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Is Stress Making your Allergies Worse?


Is Stress Making your Allergies Worse

It seems the last few months many of my patients have been presenting with really interesting allergic responses, Im talking out of the blue constant itchiness, congestion, swelling and hives. Its new for them. No idea why its happening as they aren’t to their knowledge allergic to anything specific. So why, then are they experiencing the typical symptoms seen in an allergic reaction.



Reasons for your allergies to be acting up can be due to a variety of different reasons related to your gut health, environmental conditions, dietary habits, exposure to chemicals, etc. However, for these individuals it seems that STRESS has been overwhelming and ongoing. We know that when we are stressed our body releases cortisol (our 'stress hormone'), from our adrenal glands. When we are stressed for prolonged periods of time and we are not able to give our bodies a break then our stress response can get out of balance. We know that cortisol helps to inhibit histamine. Histamine being what is released that causes an allergic response (swelling, congestion, itchy eyes, shortness of breath, etc). ** We take ANTI-histamines when we feel our allergies are acting up.


This means that when we are stressed for prolonged lengths of time we typically have some issues with cortisol (your stress hormone) and therefore inflammation and histamine release goes unchecked, causing our allergic symptoms to be worse. Without properly managing your stress response you are at a higher risk for having more severe allergic responses. However, this does not have to be the case, if we support your adrenal glands and manage stress better in our lives we can find some relief from allergies.


Focussing on supporting your stress response with adaptogenic herbs, providing co-factors for needed for cortisol production and, not to be forgotten, making sure you have healthy stress coping mechanisms. Need support with addressing your allergies and managing your stress, book in today! Stress may not be only be impacting your allergies, but it could be resulting in weight gain, read more here to learn more.

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The information provided on this website does not replace the medical advice given to you by your doctor.  Information on this site should not be used to diagnose or treat.  You should see your primary care provider before making any health changes.

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