Allergies or something worse?

A lot of people I talk to notice their allergies get worse the older they get. Based on what I've learned over the past couple years, this is not surprising.

I am not a doctor, I'm a person who got tired of taking many different prescriptions to treat many different symptoms. The one I will talk about today is allergies and hives. Two months after I gave birth to my second child, I started itching like crazy. I had huge hives and I'd never experienced them before. It was horrible. I felt like I was ripping my skin off as I scratched away.

I went to an allergist who found out I'm allergic to most outdoor and indoor things, i.e., cats (our last had just died), mites and trees, to name a few. She put me on Zyrtec, and if I took it daily, it would stop the hives.

I asked myself, why now? I've had allergies my entire adult life, why was I erupting now? I was already on Zoloft for depression, and I did not want to be dependent on another prescription medication.

I felt lousy in general; I wanted and needed to sleep 12 hours a day. I would cry if I couldn't take a nap. My son was recently diagnosed as ASD (on the Autism Spectrum). Certainly I had reason to be depressed, but this was ridiculous. Add hives to this and I was a complete mess.

The good news ironically stemmed from my son's diagnosis. I brought him to a holistic doctor, and the results were mind-blowingly excellent. I thought, "if Dr. Hicks can do so much for Ben, maybe he can help me." I scheduled my own consultation, listed all my complaints, and I sounded (to myself) like a royal hypochondriac. Still, I went through with the consultation and got myself back on the road to better health. To this day I feel my son literally saved my life.

We found that heavy metal toxicity was causing the hives. I detoxed over the course of many months and got better and better. I no longer needed to sleep 12 hours a day. I was able to reduce Zyrtec consumption to 1 every 4 days, and later, once a week. I still go through an occasional detox process to ensure I no longer build up heavy metals and environmental toxins in my system.

I was able to stop taking Zyrtec completely once I realized I was allergic to rice. My chiropractor, Dr. Dan Strong of Neenah, found I was allergic to it through Nutrition Response Testing. I stopped eating rice and could then finally stop the Zyrtec.

Back to the point, if you have hives and feel lousy all the time, maybe it's more than hives and allergies. Get yourself checked out, preferably by a holistic physician like Dr. John Hicks at Pathways, or Dr. Dan Strong (Chiropractor) in Neenah, WI (920-725-0800).