How to Treat Crohn's Disease and Allergies With a Little Known Powerful Antioxidant

Many people who have Crohn's also suffer from another autoimmune related condition, which are allergies. I have personally suffered from both conditions for most of my 59 years. Over that time, the only treatments available to me were either routine allergy shots or various antihistamines, either prescriptive or the over-the-counter.

Allergy shots were effective for a while, until the doses were increased to the point where a bad reaction was experienced, landing me in the emergency ward. This is a very logical result however, because you have to receive allergy shots in increasing doses with the very thing that you are allergic to in order to build up an immunity. The reaction was severe and scary enough to convince me that I could no longer continue the shots. In addition, it became increasing inconvenient to schedule the costly office visits around my work schedule, and dealing with the unpleasant side effects of a sore and itchy arm after each shot.

The antihistamine drugs prescribed to me were effective in controlling my allergy symptoms, but left me drousy and lethargic after taking them. Often it was hard to concentrate at work and difficult to resist the urge to fall asleep, both situations I could ill afford.

I have found the natural antioxidant OPC (Oligomeric Proanthocyanidin), consisting of wine, grape seed extract and pine bark, to be surprisingly as effective as allergy shots and drugs but without the harsh side effects. Why, because of the way OPC handles the histamine problem characteristic in autoimmune diseases. When allergic reactions occur in the body, there is a release of inflammatory chemicals, namely histamine. It is the histamine that triggers the allergic symptoms; the runny nose, wheezing, watery and itchy eyes. Also with Crohn's Disease, it is the histamines that do damage to the body, causing inflammation, pain and other symptoms. The powerful antioxidant OPC significantly reduces the formation of histamine naturally, which means none of the side effects to contend with mentioned earlier.

Many people who have taken OPC products, often not only experience relief from allergies but report, feeling delightfully energetic at the same time. This is because of the high content of free radical scavenging properties found in OPC.