I was asked about my experience of having a severe allergy treated with acupuncture again today so I thought I'd share my answer here for ease of reference the next time I'm asked.
...ooOoo...
I developed hay fever at the age of eighteen (I am now forty-seven). This increased in severity over the next two to three years until I had a full-blown allergy to grass, nettles, and plantains.
My symptoms would start as soon as people started mowing their lawn in the Spring and continued well into the Autumn. They included itchy eyes, mouth, skin, ears, tongue, massive sneezing attacks (some twenty to thirty at a time), wheezing, inflammation of the inside of my throat and mouth, and welts on my skin if I came into direct contact with grass (like nettle burns). I would get torn rib muscles from the violence of the sneezing.
Under the supervision of my family doctor, I was on ten of the kind of anti-histamines you're only supposed to take twice a day and had to use an asthma inhaler and steroid nasal spray. The spray got binned after just five uses as it burnt my nasal membranes and has left me with a tendency toward nose bleeds. Despite taking the last pair of tablets just before going to bed at midnight, I would be unable to sleep much longer than three in the morning as I would then wake with my mouth, throat, and tongue swelling up.
I would try to mitigate the symptoms by washing before bed, including my hair and even rinsing out my eyes, ears, and nose. Largely without much reduction in symptoms.
I could not go anywhere with grass which meant having to stay in most of the summer.
One doctor tried de-sensitisation injections but a change (for the better) in UK law* meant I never got the follow-up treatments in subsequent years so their effect largely vanished, not that they were particularly effective in the first place.
At one visit to my doctor, I asked if there was anything I could do short of emigrating to a desert. I was desperate by this stage, not least because the amount of anti-histamine I was taking was making my blood pressure shoot up alarmingly and gave me palpitations, I half expected him to refer me to a specialist hospital in London for further desensitisation treatments. Surprisingly he suggested acupuncture instead.
Apparently, he studied the technique on a BMJ (http://www.bmj.com/) course and I was able to get acupuncture on the NHS as a study held in London had found it DID help those with chronic pain conditions and allergy sufferers. The NHS found acupuncture did NOT help in quitting smoking however.
I started treatment as soon as my symptoms started the following Spring. As it was my NHS doctor doing it, I knew everything would be properly sterilised. My doctor explained that not every person responds to acupuncture and that the pattern of needle placements might need to be varied a bit until he found the best locations for me. Thankfully and amazingly, I found almost instant relief.
I had needles placed in the webs of my hands and feet and several across my brow line and either side of my nose. When my allergy related asthma was bad, I also had some needles placed in my breast bone. On one occasion, when my symptoms were severe, I had a needle placed to one side of my right shin. This is the only needle I found somewhat unpleasant as sensations radiated from it all the way down to my ankle and all the way up to my knee. It is not used often though as it's seen to be a powerful locus. Normally, there is very little sensation or pain as the needles are inserted as they are very fine, through you may find the area throbs a bit. I should warn you that the often quoted "just under the skin" is total crap.... the needles in my hands and feet went in a good half an inch!
I would find that my nose would start to clear and my sinuses open as soon as the needles be my nose went in.
Once all the needles were placed, my GP would leave me to rest on the treatment couch for up to an hour. Other schools of acupuncture have the practitioner continue to move the needles throughout treatment.
Acupuncture can leave you feeling a bit light headed and, well, a bit drunk afterward so you can't drive or operate machinery for several hours after a treatment session.
This first season of treatment reduced my symptoms so much I only needed to take six tablets the entire season! I probably only actually needed three of those, having taken some before suffering as I knew I was going somewhere with a lot of grass.
I had treatment for many years until my doctor retired. Unfortunately no other doctor at my old surgery took up the service.
These days I have a slight allergy that sometimes needs the regular dose of anti-histamine when the pollen count is high. My doctor told me that many of his patients lost their allergy totally and permanently.
Be aware :
- it does not work for everyone
- the practitioner should be able to supply proof that they are qualified
- the practise should be able to supply proof that everything is properly sterilised
- needles should come in an unopened pack so you know they haven't been used before
- the number of treatments is highly variable as each person responds differently
- blood donors in the UK will need a certificate of cleanliness to show their doning clinic before being allowed to donate unless it is an NHS doctor providing the treatment
- whilst the traditional explanation for how acupuncture works has no scientific basis, there is plenty of scientific evidence to show it does work for certain conditions and that it's effects are not due to the placebo effect
* There were a handful of cases whereby people suffered a severe allergic reaction following desensitisation treatment, either at their doctor's surgery or soon after leaving it and had to be rushed to hospital. The legal change meant all such treatments had to be done somewhere where full resuscitation facilities were available.
