Does Stretching Help with Allergies?

What are allergies exactly?

How Common Are Allergies? More than 50 million people in the U.S. experience various types of allergies each year. Allergies are the sixth leading cause of chronic illness in the U.S.

Pollen allergies are one of the most common allergies in the world. Pollen is a fine yellow powder that is transported from plant to plant by the wind, birds, insects, and other animals to help fertilize plants.

According to the Cleveland Clinic:

Allergies are your body’s reaction to a normally harmless substance such as pollen, molds, animal dander, latex, certain foods and insect stings. Allergy symptoms range from mild – rash or hives, itchiness, runny nose, watery/red eyes – to life-threatening. Treatments include antihistamines, decongestants, nasal steroids, asthma medicines and immunotherapy.

Other common things people are allergic to are:

• Dust mites
• Mold
• Animal dander
• Laytex
• Certain foods such as: milk, egg, soy, wheat, shellfish, peanuts and tree nuts
• Insect Venom

According to the Cleveland Clinic:

Allergy symptoms are classified as mild, moderate or severe:
Mild reactions include local symptoms (affecting a specific area of your body) such as a rash or hives, itchiness, watery/red eyes, hay fever and runny nose. Mild reactions do not spread to other parts of your body.

Moderate reactions include symptoms that spread to other parts of your body. Symptoms may include itchiness, hives, and/or swelling and trouble breathing.

A severe allergic reaction, known as anaphylaxis, is a rare, life-threatening emergency in which your body’s response to the allergen is sudden and affects the whole body. Anaphylaxis may begin with severe itching of your eyes or face. Within minutes, more serious symptoms appear, including throat swelling (which could cause problems with swallowing and breathing), abdominal pain, cramps, vomiting, diarrhea, hives and swelling (angioedema). You may also have mental confusion or dizziness, since anaphylaxis may cause a drop in blood pressure.

Anything that you come into contact with that your body views as a “harmful invader” can be a cause of an allergy. Normally harmless substances that are common causes of allergies include pollen, animal dander, mold, dust, foods, insect venom and latex

Technically, your symptoms are the result of a chain of events that are your body’s response to the “harmful invader.” Your body “sees” the invader, makes antibodies to fight the invader, and in so doing, releases histamines that cause your allergy symptoms. 

Control and Get Relief from Allergies with Stretching

Whether you are doing yoga to relieve your allergy symptoms, wondering what positions help allergies, or you're looking for sinus relief, sinus drainage, relief from sinus pressure or neck pain related to allergies... 

Or if your allergies are year round like a food allergy or seasonal or just in the spring... no matter what kind of an allergy you have there are stretching exercises you can do that get rid of them once and for all. 

As you know, our stretches at Bendable Body align with the meridian system in Traditional Chinese Medicine. So while you are enjoying the benefits of a more flexible and strong body, a better aligned and pain free body... when you do Bendable Body Stretches... you are also experiencing specific and predictable physiological benefits. 

When it comes to allergies, we have found that the stomach meridian plays the biggest role in solving the problem. The stomach meridian runs along the quadriceps, so when you do resistance stretches for your quadriceps you not only improve the health of those muscles, but you also relive allergies - whether they are seasonal or chronic. 

In the following video we teach you 2 stretches that will greatly improve and relieve your allergy symptoms. Depending on how severe your allergies are, will determine how much stretching you need to do. We can promise though, if you stretch correctly and with resistance and on a regular basis, you will certainly see improvement.