Beating Allergies With Chinese Medicine

If you're already starting to sniffle and sneeze, then this post is for you.

Let’s take a break from our collective ongoing existential crisis and focus on some more practical things. Winter is giving way to spring, day upon day, giving all of us a measure of hope, warmth, and familiar allergens. Fortunately, the wisdom of Chinese medicine has passed down acupressure and Qigong tools to us as we fight off rising pollen counts and everything else that makes us sniffle and sneeze as the earth wakes up.

When we classify seasonal allergies into Chinese medicine diagnostic categories, they fall under the umbrella of ailments caused by wind. By and large, wind represents everything that is coming at the body from the exterior. These external pathogenic factors are the cause of your spring cold, as well as the congestion, sneezes, and post-nasal drip one can experience when allergies start to set in. Wind attacks the body, which fights back, and our favorite symptoms are the result. Actually, the concept is more or less the same in Western medicine: the offending pollen enters into our nasal passages and mast cells descend on it and release histamines to help the immune system mount its response. External attacks, internal responds.

If this is a cycle that you already know well, then here is my spring gift to you. Read on for some acupressure, Qigong, and herb tips to help calm down your allergy symptoms.

ACUPRESSURE POINTS

LI20 is located just to the sides of both nostrils. If you’re struggling with congestion, massage these points several times a day for a about a minute to open nasal passages. Appropriately, the Chinese name of this point is Yíng Xiāng 迎香, or Welcoming Fragrance.

LI20 is a great point to open up stuffy sinuses.

Yín Táng 印堂, or Hall of Impression, located at the center point between the eyebrows, is best known as a calming acupuncture point, but you can also massage it to help soothe congestion and move stuck Qi in the frontal sinuses on your forehead.

The close proximity of Yin Tang to the frontal sinuses make it another great point for congestion.

LI4, Hě Gǔ 河谷, or River Valley is located on the back of the palm in the muscle belly between the thumb and the forefinger. Slide your finger up to the highest point of the muscle belly and press. It should feel sore when you do this. This point is located near the beginning of its respective channel and has a strong action on the end of its channel, which just happens to be our friend LI20, mentioned above. Massaging this point with strong pressure a few times a day will help alleviate allergy symptoms and headaches on your forehead.

He Gu is a well known point for allergy headaches and sinus congestion.

STINGING NETTLE

While most of the herbal formulas I write out in the acupuncture clinic are individually customized, there are a few well known herbs in the West that can be remarkably helpful for allergies and stinging nettle is one of them. You can find the crushed herb in tablets and capsules, and it is widely available in loose leaf or bagged tea. Stinging nettles have natural anti-histamine qualities, and stabilize the reactive mast cells that cause common allergy symptoms.

Stinging Nettle's anti-histamine action make it a great herb for seasonal allergies.

QIGONG

I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about how Qigong can help us with seasonal allergies. Certain exercises that work on the Lung Meridian system, like Separating Water, Dancing Butterfly, and Grasping Thumb from Sinew Metamorphosis essentially strengthen this system that is involved in the production of the Defensive Qi in our bodies that, when healthy and strong, keep out foreign invaders. Indirectly, all of our Cosmos Qigong helps soothe seasonal allergies through building and regulating our Qi. This is a Western understanding of how energy helps regulate our immune systems. Indeed, years before I started training Cosmos Qigong, this time of year initiated several months of itchy and watery eyes, sneezing every five seconds, and this awful feeling like my face was blowing up to the size of a balloon. Nowadays, I’m certainly aware of rising pollen counts with an extra sneeze or two, but it’s nothing like it was when I was younger.

Now that you’ve had a chance to learn about some of Chinese medicine’s more common remedies for allergies, you can try them out for yourself. Did it help? Let me know in the comments!