References
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/acupuncture/pages/introduction.aspx
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/114/5/1242.abstract
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/acm.2000.6.519
...ooOoo...
I developed hay fever at the age of eighteen (I am now forty-seven). This increased in severity over the next two to three years until I had a full-blown allergy to grass, nettles, and plantains.
My symptoms would start as soon as people started mowing their lawn in the Spring and continued well into the Autumn. They included itchy eyes, mouth, skin, ears, tongue, massive sneezing attacks (some twenty to thirty at a time), wheezing, inflammation of the inside of my throat and mouth, and welts on my skin if I came into direct contact with grass (like nettle burns). I would get torn rib muscles from the violence of the sneezing.
Under the supervision of my family doctor, I was on ten of the kind of anti-histamines you're only supposed to take twice a day and had to use an asthma inhaler and steroid nasal spray. The spray got binned after just five uses as it burnt my nasal membranes and has left me with a tendency toward nose bleeds. Despite taking the last pair of tablets just before going to bed at midnight, I would be unable to sleep much longer than three in the morning as I would then wake with my mouth, throat, and tongue swelling up.
I would try to mitigate the symptoms by washing before bed, including my hair and even rinsing out my eyes, ears, and nose. Largely without much reduction in symptoms.
I could not go anywhere with grass which meant having to stay in most of the summer.
One doctor tried de-sensitisation injections but a change (for the better) in UK law* meant I never got the follow-up treatments in subsequent years so their effect largely vanished, not that they were particularly effective in the first place.
At one visit to my doctor, I asked if there was anything I could do short of emigrating to a desert. I was desperate by this stage, not least because the amount of anti-histamine I was taking was making my blood pressure shoot up alarmingly and gave me palpitations, I half expected him to refer me to a specialist hospital in London for further desensitisation treatments. Surprisingly he suggested acupuncture instead.
Apparently, he studied the technique on a BMJ (http://www.bmj.com/) course and I was able to get acupuncture on the NHS as a study held in London had found it DID help those with chronic pain conditions and allergy sufferers. The NHS found acupuncture did NOT help in quitting smoking however.
I started treatment as soon as my symptoms started the following Spring. As it was my NHS doctor doing it, I knew everything would be properly sterilised. My doctor explained that not every person responds to acupuncture and that the pattern of needle placements might need to be varied a bit until he found the best locations for me. Thankfully and amazingly, I found almost instant relief.
I had needles placed in the webs of my hands and feet and several across my brow line and either side of my nose. When my allergy related asthma was bad, I also had some needles placed in my breast bone. On one occasion, when my symptoms were severe, I had a needle placed to one side of my right shin. This is the only needle I found somewhat unpleasant as sensations radiated from it all the way down to my ankle and all the way up to my knee. It is not used often though as it's seen to be a powerful locus. Normally, there is very little sensation or pain as the needles are inserted as they are very fine, through you may find the area throbs a bit. I should warn you that the often quoted "just under the skin" is total crap.... the needles in my hands and feet went in a good half an inch!
I would find that my nose would start to clear and my sinuses open as soon as the needles be my nose went in.
Once all the needles were placed, my GP would leave me to rest on the treatment couch for up to an hour. Other schools of acupuncture have the practitioner continue to move the needles throughout treatment.
Acupuncture can leave you feeling a bit light headed and, well, a bit drunk afterward so you can't drive or operate machinery for several hours after a treatment session.
This first season of treatment reduced my symptoms so much I only needed to take six tablets the entire season! I probably only actually needed three of those, having taken some before suffering as I knew I was going somewhere with a lot of grass.
I had treatment for many years until my doctor retired. Unfortunately no other doctor at my old surgery took up the service.
These days I have a slight allergy that sometimes needs the regular dose of anti-histamine when the pollen count is high. My doctor told me that many of his patients lost their allergy totally and permanently.
Be aware :
- it does not work for everyone
- the practitioner should be able to supply proof that they are qualified
- the practise should be able to supply proof that everything is properly sterilised
- needles should come in an unopened pack so you know they haven't been used before
- the number of treatments is highly variable as each person responds differently
- blood donors in the UK will need a certificate of cleanliness to show their doning clinic before being allowed to donate unless it is an NHS doctor providing the treatment
- whilst the traditional explanation for how acupuncture works has no scientific basis, there is plenty of scientific evidence to show it does work for certain conditions and that it's effects are not due to the placebo effect
* There were a handful of cases whereby people suffered a severe allergic reaction following desensitisation treatment, either at their doctor's surgery or soon after leaving it and had to be rushed to hospital. The legal change meant all such treatments had to be done somewhere where full resuscitation facilities were available.
References
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/acupuncture/pages/introduction.aspx
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/114/5/1242.abstract
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/acm.2000.6.519
