Don Brady wrote:

On 27 May 2004 17:26:52 GMT, (Lacustral) wrote:

Has anybody been able to make their inhalant allergies better by changing
their diet?


I find that salmon does help - eat just a little once a day. Use wild-caught
salmon to avoid mercury. You can buy it frozen to reduce the cost from Whole
Foods.

That's interesting ... but be aware that different kinds of salmon have
widely varying amounts of arachidonic acid. Arachidonic acid in the diet
decreased the anti-inflammatory effect of fish oil in the study on
ppl with rheumatoid arthritis, and likely it has the same effect on sinus
inflammation.

The salmon you get in the stores around here is Atlantic farmed salmon,
which has a really HUGE amount of arachidonic acid in it. People on
anti-inflammatory diets are told "avoid red meat and eggs" - well, 10 oz
of Atlantic farmed salmon has 15 times the arachidonic acid that ground
lamb does; and 10 oz of this salmon has as much arachidonic acid as about
40 eggs!

I think - but am not sure - that the farmed salmon tends to have a worse
ratio of arachidonic acid to EPA/DHA than does wild salmon. So if you can
get wild salmon, it might be healthy for you.

I suggest if you are eating fish for the omega-3's, checking in the USDA
database to see how much arachidonic acid it has (20:4 polyunsaturated).

I have had awful, awful allergies this spring ... i have been eating the
Atlantic farmed salmon for the omega-3's and giving myself a walloping
amount of arachidonic acid at the same time, and I suspect this might be
why my allergies are *far* worse than they were last year.

Laura

http://www.lightlink.com/lark/nutr.html has links to the study on
arachidonic acid in rheumatoid arthritis, and to the USDA database ...

what i originally posted:

Has anybody been able to make their inhalant allergies better by changing
their diet?

I don't mean, finding hidden food allergies and intolerances. And, I don't
mean by being on a weight-loss diet. Fasting makes allergies less severe,
so being on a weight-loss diet might also, somewhat.

But rather, and anti-inflammatory diet. Like the diet that helps people
with rheumatoid arthritis, which inflames joints - low in arachidonic acid,
low fat, with fish oil supplements. I'm not sure why low-fat would be
anti-inflammatory, but 2 possible reasons: long term, a low fat diet
decreases insulin levels (see
http://www.lightlink.com/lark/comparison.html ),
and lower insulin would mean that arachidonic acid
is less converted into inflammatory compounds. Also, a low fat diet makes
the blood less "sticky" so there is better circulation in small tiny blood
vessels, so inflammatory compounds are cleared away from the area better.

Arachidonic acid is found only in non-plant foods, so a strict vegetarian
diet has none of it. Or, one can limit arachidonic acid by keeping track of
the animals foods one eats. So, has anybody found that going vegan helped
their allergies?

I don't have typical allergy symptoms - no runny nose or sneezing - i get
sinus congestion, inflammation which doesn't involve infection so far as I
know.