What does Ayurveda say about allergies?

In Ayurveda, allergies are a sign of too much waste products (ama) in the body. Ama is the result of an excessively weak digestive fire Agni. If our digestive fire is weakened, it cannot digest the food we give it. In this case, we have two options. Either we eat lighter food or we strengthen our digestive fire. The ideal is to do both at the same time.

What would be the ideal food in this case?

It is important to focus on Kapha-balancing food in such a situation. This means light, dry and warm or warming foods with a low fat content. One example is steamed green leafy vegetables with a high bitter content, prepared with warming ginger and long pepper (pippali).

And how can you strengthen the digestive fire?

The best method is to do a cleansing programme. Our herbal detox can be done in 8 days from home. During this cleansing cure, the excess ama (waste products) is first removed from the tissues and then excreted.

Ama has a cool quality. This coolness means that our inner digestive fire can no longer burn strongly enough to fully "cook" and thus digest food.
Hot water or warming spices such as pippali, ginger, cinnamon or pepper also help to strengthen our digestive fire Agni.

You have a pollen allergy yourself from time to time - what are your top 3 tips?

I've tried a lot of things, but luckily my allergy has got better in recent years. I usually have severe allergy symptoms for 4 weeks in May/June.

What has helped me:

1. detoxing regularly - for me that means 3 times a year. I time one of these cleanses so that I do it in the Kapha season, just before I feel allergy symptoms. For me, our live webinar on herbal detoxification is ideally timed!
2. during these 4 weeks, I take the pressure off my immune system by avoiding products containing gluten and, to a large extent, dairy products.
3. if I have allergy symptoms, I take Pippali and MA1788. That always helps me!

To what extent does Ayurveda differentiate between different forms of allergy? Does it make a big difference in treatment whether you have a pollen or food allergy?

From an Ayurvedic point of view, the cause is the same for every allergy. A weakened digestive fire creates ama, and ama is the breeding ground for diseases. Including allergies.

Draining ama with the help of a herbal detox and strengthening the digestive fire is therefore ideal for every allergy. But of course, an Ayurvedic doctor should be consulted at the latest after these measures for an individual and personalised treatment plan.