Allergies
Bad GP Advice is common in this area. Real bad! You explained your symptoms to your doctor. Horrible symptoms – physical and emotional including anxiety and mood. And the doctor responds first try “Over the Counter” allergy relief tablets. Straight into the pills! Isn’t that how the Prozac pandemic stated here. But yes that was this very real Doctor’s advice which then continued as follows. As well as the pills get the pharmacy’s advice on a nasal spray – if it’s hay fever symptoms you have! Do I have hay fever or something else like cats and dogs… ‘hell I dont know’! However the Doctor concluded, the best solution is to avoid the allergen concerned – especially if it is in food. So it might not be hay fever it could be anything. Keep a food diary and exclude foods you suspect, she added. Might take a few months or years to track that one down-if indeed it exists at all. However if your ears continue to bother you can book a ‘face to face’ with me and I will take a look. Seriously. This at best feels like incompetence. At worst its going to turn the sufferer into an obsessive detective wary of of everything and not knowing if the pills and potions are masking the very allergies the patient is supposed to be tracking down harder to find. And all this is from a very real Doctor in the UK in 2023 presumably reading off a the Health service’s prescribed protocol – probably years behind the science Wow! What are we paying taxes for?
The Science
Here is an article from the World Allergy Organisation. The science in other words. Take a read. The message is clear and simple. Understand the science. Use science to track down the cause – quickly. Then decide on a targeted therapy. An holistic, methodical, scientific approach – that does not mean months or even years trying to detect the very allergen (that’s the beast that triggers the allergic reactions) you have bought the expensive pharmacy pills and potions to cover up! Even in the stone age generation, common-sense prevailed!
Empower yourself with the information you need to target your allergy. Testing is avaialble through your Doctor but getting some of them to prescribe it until you have been through the “tracking hell” above is another issue. Here is one of the labs you can check out.
Watch out. A short but comprehensive and free Allergy Training Programme will be coming soon. We will let members know when. Its purpose (as always) will be to empower your with the intelligence, methods, tools and resources to help you manage your reactions without enduring the experience of the poor patient referred to above.