Hay fever and allergies – Acupressure band brings relief

Many prefer to avoid drugs for hay fever and the kind of allergic rhinitis to things like dust and pollutants. A new solution that can help is an acupressure band, the ‘Qu-Chi’ band, which stimulates an acupuncture point to help with hayfever-type symptoms.

Acupressure is the same as acupuncture, but instead of inserting fine needles, pressure is applied to specific acupuncture points to stimulate the Chi, or energy system of the body. This is to assist the body to function better and stimulate it to heal itself.

The band was developed by Andrew Broch, a qualified acupuncture and acupressure practitioner who is himself a sufferer from hayfever. He found that acupuncture was extremely effective for the relief of his symptoms and after experimenting for a while he produced the band for people to use at any time and without the need for a practitioner.

The specific point used by the ‘Qu-Chi band’ (LI-11 point known as ‘quchi’) lies at the outer elbow, on an energy line (‘meridian’) that runs from the nose to the hand. It pulls energy away from the upper body and the head. It has specific activity in the area around the nose and eyes. By reducing the energy in the face the build up of energy in that area is reduced and so excess symptoms are relieved.

Trials have been conducted which suggest that the ‘Qu-Chi Band’ is beneficial for people with Hayfever and that it is quick acting, comfortable, safe and easy to use. It can be put on when symptoms start or beforehand. It can be used with other medication where necessary and is not associated with any side effects – the only warning is that it should not be worn in pregnancy.

It retails at around £10 and can be obtained from www.quchi.co.uk

Getting ahead of hay fever

This time of year can be very distressing for hay fever sufferers, and those with sinusitis or allergies. There are plenty of medications available to control the symptoms but there is an old-fashioned naturopathic remedy that is very effective and inexpensive that you might want to try first. It’s using warm salt water to wash out your nasal passages. Done twice a day it has shown positive results in medical studies as it washes away the pollen that clogs your nasal passages and irritates your body into triggering an allergic reaction.It’s long been in use in Ayurvedic medicine and the renowned Mayo Clinic in the states also recommend it’s use. A January 2009 study on 200 patients had them reporting relief of their symptoms from twice daily salt water irrigations and a recent study in China at Nanjing Medical University showed good results on children with allergic rhinitis so they were able to stop or reduce their steroid nasal sprays.

It must be popular as you can now buy a salt pipe (sometimes called a neti pot) on Amazon in the UK and many other health sites. Natural sea salt is the best to use and use 1 teaspoon salt to 1 pint of warm filtered or distilled water.

Adding in some extra support in terms of taking regular exericse and having plenty of omega-3 in your diet. Children who have little exercise have twice the rate of hay fever as their more active friends, and omega-3 from fish oil helps reduce both allergic and inflammatory responses. It can also help to include probiotics in the diet as they have two good effects: they help lower the levels of an antibody that produces allergy symptoms and also levels of a different antibody, IgG, that it’s believed plays a protective role against allergic reactions.