Do you have sneezing, itchy red eyes, and nasal congestion with a runny nose? If so, you likely have allergies. Although allergies can sometimes be effectively treated with medications, natural treatments can be as or more effective. Today, we will discuss three of my favorites.

A wonderful acupressure technique for treating both food and inhalational allergies is called NAET (see Eliminating Allergies & Sensitivities with NAET). The practitioner uses muscle testing to test for allergies, and then simply presses on certain acupuncture points while you hold the offending substance for 20 minutes. Remarkably, this can often eliminate the sensitivity.

When I first heard about this technique, I teased the practitioner, and told her that there was no way it would eliminate my lifelong hay fever. One day, when I was especially miserable with my sneezing and runny nose, she said "stop being an idiot and let me treat you". She did, and 20 minutes later my lifelong hay fever was gone — never to return. This caught my attention and we have since found NAET to be highly effective. In fact, my foundation recently funded half of a $200,000 study using NAET in the treatment of autism, and the initial results are very promising. More information can be found at www.NAET.com.

Two other excellent natural therapies for allergies include the nutrient MSM and a homeopathic cellulose nose spray called SneezEze. The dose of MSN is 3,000 to 6,000 mg a day and it may take several weeks to start working. The dose of the SneezEze is one spray in each nostril twice daily and it begins to work within a few days and often within hours. In one study, patients found it to be twice as effective as Claritin or Benadryl.