Enzymes for Allergies
Posted on March 17, 2013 7:10 AM by Dr. Jo in Allergies | 3 Comments
My husband had the car washed one day last week. The next day I drove it down to town in the valley. After just a few hours in the valley it was covered in yellow pollen.
Spring has sprung. The trees producing that yellow pollen look beautiful arrayed in a plethora of flowers. The first flowering trees and bushes are even blooming up here in the mountains.
In the past I loved the spring and fall seasons the best because of their beauty. In recent years I’ve come to love winter the best because the pollens and chemicals flying around in the air have disappeared.
Those pollens in the air leave me feeling extremely tired and foggy headed with itchy puffy eyes and irritated sinuses. The allergens even wake me up at night and make it difficult to go back to sleep which contributes to the fatigue and irritability.
There are tons of different herbs and remedies touted for allergy problems. Some of them may work for you. Quercitin with bromelain and nettles seem to help me some.
Then I remembered two things about allergies:
- Allergies are the first stage of degeneration of the body.
- Allergies spring from a deficiency of carbohydrate digesting enzymes.
In regard to degeneration of the body I’ve implemented all the healthy things that I know of to slow degeneration (not that I’m perfect in all of these areas):
Brilliantly healthy eating plan
Enough but not too much exercise
Adequate sleep, 8-9 hours per night
Just enough stress to stay healthy, but not too much
Living in peace and harmony with those around me
Staying connected to God
I wish that I had paid more attention when I read that allergies can be an enzyme deficiency. Our enzyme bank accounts gradually deteriorate over time as we eat cooked food.
Raw food contains 75% of the enzymes needed to digest it. So the body only has to add 25% more. But the minute that a food reaches 110 degrees Fahrenheit all the enzymes die. And that’s just a hot summer day in this part of the planet.
Maybe that’s why we get so sluggish when the temperature flares over 100 degrees. Our enzymes may slow down so much that they cannot keep our energy levels up.
So I decided to really increase my enzyme intake. I normally ingest 2 digestive enzymes with each meal to try to keep from draining my enzyme bank too much. But to combat the allergies I started taking 3 capsules of digestive enzymes on an empty stomach 3 times per day in addition to the ones that I take with meals.
One of those empty stomach doses I take when I wake up at night, one when I first get up in the morning and one in the late afternoon.
If you take the extra enzymes with food they tend to get used up digesting the food before they get a chance to be absorbed into the blood stream where they can be carried to the areas needed to digest the pollens.
Eating fewer carbohydrates helps too. The enzymes then can work to digest the pollens instead of the carbohydrates in food.
Over eating also stresses the enzymes, so eating just enough takes a lot of stress off the enzyme system too.
Taking the additional enzymes might work even better if an enzyme formula contained only carbohydrate digesting enzymes, but that’s hard to find. So the plant based digestive enzyme that I regularly buy from Vitacost.com is working well for me so far. They are readily available in health stores too.
Since I’ve started taking the extra enzymes I can stay outside longer because I do not develop the fatigue, irritability, sinus irritation and itchy eyes. Yeah! I’m sleeping better at night too and don’t get that overwhelming urge to take a nap in the afternoon.
So the spring is just beginning here. I’m curious to see how the enzymes work for me when the oak trees come into full pollination.
Here’s my enzyme schedule:
2 digestive enzymes with each meal
3 digestive enzymes on an empty stomach:
When I first get out of bed
Late afternoon
When I wake up in the night
Then I wait at least one hour before I eat.
If you decide to take enzymes please comment below to share your experience with us.
Blessings,
Dr. Jo
About Dr. Jo
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Paula Brown
19 March 2013
Which enzymes do U order from vita cost!?
Dr Jo
28 March 2013
Here’s the link to the enzymes that I take from Vitacost
http://www.vitacost.com/vitacost-digestive-enzymes
Hope that helps,
Dr. Jo
michelle
18 August 2013
hi i just came across this page, i am going to try out your regimen. getting correct dosing information about enzymes isnt that easy! i have read many conflicting recommendations, it is very confusing. it was also interesting to read about the correlation between pollen and enzymes, ill be doing more reading into that as well. thank you!!
michelle