Exploring the Best Alternative Therapies for Allergies

To identify the most promising alternative therapies for allergies and asthma, University of California researchers have read thousands of research papers on the use of complementary and alternative medicine. Since most of the papers did not meet the team's rigorous standards, they surveyed conventional doctors, alternative practitioners, and patients.

The researchers found that allergy patients were most likely to be interested in dietary changes and dietary supplements. So they decided to investigate vitamin C, magnesium, and about a dozen other supplements, including red grape extract, American ginseng, Siberian ginseng, goldenseal root, astragalus root, silymarin, bacopa, elderberries, shilajit, moomiyo, bovine thymus, and bovine colostrum.

In addition, they are investigating the allergy-fighting potential of foods such as yogurt, reishi and maitake mushrooms, wheat grass juice, various anti-inflammatory oils, and - attention, chocolate lovers - cocoa. Before you stock up on chocolate bars, though, consider that it might not be the chocolate itself that is helpful, but one of its many extracts.

The researchers are also evaluating mind-body therapies such as hypnosis, massage, and biofeedback.

So far, there have been some tantalizing preliminary results. For example, one small study showed that subjects who ate a cup of yogurt containing active starter cultures each day had 25 percent fewer colds and one-tenth as many allergy symptoms. This supports the hygiene hypothesis notion that probiotics, or "good" bugs, might help restore balance to our oversanitized gastrointestinal systems.

Unfortunately, there have been no announcements of any major breakthroughs. Setting up, conducting, and evaluating any given therapy in a way that can withstand the withering gaze of scientific scrutiny is a process that takes years.

Still, researchers are hopeful that some initially disappointing therapies will eventually prove to be winners. Among the most promising contenders is wheat grass juice, a pollen-rich concoction made from the tall Western grass that actors commonly chew in cowboy movies. Now a staple item at many juice bars, wheat grass juice is a rich source of antioxidants. Although initial trials have been disappointing, researchers still hope that it will prove to be a potent allergy fighter.

In general, experts believe that people with allergies and asthma shouldn't rely on any single food or supplement. They say it is healthier to adopt a varied diet rich in antioxidant foods and anti-inflammatory oils. Instead of gobbling vitamin C and vitamin A pills, for example, people with allergies and asthma might be better off eating more broccoli because it contains a wide variety of antioxidants and other anti-inflammatory compounds.

Although alternative strategies can work wonders, experts say that the goal should be to complement conventional therapy, not replace it. Allergists are especially reluctant to stop conventional treatments in patients with asthma. It's just too serious a disease. Since uncontrolled asthma can be life-threatening, doctors argue that it must be reined in with conventional treatments before complementary and alternative treatments are introduced.



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