TweetIt is the time of year when the outdoors can be miserable for some. For you, my reader, here are some tips from Dr. Ian Wahl, a Chicago Healers practitioner, to help alleviate environmental symptom:

• Drink cool water to eliminate toxins from the body
• Take a Vitamin C supplement. It helps to reduce the levels of symptom-causing histamine. 1,000 milligrams is the recommended dosage.
• Eat a magnesium rich diet. 400 milligrams daily can provide relief from nasal allergies and breathing problems. The best sources of magnesium are nuts, beans, whole grains, green leafy vegetables and bananas.

For more, visit the Chicago Healers website.

Tweet(For those who have never seen an allergy scratch test, this is what Ava’s back looked like for a small sample of 10. She’s had up to 25 done.)

Yesterday was our first visit to the allergist since the ‘Great Peanut Hope of ’10.’ I had known in advance that Ava’s blood test indicated a high peanut allergy (which meant no food challenge), so that wasn’t a surprise.

I had three main points to discuss:

• The MMR vaccine. It’s incubated in eggs, so Ava had never had it.
• The shrimp incident.
• Treatment strategies for the environmental allergies.

I didn’t expect, however, to be there for 3 hours.

Oy.

Here’s what happened ….

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So, allergy-wise, it’s been a rough couple of days.

It started on Memorial Day. Ava was happily eating her steak, rice and veggies when she asked me for a grilled shrimp.

I didn’t think twice about giving it to her because a) I thought she had it before; and b) my husband gave her a bunch of crab the day before. With shrimp and crab both being crustaceans, I thought we were in the clear.

Wrong.

A few seconds after she ate the whole shrimp, it started.

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