Bodywork For Allergies? Really?

Published on: 6/5/2014

Seasonal allergies can make you miserable – right at the time you'd most like to be out and about and enjoying some of the beautiful spring weather. Most people rely on either avoiding their particular triggers or taking medications to manage their symptoms. While both of these methods can be effective, some people also find relief by receiving bodywork.

Allergies are an extreme immune system response to a given trigger; in the case of seasonal allergies, a grain of pollen, a mold spore, or another particle. Receiving bodywork can help calm some of that high-alert reaction and improve symptom patterns. As the body's fascia tightens down, it can create a spiral of increasing tension that exaggerates existing symptoms. Reducing the fascial pressure can help make breathing easier, and keep the whole system in balance.

Visceral Manipulation is another technique that can be effective, using gentle manipulations to help the organs move in relation to one another. The therapist will evaluate organs such as the lungs, the bronchi, the trachea and the thymus gland; freeing up tensions in these organs can relieve some of these issues. Simply by taking a mechanical stress out of the body, the immune response can be toned down.

Lymphatic Drainage Therapy, too, can be used with great success to alleviate symptoms and reduce the immune system's hypersensitivity. I've found it to be particularly helpful with improving sinus congestion. Improving the flow of lymph in the body helps balance the immune system, calming its responses. Lymph therapy also is effective at reducing sinus pressure, and symptomatic relief can be important just by itself.

If allergies have you sniffling your way through spring, consider receiving bodywork in addition to your regular treatment protocol. Reducing structural tension, opening respiratory pathways, and calming the immune system's hypersensitivy can all result from various forms of bodywork, leading to a healthier, happier, more comfortable season.

For more information, visit www.naturalbalancetherapy.com