ClickCease
NOW CONTRACTED WITH MOST INSURANCE COMPANIES FOR CHIROPRACTIC CARE
Pay My Bill
Visit Us
516 SW 13th St, Ste 102, Bend OR 97702
Give us a Call
(541) 728-0689
Send us a Message
Opening Hours
Mon - Friday: 8AM - 6PM

Category: Allergies

Chiropractic and Seasonal Allergies
By Bend Total Body Chiropractic Allergies

How Chiropractic Can Help Your Seasonal Allergies

With more time spent outside this summer participating in socially distant activities like hiking, biking and camping in Bend, you may find yourself more affected by seasonal allergies than years prior. But before you keep reaching for the antihistamines and over-the-counter solutions, try a holistic approach for easing seasonal allergies by visiting a chiropractor in Bend, Oregon.

What causes allergies?

Simply put, allergies are your immune system’s response to foreign substances in the body. Whether from particular foods, certain materials or spring blooms, your body may react adversely to any number of seemingly ordinary items.

In the case of seasonal allergies, allergens like pollen enter your body through inhalation and trigger the immune response. While, these substances may be harmless, your body does not perceive them as such and begins working to remove them from your system – an allergic reaction.

How does your body react to allergens?

At the surface, your body reacts to seasonal allergens through sneezing, coughing, watery eyes and a runny nose, as well as hives in some instances. These actions are meant to expel the foreign substances through any means necessary.

Although, the reaction happening within is much more complex. When the allergen enters your body, the immune system activates specialized mast cells. These cells then determine whether the substance is helpful or harmful. If deemed as harmful, the cells release histamines, which trigger an inflammatory response to signal the rest of the immune system to resolve the issue.

Chiropractic Care for Seasonal Allergies

Chiropractic care focuses on realigning your spine to encourage proper functioning of the systems that radiate from this area in several ways.

Boosts communication between the brain and immune system

Precise communication between the brain and the rest of the body keeps all your systems running and responding. Unfortunately, subluxations, or misalignments of the spine, can affect your brain’s ability to send messages to the appropriate areas. By restoring your alignment, chiropractic care can help your immune system quickly execute and resolve allergic reactions through appropriate signaling.

Helps balance and regulate allergy-fighting hormones

Too many histamines can cause high levels of inflammation and an intense allergic reaction, but this can be balanced by the anti-inflammatory hormone, cortisol. The T9 area of the spine feeds the adrenal gland that produces cortisol, so misalignments and blockages magnify the severity of allergic reactions by reducing cortisol production. Chiropractic adjustments free up this area, allowing it to release appropriate levels of cortisol and promote balance.

Reduces irritation that hinders functioning

When your spine is out of alignment, affected nerves can cause irritation and inflammation. These areas then experience a decrease in function and negatively impact connected body systems. With seasonal allergies, irritation in certain sections of the spine can actually worsen or flat out cause symptoms unnecessarily. Your chiropractor will identify these areas and manipulate them to ease the irritation and improve function.

While chiropractic care does not treat allergies, it may keep your body functioning properly, so it can fight off infection and irritation before it becomes a problem. However, getting one adjustment may not be then be-all and end-all solution, as once you become misaligned, you are again susceptible to the same reactions.

Regular adjustments help keep you in alignment and feeling good year-round. Talk to a chiropractor in Bend at Total Body Chiropractic & Massage about the best treatment regimen as well as diet and lifestyle changes that may make your allergy season more manageable.

By Bend Total Body Chiropractic Allergies, Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic Care for Spring Allergies

While most relish the warm weather and blooming flowers of spring, it’s a miserable time for allergy sufferers. With pollen from flowers, trees, grasses and weeds rising into the air and allergen-bearing insects such as dust mites and cockroaches becoming more active, allergic reactions can become quite frequent. Many who reach for over-the-counter remedies and prescription drugs to relieve their symptoms may be disappointed by their lack of efficacy and cost. However, there is a drug-free answer to reduce the sneezing, coughing and swelling related to allergic reactions: Chiropractic care. In order to understand how chiropractic care works on allergies, it is necessary to first understand how allergens affect the body.

Why Do People Suffer from Allergies?


Allergic reactions, such as coughing, sneezing and a runny nose are the body’s way of expelling irritants and removing harmful substances. For those who suffer from allergies, these responses are greatly magnified. It doesn’t matter if the allergen was ingested, inhaled or came in contact with the skin. The immune system goes into overdrive, activating mast cells, which are central to the body’s response. These mast cells produce histamine, which the body uses to combat allergens. However, an overabundance of histamines in the body, which is part of the body’s allergic response, can lead to a dilation of blood vessels, drop in blood pressure and swelling as fluids fill the space between cells. As a result, a plethora of symptoms begin to overwhelm the individual, either localized at the point of contact or in severe reactions, the entire body. Itching, sneezing, coughing, hives, vomiting and even death can occur in a major reaction.

At this point, allergy sufferers usually reach for antihistamines and other chemical compositions to alleviate their symptoms. Most over-the-counter medications are not able to relieve the patient’s sufferings and prescription drugs often have dangerous side effects such as sleepiness, contraindications to drive, and can often exacerbate the problems by over-drying the body, leading to bloody noses, dehydration and persistent coughing. 

Chiropractic Care and Allergy Relief


While no scientific research concludes that chiropractic therapies lessen the symptoms or causes of allergies, many patients report that regular chiropractic sessions lead to a reduction in allergic response. There are several reasons why this makes sense.

Chiropractic care takes a holistic approach to the body. The focus of chiropractic procedures isn’t simply to alleviate pain in one part of the body. Adjustments performed on the entire body help improve blood flow, open and improve respiratory performance, quiet nervous system response, regulate the immune system, and yes, eliminate pain where needed. Together, these results allow the body to lessen unnecessary histamine production, open nasal passages and reduce overall swelling. Additionally, stress on the body, while not a result of allergic reactions, can weaken the immune system. Chiropractic care is known to decrease stress, which allows the immune system to function regularly, resulting in a lessening of aggravated allergic response. Discuss how your chiropractor can help treat your allergies holistically this spring and summer, before they make you miserable.