Did you ever try to think why are you becoming sick from eating specific foods? Although many of you experience adverse reactions by consuming certain foods, it doesn’t mean that you have food allergy.

Illness, which is caused due to eating specific foods, is mainly because of the reason that your body fails to process or digest properly.

A true food allergy, which results from adverse reactions triggered by your body immune system, is very uncommon. Only about 6% of adults and 2% of children can have chances to experience a true food allergy.

Don’t confuse between food allergies and food intolerances!

More often, food allergies and food intolerances are usually confused by many people. But, these two health conditions are quite different from each other with respect to its symptoms, treatment and origin. So, to avoid confusion between food allergies and food intolerances, here are few points which can help you to distinguish between food allergies and food intolerances.

Involvement of immune system:

Usually, true food allergic reactions mainly involve your body immune system. When your body identifies any specific kind of food that is harmful for you, immediately it produces certain antibodies against potential food allergens.

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Most of them who experience frequent headaches think that they are suffering with sinus headache.

Even though headache is the most common symptom associated with sinusitis, only some individuals who have severe headache are confirmed with sinus headache.

However, if you have chronic sinus infections, possibly you can have some degree of facial pain and headache as a result of sinusitis infection.

So, if you really want to know the main root of your problem and to get better treatment for your headache, it becomes very important for you to determine whether your headache is due to sinus or due to any other reason.

How to identify a true sinus headache?

An acute sinus infection is typically associated with a headache. In these patients, a common cold usually progresses to increasing congestion and pain in the area of involved sinus.

Some of the most common manifestations involved with this sinus infection mainly include pain and pressure in your cheeks. This pain can considerably worsen whenever you lie down or bend forward.

At times, it becomes quite common for you to experience yellow- green or blood tingled discharge from your nasal cavities. Fever, cough, fatigue and sore throat are also certain important manifestations included in your sinus headache.

Are you suffering with constant nose drips associated with difficulty in breathing? Did you find any changes in your sense of smell than before? Then these symptoms can indicate the presence of nasal polyps in your nose.

Most of the times people with these signs suspect an allergy, nasal allergy or sinus infection in them. But, in fact, these symptoms can also indicate a chronic inflammation in lining of your nose which can result in nasal polyps.

Most of the small nasal polyps usually cause very few problems for you, but if you are affected with larger one, then it can interfere your breathing and reduces your smell sensing capabilities. In certain cases, this kind of chronic inflammation in your nose can lead to snoring problems or dull head aches and in some rare cases, massive nasal polyps can change the shape of your face.

Nasal polyps are associated with many respiratory diseases!

More often these nasal polyps are associated with many other respiratory disorders like allergic rhinitis, asthma, aspirin allergy and also chronic sinusitis, which is mainly caused by fungal and bacterial infections.

The main aim of an allergy treatment is to reduce or prevent the effects of allergy, an adverse reaction of the body’s immune system to the allergen.

Allergens are the substances that create allergic reactions in the body.

Allergy is also known as hypersensitivity (overly sensitive). Allergy can be of any type: food, pet, pollen, household, drug or latex allergy.

Allergy treatment can be done in many ways. The best treatment options for any kind of allergies are acupuncture, immunotherapy and medications.

The type of treatment for allergies depends on the following: Candidate’s age, overall health condition, and medical history; Severity of the allergy; Tolerance for certain medications, procedures or therapies and Personal preference.

Allergy Treatment - Acupuncture

Acupuncture is one of the oldest and best allergy treatments to relieve the effects of allergy. It is a traditional Chinese technique that inserts thin, fine needles into certain points in the body to control and relieve allergic reactions.

Acupuncture is based on the Chinese principle of balancing “Qi” the energy that flows throughout the body near the skin. In other words, the “Qi” must be balanced throughout the body. If not, it affects the health of the individual.

Sinusitis refers to an inflammation of sinuses.

Sinuses are the air-filled cavities of the facial bone and skull, lined by a mucus producing membrane called mucosa.

The mucosa cells lining the sinuses have tiny hair called cilia, which normally sweep the mucus into the nose through tiny openings called ostia, a way for the mucous to slide down from the back of the throat to the stomach.

This mucus helps moisten the sinuses, clean the nose by trapping dust, germs and other airborne particles and slides down from the back of the throat to the stomach, where the stomach acids destroys the mucus and associated bacteria.

Normally, the healthy sinuses will be more sterile with no bacteria or other micro organisms and remains open allowing a very little amount of mucus to drain from sinuses into the nose and also allow the air to circulate in and out.

However, when the inflammation of the sinuses (sinusitis) sets in, due to common cold or an allergy sinus, the mucosa cells lining produces bounteous mucus fluid and the ostia get obstructed by swollen mucous membranes causing the mucus to be accumulated in the sinuses.

There are various medical treatments for curing asthma.

But, recently it has found that some complimentary and alternative approaches will also help in treating asthma.

Asthma can be recognized or predicted in children through the bacteria present in the throat.

Asthma treatment with complimentary and alternative approaches:

The alternative and complimentary asthma treatments range from performing breathing exercises to herbal remedies. The three most promising alternative treatments for asthma are:

• Breathing exercises
  1. The buteyco breathing technique
  2. The papworth method
• Yoga
• Physical exercise

These alternative approaches of asthma treatment are explained as follows:
Breathing exercises: Your quality of life will be increased with these breathing exercises. These exercises will help to reduce the symptoms of asthma and also reduce the usage of medication needed to control asthma. In former Soviet Union, the buteyco breathing technique is used to control asthma. This technique will teach you to habitually breathe less and prevents hyperventilation (breathing too much).

This buteyco breathing exercises also includes advice about stress reduction, nutrition, usage of medication and relaxation, where as, the papworth method is the sequence of breathing and relaxation technique which involves diaphragmatic breathing (deep belly breathing). It is proved that this method will significantly reduce the symptoms of asthma with some evidences.

Asthma symptoms worsen by increased air pollution levels which include nitrogen oxide, particulates, sulfur dioxide and ozone. Asthma and air pollution irritate the airways directly.

Particulate matter exists in the air with traffic air pollution resulting in worsening of asthma. The particulate matter can be diesel exhaust particles, dust, sulfate aerosis, soot and fly ash. When a person breathes, these particles enter into the lungs and trigger asthma attacks. Factories, diesel vehicles and coal-fired power plants are the main sources of particulate air pollution.

Ground level ozone triggers asthma attacks and worsens the condition of asthma. When tailpipe pollution from trucks and cars reacts with sunlight and oxygen at ground level, ozone is produced. Ozone at ground level is a major problem in cities with lots of traffic.

Basically the Infection will be caused by microorganisms. It is known as the situation that was created when dangerous germs or microorganisms enters into your body.

Sinus infection is the viral infection that is caused in the upper respiratory track. Sinus infection will cause damage to the sinus lining which is present in the upper respiratory track.

The hollow air spaces that are present in the human body are known as sinuses.

These sinuses will be situated inside the bones of skull surrounding the nose or within the skull. There are four types of sinuses.

1. The frontal sinuses will be located in the brow area above the eyes.
2. The maxillary sinuses will be located within the cheekbones.
3. The ethmoid sinuses will be located just at the back of the link between the nose and eyes.
4. The sphenoid sinuses will be located behind ethmoids in the top region of nose and after the eyes.

All the above sinuses will have the opening into the nose for the exchange of mucus and air. These four sinuses will be joined to nasal passage by mucous membrane lining. The infection that causes in the nose, an allergic reaction or any other immune reactions will cause sinus allergies.