Acupuncture helps the body deal with pollen causing hay fever
Researchers in Berlin, from the Charite-University Medical Centre have established that suffers of hay fever needed less anti-histamines after a short course of acupuncture. The Annals of Internal Medicine also reported that in many people anti-histamines simply do not work. This is why more and more people are seeking treatment with alternatives such as acupuncture.
The researchers including Dr Brenno Brinkhouse, had no idea how or why the acupuncture worked. Other research currently being conducted in Australia under guidance of Gold Coast acupuncturist John McDonald, is looking into the mechanism of how acupuncture actually works to help hay fever.
Some doctors in Europe wondered why researchers did not compare acupuncture with steroid sprays because they are known to help hay fever.
Mr Alan Jansson, a specialist practitioner utilizing traditional Japanese acupuncture techniques said that this is symbolic of a growing trend in the change of how acupuncture is being researched in the West. The bottom line is, that people don’t care whether steroid sprays work or don’t work or if they are better than acupuncture. There is an increasing number of people that are choosing to have alternate hay fever treatments and don’t want to take drugs anymore. Mr Alan Jansson, who works on the Gold Coast in Queensland says that many of the patients coming to seek the benefit of traditional Japanese acupuncture fit into this category. And patients are then surprised to learn that they do not have to keep having acupuncture forever to control their hay fever. Unlike their anti-histamines!
Alan Jansson on his last visit to Hawkes Bay in New Zealand was shocked to learn how high the incidence of hay fever was in the area. He thought that clean green New Zealand would be immune to hay fever.
My own view is that the incidence of hay fever is so high in Hawkes Bay because of two concurrent factors. The Hawkes Bay area is surrounded by pine plantations which create an excess of pollen which then is coupled with the excessive pesticides that are used on the huge orchards in the area. The liver then has to work twice as hard to cleanse not only the pollen but the pesticides as well. Alan Jansson and myself have been incorporating liver root treatments for hay fever patients for many years with great success.
Ideally, future research on acupuncture for hay fever, should look into which acupuncture techniques and points are the most effective to treat hay fever, instead of trying to prove if acupuncture works for the condition.
