By Dr. Warren Patch
The weather is definitely changing.
“Warmest Winter on record … driest January in history… Santa Ana winds already blowing pollens from the dessert to the coast in record numbers…”, and we can feel it: dry nose, itchy red eyes, sinuses dripping, non-productive cough, difficulty breathing for some.
“It’s just my allergies,” one might say. What to do? Support the drug industry, or your own health?
First of all, wash your eyes and sinuses daily with simple saline solution. You can buy a bottle of saline nasal spray at the local drug store and just spray it up your nose with a couple big snorts until you can spit it out through your mouth.
Buy an eye wash cup and so the same for your eyes. Just fill it half-way with saline, fit it around eyeball, and tilt your head back and forth a few times. You’ll be amazed how much junk you can wash out of your eyes, and how much better they feel! When you run out, just refill the spray bottle with normal saline, which is cheap, effective, and natural. You can also look into using a little aqueous solution of Silver, which is available at People’s Co-op.
I used to get terrible sinus reactions and bad asthma attacks whenever exposed to plant pollens, dust bunnies, smog, or dirty dishes. Throughout my childhood I was a mouth-breather because my nose was always stopped-up, and I had frequent colds. But, when I went to chiropractic college at age 24, and started getting regular, once-a-week chiropractic adjustments, my allergies and asthma vanished, my sinuses and bronchial tubes opened up, and I became practically immune to colds and flu.
How was that possible?
My head was on crooked. The top two vertebrae had been misaligned since birth, when I was extracted forcibly with forceps. The nerves exiting the brain stem that control the sinus membranes, organs of the head and face, and the bronchial tubes, were constantly irritated by the misaligned vertebrae. They couldn’t do their job. One little irritation, like the pollens that will blow through during the next Santa Ana, or sometimes even an emotional event–like my mom yelling at me–and my face would swell up and I’d have an asthma attack. Childhood was rough. I sucked at sports. I was always the last to be picked for team sports. Now, I’m healthier than ever and I cherish my health!
You see, when your nerves are working smoothly and efficiently, allergens are met with a little runny nose, watery eyes, a couple sneezes, a cough or two, and your clear! Your body is supposed to be able to wash it’s own membranes out. But when your neck and spine are constantly out of adjustment, your nervous system can’t handle extra stress because it’s already irritated. Just like when your mom was already in and irritable mood when you were a kid; innocently walk across her freshly-mopped kitchen floor with muddy feet and she will completely blow-up on you. That’s how your sinuses over react when the nerves to them are already irritated in your spine. It does not necessarily mean that you are allergic, it can simply be that your body is over reacting because it’s out of adjustment.
So, help mother nature the natural way. Be prepared. Get yourself a non-medicated nasal spray bottle, an eye wash cup, and rinse the dust and pollutants out of your nose and eyes daily. And, get regular chiropractic adjustments so that your nerves can control your body properly from the inside. Then, when the hot winds switch direction, just tell those pollen-driving Santa Anas, “En guarde! You don’t bother me.”
Have a happy Spring!
Dr. Patch
Dr. Warren Patch is an Ocean Beach doctor of chiropractic
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