My Journey to Heal Myself Naturally with Chiropractic, Acupuncture and Nutrition.
I have been sneezing for a couple of days now. Not just the random “AAHH CHOOOO,” but those sneezes that keep coming, one after another, like 5-10 in a 
row. Then there is the break, maybe 10 minutes or so, and they come again. There is something so relieving about the last sneeze in any given set, and a sense of peace.
I am grateful that I only sneeze like this three or four days a year. When I was a teenager, I would suffer with seasonal allergies for months at a time. The deep freeze of winter was about the only time I caught a break from the constant irritation.
To treat this hypersensitivity and reaction to pollen, my doctors took a traditional medical route. The scratch test was performed on me as a 12-year old where the doctor made scratches all over my back and then placed different allergens on the open wounds and measured how the allergens would react. Needless to say, I was very reactive.
Treatment options were initially anti-histamines. Do you remember Chlor-Trimeton? This was my go to medication. It made me feel very tired and had other nasty side effects. This anti-histamine and others like it have very similar chemical compounds to anti-depressants. There are no studies in humans on how these types of medications affect the brain and especially that of a child. I was a kid taking this daily. Amazing.
Since the antihistamines didn’t work, I went to the EMT where I had two different treatments. One was a periodic injection of a steroid directly in my nose with what I remember to be a very long and painful needle.
And then I received the allergy shots that many of you are familiar with. I had to go to the doctor three times a week for months at a time to get my injections. The purpose of these shots was to desensitize my immune system by injecting the allergens directly into my blood. Quite a theory. What a life. They didn’t work either.
Chiropractic and Seasonal Allergy Relief
So, I suffered with allergies until the age of seventeen when after a mild neck injury playing football one of my classmates, Tammie, recommended me to her chiropractor by the name of Dr. Elis Kooby in Denville, NJ. The chiropractor found that my neck was out of alignment. He explained how this could have poor effects on my overall health and that based on my x-ray, the misalignment appeared to have been present for a long time.
Not only did my neck pain go away after the first adjustment, but I found myself breathing easier. After three weeks of treatment, my allergies were 90% improved. Virtually gone! I asked Dr. Kooby whether or not he believed there was a relationship between my neck alignment and my allergies and he pulled out a poster showing me exactly HOW the allergies were related to my neck misalignment.
You may ask, “Well, that’s great and all, but what about the other 10%?”
Acupuncture and Seasonal Allergies
A few years later I began acupuncture treatment. The acupuncturist would needle (with VERY small gentle needles and NOT the monster needles that the EMT would inject into my nose back in the day!) a few points in my head and down my arms and on my feet. Two points in particular the acupuncturist called the “cat whiskers” seemed to work very well to relieve any stuffiness in my nose and help me breathe easier.
Nutrition and Seasonal Allergies
As I continued to study to become a doctor of chiropractic, I took several nutrition courses. My nutritionist’s name was Dr. Paul Goldberg. Dr. Goldberg had a Masters Degree in Public Health and took a holistic approach to nutrition and health. He taught me to use food as medicine. He explained how food could be acid forming (and cause inflammation in the body), or alkaline forming (and remove inflammation in the body.) Wow. Food as medicine. What a concept!
A Multidiscipline Approach to Heal Yourself of Seasonal Allergies at Monmouth Pain and Rehabilitation
I have taken my own experiences over my lifetime with seasonal allergies and have created a program to help allergy sufferers heal themselves of seasonal allergies. Here at my clinic in Red Bank, NJ, I use a combination of chiropractic, acupuncture, and nutritional treatments to help you sneeze less, breathe better, and live your life with greater health and enjoyment!
