Research is showing that acupuncture is an effective treatment for hay fever, reducing the need for anti histamine drugs.
Hay fever affects millions of people and is usually treated with anti histamines. Often known as seasonal rhinitis it is an allergy to pollen, causing chronic inflammation of the nose, throat, and sinuses. External irritants, usually pollen carried in the air, cause the irritation. Spring hay fever is related to tree pollen, summer to grass pollen and autumn to weed pollen. Non-seasonal allergies are usually due to household irritants such as dust, animal hair, droppings of the house dust mite, mold, mildew, insect stings and bites. There is more susceptibility if the condition runs in the family or a history of asthma or eczema.
Carbon dioxide emissions may be raising pollen counts in European cities, according to a continent-wide study.
Chinese medicine and acupuncture has been shown to be very effective in treating allergies. In a comparative study on treating Type I allergic diseases, acupuncture and desensitization therapies were used in 143 cases. The outcome showed that acupuncture had an extensive and remarkable effect on Type I allergic reactions. The curative effect was higher in the acupuncture group than in the desensitization group (Journal of TCM, 1993 Dec.)
Another recent study reported in Annals of Internal Medicine showed those in the acupuncture group reported better improvements in their symptoms over the eight-week period of treatment, as well as needing fewer antihistamine drugs, compared to those in the other groups.
