Environmental Allergies

We offer scratch testing and natural remedies for environmental allergies.

You might think it’s something in the air, but is it tree pollen or grass? Dust mites, mold or cat dander? We can provide in-office “skin scratch” testing to find the answers.

Once we have identified your allergies we can help you to manage your symptoms using natural medicine for symptom management and help you minimize your allergies overtime. For example, we often find that people who have environmental allergies often also have food sensitivities that can make their environmental allergies worse. By identifying food sensitivities and working to heal the digestive tract, we often find that our patients suffer less from their seasonal/inhaled allergies.

Another option for getting rid of those pesky allergies is something called sublingual immunotherapy.

What is Sublingual Immunotherapy (SLIT)?

SLIT is a safe, injection-free treatment that addresses the underlying causes of seasonal and environmental allergies.

It works by delivering a low dose of the allergenic substance (eg. pollen) at frequent intervals under the tongue to build up the body’s tolerance to an allergen over time. This approach is similar to traditional allergy injections but can be a safer option. The reason for this is because the treatment is administered 2 – 3 times a day, rather than weekly or twice weekly via in office injections, so the amount of allergenic substance in each does can be decreased (and therefore is very unlikely to cause a negative reaction).

Sublingual immunotherapy has been found to be effective in the treatment of hay fever, allergic rhinitis, allergic conjunctivitis and allergic asthma and can help to prevent the development of allergic asthma in children who suffer from eczema and allergic rhinitis.

Treatment with Sublingual Immunotherapy (SLIT)

Treatment begins with an in office allergy scratch test to ensure that SLIT is right for you. For those whose allergies follow a seasonal course (pollen allergies) the best time to start treatment is 4 to 6 weeks before your allergy season, however, it is also possible to treat during your allergy season. Formulas are available to treat a number of common allergens including: cats, trees, grass, weed, ragweed, dust mite and mold.

Getting Started

If you would like to have the allergy scratch test performed, you have a couple of options.

• Existing patients can have their test done at their next schedules appointment.
• If you are not yet a patient, you have two options:
  1. Book an initial appointment with one of us, let us know you’re interested and we’ll do the test on your first visit (while we take your detailed health history). Cost of test is $60 plus the cost of the visit.
  2. If you’re not quite sure if we are the right fit for you, you may book in for testing during an extended half hour meet and greet visit. We will ask you to fill out a short intake form and will perform the test for you. We can discuss further how naturopathic might be able to help your specific needs. If you decide to go this route please know that no treatment will be offered (we require a full consult for that). Cost of testing is $60 for the test and $60 for the visit.

Important! If you would like to have scratch testing for environmental allergies there are a couple of safety considerations you should be aware of. Patients who are on beta blockers or who are pregnant or nursing are not eligible. People with asthma should have their symptoms well under control before commencing and are requested to bring their blue inhalers (salbutamol) with them for testing and treatment. If you are taking antihistamines they may decrease the effectiveness of the test.