Allergies are a funny thing as they seem to appear out of nowhere and then sometimes disappear. Last December my youngest son went out in the cul-de-sac with his older brothers to throw a football. It was a typical winter afternoon, a bit overcast, windy but no rain. He came in the house a while later, complaining of an itchy rash on his elbows and knees. After a while the small red dots, seemed to have swelled in size and spread on his shins and forearms, and the itch got worse. Recalling from past experiences with rash, I told him to run a bath and threw in some soda powder. I don’t remember if this is just an old wives tale, but it was there in the back of my small brain. Luckily it worked! The rash subsided. However, after that we noticed that every time he went out in the cold and wind, the exposed areas of his limbs would break out in this rash. After a visit to the doctors office, we were told that there was really nothing we could do except take an antihistamine. It is very difficult to pin point a cause, and most likely it could be some pollen in the air coming into contact with his skin. There is no way you can control that. Since, this son is very much into athletics and he enjoys lacrosse during the winter/spring months, it is a concern for us.
Being a student of feng shui , I am trying to look at his allergy issue from a different perspective. It is interesting to see how many Chinese philosophies, cultural and medical practices overlap in core principles. Many of these principles are based on the Chinese Wu-Xing theory, better known in English as the Five Element Theory. I will not get into that here, but I want to stress that basic Asian philosophy on health is based on protecting your health and preserving your vitality. There is always a connection between your emotional, mental and physical well-being.
It is still necessary for my son to take his antihistamine when he breaks out in a rash, however, we have decided to attack this from what we think is the root of the problem. There must be a breakdown in his immune system, because he never had it before. So, how do we build up his immune system? Generally his mental and emotional well-being is pretty balanced for a child his age. My belief is that we have to boost his physical immune system through his diet. I will increase his vitamin C intake and basically watch what he eats. Several years ago my sister turned me onto juicing, and after reading the many wonders of juicing I am a firm believer. Juicing can be time consuming to do and sometimes I just get lazy and don’t want to do it, but we will try to be more consistent to juice daily. Let’s see if this will help prevent any more outbreaks! I will follow up after a few months on this.
My favorite juicing recipe for four:
2 apples
8-10 carrots
1 inch ginger root
1 lemon
A few sprigs of parsley
