When your body is exposed to something that is viewed as foreign or potentially damaging, an immune response is triggered. With allergies, the immune system response is to cause irritation to mucous membranes to protect you. You are protected because itching eyes, running nose, pressure and headaches are your body’s way of saying “help, get me away from these toxins”. Unfortunately, we have been led to believe that using a medication to block the symptoms is corrective for the problem. This is similar to taking Tylenol® so you can leave your hand on a hot stove. Not the healthy way of correcting symptoms.
The Functional Medicine and Clinical Nutritional approach to treating allergies is to first, find out what is causing the immune reaction and remove it from the immediate environment. Second, the function of the body and immune system need to be improved to be stronger than the potential stress the body is under on any given day. Once the immune triggers are removed and the body is healthier, there are no more allergy symptoms. Easy! Well, maybe not that easy. There are a number of potential allergy triggers stemming from environmental, seasonal, chemical, accumulative exposures, sub-clinical food sensitivities and even emotional or neurologic origins. Dr. Shaw specializes in working with the functional changes in your body to correct the cause of the symptoms and remove the presence of allergic responses.
In working with a Functional Medicine Practitioner and Clinical nutritionist you will hear the word “functional” quite a bit. What we are referring to is that not all problems show up in your blood work, and there may be a more subtle change in your system that is not bad enough to raise the red flags for your medical doctor. Allergies are a perfect example.
Most patients who treat in our office to reverse allergies have already worked with an allergist and are using a myriad of medicines to control the symptoms. The functional approach to correcting allergic reactions will stop the need for the medications and restore normal health.
It is important to note that when your medical history and health related goals are explored, your consultations are held directly with Pittsburgh Nutritionist Dr. Shaw, not an untrained individual, a staff member, a questionnaire or a computer program. You will not be signing up for a “program” and paying money up front for services not yet rendered. Your health care journey in our office is unique to your specific needs.
We look forward to working with you to identify your immune system challenges.— Dr. Conan Shaw Functional Medicine, Certified Clinical Nutritionist, Pittsburgh PA