges, such as your allergies, but we also encourage preventive care that will benefit you long term. 

Chiropractic care shouldn’t be your only allergy treatment, and it’s most effective for environmental allergies as opposed to food allergies. 

Getting Started With Allergy Relief  

If you’re ready to take the first holistic step toward reducing your allergies, be sure to book a consultation with Jireh Chiropractic.  

When you come in for treatment, we’ll make sure we have as much insight as possible into what challenges you’re facing, your current physical capabilities and what you hope to achieve through our chiropractic care. Your first visit will help us receive that insight by discussing your medical history and assessing your symptoms. We’ll also complete a variety of tests to get a comprehensive view of your current health, including: 

  • Neurological evaluation 

  • Postural analysis  

  • Vitals check 

  • Muscle check 

  • Orthopedic tests 

  • Full spinal analysis 

Click to schedule an appointment with us to start treating your allergies today. If you have any questions, you can take a look at our FAQs page.