And I want to point out that when we talk about seasonal allergies, this is a range of diseases that can manifest in various ways starting with allergic rhinitis en-enlarged adenoids and that affects the sleep,…

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Hello, this is Moshe Heller from the Motion Center and Motion Herbs. I want to thank the American Acupuncture Council for letting me present today on this topic of treating children with seasonal allergies. This is a lecture that I’m repeating a lecture that I did exactly a year ago also talking about this subject.

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But spring is here, and and it is the time to talk about these things. And we have lots of patients that we meet or at least I’m seeing a lot of patients who are in need for help in this season with allergies. So now we can go to the slides, please. The spring is here, as I mentioned, and there’s these…

When spring comes and as practitioners of Chinese medicine, we always need to say to be in, in touch with the changes of the season. We feel those fluctuating temperatures the blooming plants and trees, and that all brings these sneezing and sniffles, and runny noses, and irritated eyes and ear– scratchy throats, and these are all signs of the seasonal allergies.

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And today, we’ll dis-discuss how we can help these patients with both acupuncture and herbs. And I want to point out that when we talk about seasonal allergies, this is a range of diseases that can manifest in various ways starting with allergic rhinitis en-enlarged adenoids and that affects the sleep, can cause sleep adne-apnea.

And children who have a tendency to have seasonal allergies will also tend to have some food allergies, and we’ll talk about why that is happening in a se- in a second. We have to understand that there’s a reaction of our immune system which causes an inflammatory process or an allergic inflammatory process, and we need to address that from multiple ways.

I just want to remind you this slide reminds you that there’s a lot of times the spleen or our digestive sy-system is at the center of this me- of this disease process, of the pathology. And we have a weakness a lot of times of the spleen and stomach, which then does not support the lung appropriately, and therefore our wei qi is imbalanced and overreactive.

And that our spleen also produces phlegm and dampness, which goes upwards and affects the orifices. So that just points out that when we see children with allergies in– I always discuss diet because for me there’s always a relationship between allergies and our diet. So when we suspect there is an allergy in the pathology then we always have to talk about are there any phlegm-producing foods that they are consuming and how we can change that in order to help in resolving the issues that that we’re that, that are presenting.

It’s really important to just start by asking what they eat on a regular basis. What’s their diet like? I always say, “What do they eat in the morning? What are their snacks? What are their lunch like? What’s their snack in between lunch? What’s their dinner like?” And that helps me Really understand what they tend to eat and is there any contributing factors for that?

And so always consider giving a three-week food journal. That is extremely helpful. I found that to be very helpful when I have patients do that and when they actually report that, then we can see what they’re eating and discuss, have a discussion about diet. So when we talk about pattern differentiation in in these conditions, we always look for, is there any lung or spleen qi vacuity or deficiency?

Or what we see a lot of times in Chinese in pediatrics, is that the … There could be a situation where there’s what we call hyperactive spleen qi deficiency, where the patient is actually s- s- having a spleen deficiency, but their behavior is very hyperactive and doesn’t really match the deficiency symptoms that we are, that they are presenting.

We always, I always also look to see if there’s any lingering pathogenic factors. As we know, lingering pathogenic factors can be a very common cause of disease in children. One telling sign is that their lymph glands under their mandibles are swollen. And so I’ll palpate that and if there’s, they’re swollen, I’ll start to ask questions about lingering pathogenic factor.

Was there an illness that was never fully resolved or has been chronic and that could be the trigger? There could be also a liver yang rising. We children also can manifest with liver yang rising and sometimes emotions, when liver … When we talk about liver yang rising, a lot of times emotional factors can be part of that situation.

What we may need to note is that each of these patterns may have bouts of either wind cold or wind heat attacks, meaning that it’s concurrently a wind cold or wind heat that’s attacking on the surface. And there it can be also complicated with phlegm dampness. In some cases, there could be an underlying kidney involvement, a kidney vacuity.

And what we always need to understand that when there’s an allergic s- condition that we … That there’s when there’s an allergic condition, there’s always some heat hidden or it’s … The heat is coming from somewhere. It could be yin fire, it could be qi stagnation, and it could be phlegm congestion.

