8. Allergies and Arthritis

Allergies

I have suffered from allergies throughout my life. Starting at a very young age, hives and allergies to dust were constant problems. I had sinus problems in my mid-twenties and hay fever both in the fall and spring. I tried allergy shots for many years. They helped but I still had problems breathing during the hay fever season. When my liver became healthy at age 47, all of my allergy problems went away. As we all know, allergy and auto-immune problems (eg, arthritis) are caused by over-active immune systems. They are over-active because they are weak. Our body's natural reaction to weak organs is to make them work harder in order to compensate for the weakness.

Arthritis

I suffered from joint pain from a very young age. At age 14, I was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis. I took some Chinese herbs which only gave me temporary pain relief. At age 29, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and was told by my doctor that nothing could be done except taking aspirin for my pain.

I tried aspirin, but could not continue because of an allergic reaction to the drug. My lips swelled up to double their size. Realizing that the painkillers were only hurting my liver, I made the difficult decision to stop taking them and live with my pain. Looking back, I consider myself lucky in a way that I had this allergic reaction. If there was no reaction, I might have continued taking painkillers for years and done permanent damage to my liver.

According to Chinese medicine, chronic pain is basically the result of "blood stasis". In other words, arthritis is caused by poor blood circulation in the joint. If blood circulation (or the flow of "chi" according to Chinese medicine) is good, then there should be no chronic pain.

There are two ways to improve blood circulation; cleansing the blood and physical exercise. Clean blood from a clean and efficient liver flows more easily, and can carry more oxygen and nutrients to nourish your body's cells. Toxin-loaded blood from a congested liver is thick and sluggish, and does not flow well. It tends to cause problems through stagnation. Physical exercise stimulates blood circulation, and if you do your exercises in the morning, it helps "activate" the liver, ie- get the blood flowing through it.

After more than 30 years of suffering from arthritic pain, at age 47 I finally managed to eliminate the pain when I did a complete program of liver and gallbladder cleansing in addition to daily morning exercise and control of diet. In the Gallbladder Flushing section of this website, I list some of the foods I tried to avoid because they weakened my liver and spleen, under the heading "Control of Diet".

I should mention that my pain did come back once a few years ago when I drank diluted lemon juice in an attempt to cleanse my kidneys. After 6 days of drinking it every morning, my old arthritis pain came back. I stopped drinking the lemon juice right away, and the pain went away the next day.

According to Chinese medicine, the spleen provides energy to the heart. Citrus juices are weakening to the spleen, which in turn weakens the heart. When the heart is not pumping blood strongly, the overall blood circulation naturally gets sluggish and causes blood stagnation.

The liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys and lymph nodes are all important in the body's immune system. When these organs are weak, they may be overworked and become overactive and as a result antibodies may be over-produced which cause the body to react to many harmless substances unnecessarily (allergy) or attack the body's own organs (e.g. lupus), nerves (e.g. multiple sclerosis) or joints (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis).

It seems to me that once these organs are healthy there is no need for them to overwork. Allergies and arthritis may disappear. My own case is an example. When I had badly congested liver, my spleen and lungs were also weak. My allergy problems were severe enough to disrupt my daily activities at times. After these organs were restored to health, I had no more allergy problems. I also know of two older people (both over the age of 60) who managed to relieve their life-long allergy problems after approximately one year's working at strengthening their internal organs with a combination of Chinese herbs such as astragalus, self heal, fu-ling and dandelion. These herbs can be found in our Meta Plus herbal tincture.

In Chinese medicine, allergies and arthritis are both classified as "Yin" diseases. People with allergies or arthritis should avoid "Yin" foods such as oranges, tomatoes, lemon, grapefruit, banana, cold drinks or cold foods. They all tend to weaken the spleen. Oranges are also known to be mucus-producing and usually aggravate sinus problems. My personal experience did support this belief repeatedly. When I was suffering from arthritis, citrus fruits always made my pain worse. Yin indicates coldness and inactivity. It retards the movement and makes the blood flow stagnant which causes pain. Stagnation of blood flow in the limbs and meridians is usually the origin of pain and aches in the body. When the blood moves better by acupuncture or massage, the aches and pains should subside or disappear. Unfortunately, if the sluggish blood flow is caused by weak organs, the pain may come back sooner or later. Permanent pain relief can only be accomplished with regular daily exercise and after the organs have become healthy.

Emotional factors may affect allergic or arthritic conditions. Nervousness, fatigue, exhaustion, frustrations, disappointment, anxieties or fear may aggravate allergies or arthritis because these emotions weaken the internal organs and immune system. They also constrict the blood vessels, resulting in poor blood circulation. During my years of arthritis suffering, there was no doubt that my problems were related to my stress levels.