So many people complain that they suffer from allergic rhinitis. I once organized a Chinese seminar to teach them the real reason for allergic rhinitis, and the proper treatment.

Your doctor might tell you that you are allegic to pollen or dust; that’s why it’s called allergic rhinitis. But I guess it is seldom that anyone ever challenges this notion. Because most of the allergic rhinositis happens in spring when it’s pollen season, that’s why it’s called “allergic rhinitis.”  But is it the real reason?

When you catch a cold and then go out in the sunshine, you could easily sneeze ,right? This is because your body detected the cold and wants to get rid of it. In spring, yang qi is starting to come out of the earth. Affected by that, yang qi from your body also rise up. When your body has enough yang qi going out, it detects the coldness in your lung system. By the way, the nose is the orifice of the lung.  So your body is trying to get the coldness out. The proper way to do this is to boost your yang qi to help your body get rid of the coldness completely. This is the normal immune reaction. If you use allergy medicine to suppress your immune system, symptoms will be temporarily solved. But whenever you have a bit of yang qi, your body will try to push it out again. You can continue to suppress it until one day your immune system is not working anymore. So which is the right way?

Moxibustion will help allergic rhinositis for sure. I have several clients who came for other issues. But through moxibustion, they told me their allergic rhinositis was also cured. In most cases, it doesn’t need to take long. Even if you just put a heating pad on your neck and belly area, your sneezing can quickly stop. There are different techniques, as long as you understand the theroy behind it.

Here is a real story by a moxibustion believer.

• In October last year, my 3-year-old son had a bad cold and took medicine for more than a month. Finally, the doctor said it was rhinitis. I saw many experts in Shanghai and gave him Western medicine for two months and used nasal spray every day. Once the medicine was stopped for a while, the rhinitis would start again.
• On October 1st of this year, he started coughing and having a runny nose again. The doctor said it was sinusitis, and he added a lot of medicine. After two weeks, his nose stopped running, but it started running again on the 19th.
• I heard from my classmates that moxibustion can cure rhinitis. So, I searched on the Internet and decided to give my son moxibustion.
• Every time my son has sinusitis, he will have a lot of yellow pus and coughing. I always have to get up during the night and can’t sleep, which makes me feel very distressed. I bought books and tools, and started moxibustion for my son.
• On the first day, I did moxibustion on the acupuncture points of Yingxiang, Yintang, Cuanzhu and Yangbai for 20 minutes each, then on Da Zhui, Feishu, Shen Que, Guanyuan and Zhongwan for ten minutes each, and then Zusanli and Yongquan for five minutes each. There was no change in the yellow secretion on the second day. On the third morning, he woke up and coughed and had even more severe yellow secretion.
• I saw from some online sharing that this is a normal reaction. So, I continued. Each day, it got a little bit better. On the 6^th day, he had no coughing anymore but still a bit of a runny nose, which was yellow in the morning and white in the afternoon. By the 8^th day, there was no runny nose anymore.  I was so happy.

She did well.  But if she could incorporate some other techniques such as tuina or gua sha to help circulate and remove the heat, it would be better.  Nevertheless, she cured her son’s rhinitis or sinusitis, just by moxibustion at home.