Credit: Ryan Sheba
With winter quickly coming to an end and spring right around the corner, many people are looking forward to time in the great outdoors. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to feel upbeat about spring weather if you suffer from seasonal allergies. An allergy commonly occurs when the immune system wrongly identifies a nontoxic substance as harmful and responds by launching an attack against it. Basically, allergies are your body’s way of telling you that it does not like something you ate, drank, touched or inhaled. Basic symptoms include wheezing, skin rashes, runny nose, fatigue, hives, itching, coughing and congestion. The challenging component of allergies is that almost any substance can potentially cause an allergic reaction.
Over 50 million Americans currently suffer from allergies and they are the fifth leading cause of chronic illness in the U.S. Nearly 55% of the U.S population tests positive for at least one allergen, which results in millions of workdays lost and an estimated $7.9 billion in annual costs to businesses and the health care system. The good news is there are a variety of steps we can take – including specific nutritional support – that can help with the treatment and prevention of allergies. For the most part, these consist of compounds known to help manage the body’s natural inflammatory response, as well as