All these are possibilities, but there always is a heat source or a cause for the heat to be present. So when we the … When we talk about allergies, it means that there is an hyperactivity of the immune system, meaning it reacts at the times that it’s not supposed to react, and therefore I

That, for me, always represents a heat condition or a hot condition that it could be deficiency heat, it could be excess heat, but there’s heat somewhere in the system, and we need to figure out where it’s coming from. Again, once we come with a di- have a diagnosis, we always can consider these different points.

Our main points are always Lung 7 and Large Intestine 4 to help resolve the exterior aspect of that. Du 23 is a point that I use a lot for clearing of the sinuses, so if there’s any accumulation, congestion, runny nose, anything that we need to address in the sinus area, Du 23 helps to clear both damp and phlegm and wind and cold from the si- from the head.

So that’s a very important point, as well as Gallbladder 40. Gallbladder 40 is a really important point, and sometimes I may use moxa on it or just needle it depending on the presentation, and that’s a very helpful point to … Especially when we have rhinitis as as part of the presentation.

Liver 3 there’s a lot of heat and the face is red and fa- symptoms of heat in the upper part, in the facial area, then I would consider Liver 2 or Liver 3 if there’s, there are not. Always remember this area between Large Intestine 10 and Large Intestine 11, maybe towards the triple burner line is what we call the immune regulation area, and I check for sensitivity or puffiness and and address that area also if needed.

Triple burner cis 16 triple warmer 16 is also a very important ar- immune point and help to regulate the lymph drainage in the neck area. And so that’s a very important point that I consider. As well as Du 12, if there’s lung qi reg… for lung qi regulation and a- activation of the thymus gland.

These are– this is why we would choose Du 12. And I always palpate the spine and needle very tight spots and look at areas like Du 2, Du 3 and/or Du 6. So these are areas that I check to see if there’s any irritation. And we could use needles. For some children, I might use shonishen technique and I always want you to remember that teishin is meaning the needle that is non-skin penetrating is always part of– has always been part of our nine traditional needles.

And we just need to understand that when we’re stimulating the skin, we’re stimulating the depths of our nervous system and also our qi. And therefore, it’s important to remember that we don’t necessarily need to use a needle in for all these points, but we can definitely use teishin or non- non-needling techniques or non-insertion techniques.

I also wanna point out we’re shifting a little bit to talk about herbs. One point… One thing I want to point out is this s- s- research study that was done on stabilizing mast cell a- mast cell activity. And there is a formula that was used. The Chin- included three Chinese herbs.

Those are… This formula is called Shuang Huang Lian, which is genin hua phloroglaucina, radix scutellaria, huang Qin, and forsythia, Lian Qiao. So these three herbs really help to act to regulate mast cell. And I’ll also mention that I’ll show you a product in a few seconds which is made from quercetin, bromelain, and nettles which are which is a great compilation to also help regulate or down-regulate mast cell activity, similar to what this formula might be doing.

So you can use these three herbs as a component in other traditional formulas that you might be using or according to the pattern differentiation to help with down-regulating mast cell activity. I also want to mention another research study that was done by Dr. Li from Mount Sinai. She used a formula.

She used a-another traditional Chinese formula Wu Mei Wan to address food allergies in particular. But I in my experience, it will definitely also be a good formula to consider in environmental allergies. And the formula is, This is the traditional formula.

It has known– it’s known for its zhūyīn. This is the ma-ma-main formula in the zhūyīn which addresses also parasites. And that’s why I think Dr. Li chose it because of the parasite theory and allergies that you can definitely read on in this, you have the research study right here.

And it points out– And this is actually the formula that was finally used in the research. This is the product I was referring to. It’s called D-Hist. Again, it’s made from quercetin, bromelain, and and nettles, which are all help in regulating allergic or the histamine response, regulating histamine response.

And it– There is a pediatric version, the D-Hist Junior chewables. I usually give this in larger quantity than is recommended on the dosage because I believe that the quantity of quercetin needs to be high in order to down-regulate or get a very a better effect on the for the patients.

So I sometimes double or triple the amount of the D-Hist that I would recommend for patients I want to– I hope this helped you very to address some of your patients’ concerns especially when it comes to allergic responses. I see a lot of patients in my office, especially in this season but also throughout the year, especially food-with food allergies.

And I so I hope this helps. And I want to thank the American Acupuncture Council again for letting me speak today. Thank you very much.

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