Could you be suffering from allergic tension-fatigue syndrome?

Could you be suffering from allergic tension-fatigue syndrome?

As early as the 1930s, it was theorized that constant or repeated exposure to an allergen puts extensive strain on the body, including the immune system. Ultimately, this exposure negatively impacts the body's defenses and leaves it open to disease and other medical complications. Additionally, these allergens can have a degenerative effect on energy levels, leading to chronic fatigue and other more serious health problems. According to the Allergic Tension-Fatigue Syndrome theory, when you remove the allergen, you not only relieve allergy symptoms but also the underlying medical conditions caused by the strain on energy levels.

While there can always be many possible causes for various diseases or conditions, one of those causes can be undetected allergies. One of the most common causes of fatigue problems is allergies, but awareness of this may remain hidden for years. Removing the allergen may sound like a simple solution, but what if you can't escape the allergens? What if you can't even identify them?

For most people, an allergic reaction means you have inhaled, eaten, or touched something that causes your body to sneeze, cough, itch, swell, your eyes water, and/or your nose to run. But allergies can also be the root cause of a variety of illnesses, including but not limited to:

> Gastrointestinal problems such as indigestion, constipation, ulcers, etc.

> Headaches and migraines

> Back pain

> Arthritis, joint pain, restless leg syndrome, etc.

> Brain symptoms such as brain fog, depression and attention deficit disorder

> Skin problems such as rashes, boils, slow healing wounds, etc.

> Cardiac irregularities

Modern life attacks our bodies from both the outside and the inside. We are exposed to chemicals in the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat.

Consider this. At the turn of the century, bread making only required whole grains, water, butter, baker's yeast and a little sweetener to make the yeast rise. Today, a modern loaf of bread can contain more than 100 different ingredients, including preservatives, dyes, insecticides, pesticides and fungicides, as well as chemical residues from various packaging and cleaning processes. These can sensitize an immune system and cause us to react negatively to many other substances.

Our bodies are still biologically programmed to operate in a much simpler environment. Is it any wonder that the number of people complaining of allergic reactions has increased dramatically? At the same time, traditional Western medical schools and journals are expanding their definitions of allergies and recognizing that when faced with a perceived attack, the immune system responds in many different ways, resulting in the aforementioned ailments.

The September 19, 2002 Atlanta Journal Constitution published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine with findings that counter decades of conventional thinking about dust and allergies. Wherever it was thought that dust caused allergies and should therefore be avoided, a European study has shown that household dust actually helps protect children from hay fever or asthma. The same was found for children exposed to pets at an early age.

Conventional diagnosis involved exposing the body to small, concentrated doses of potential allergens by injecting the substance under the skin. The areas that show swelling and itching indicate an allergic reaction. Treatment usually consists of a long series of “allergy shots” over a period of time. Each shot contains tiny amounts of the allergen and the theory is that the body slowly builds up resistance.

Just as conventional thinking about the cause and effect of allergies is being challenged and changed, treatments for allergies are also being challenged and changed. Today, there are several non-invasive, drug- and needle-free options for diagnosing and treating allergies that have provided relief to 10 out of 1,000 people. These techniques typically use some sort of bio-feedback mechanism to identify the allergen and then simply use some form of pressure point and breathing to reset the body so that it doesn't react to the allergen. The best known of these is NAET, but there are numerous other non-invasive methods available.

If you suffer from chronic fatigue with no known cause, you should investigate the possibility of having allergic tension-fatigue syndrome and find out whether or not you have “hidden” allergies.

Inspired by Raymond Alexander