Echinacea: Allergies.

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.herbs
Subject: Re: Allergies to cats, prevention herbs?
From: Tsu Dho Nimh <abacaxi.hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 04:43:58 -0700

>Next month, I am hoping to stay in a place where two cats live. They will already have been put in a kennel the week before and will not be present during my stay. From now until this time, the cats will be kept out of certain rooms and rubbed down with a product that the owner is buying from the net to help diminish allergic reactions.

She should also vacuum the heck out of rugs and furniture with a high-powered vacuum and discard the bags, because that's where the major allergen will lurk.

I have had excellent results with Echinacea, and so far four coworkers who have tried it for chronic allergies have reported it minimized their symptoms after a couple of weeks. Start now (I use "Nature's Way" capsules), take full dosage as recommended on the bottle for a week, then drop to 1/3 that for the duration of the feline experience.

It appears to normalize the activity of the cells that start the whole allergic chain reaction ... if they can be prevented from reacting to an allergen with a flood of histamines, the problem stops.

I have not had any increase in healing times, infections, or even colds and have been taking it at low doses for 4 years. I have had FAR fewer attacks of allergic sinusitis, sinus headaches, and nasal congestion.

>It's been a really long time since I was exposed to cats inside, so I don't know how this will work. But I am looking for anything I can take on this end, to perhaps build up some immunity.

If you have the bronchial congestion (wheezing, hard to breathe) on exposure to the cat's household, a tea of Ma Huang will relieve the symptoms. It's a treatment, not a preventive.

Tsu Dho Nimh