Needles in a Wheat Stack

Every year for the past 4 I seem to have the same problem.  My body decides that its #1 job is to produce mucus.  It is often accompanied by loosing my voice once or twice, sneezing on occasion, and a cough.  The first year that it happened it lasted from around Thanksgiving to Easter.  Not the whole time, but on and off throughout.  During these phases I usually feel pretty good, it's just really obnoxious.  Occasionally I think the drainage causes infection, but just minor, and then I get over it.

Let me frame this all with the fact that I'm not a big fan of pharmaceuticals.  However, the first year this happened I went to the doctor, got a round of antibiotics ... it did nothing.  I went back, they gave me an inhaler ... it did nothing.  I took allergy pills with a decongestant: they helped, but made me loopy and dried me out.  The next 2 years I was very inconsistent with what I took, and just let my body run its course.

This past week the mucus producing fairies returned, and I went to the acupuncturist.

Hubs started seeing an acupuncturist when he was dealing with all of his hand problems, and credits the Dr (along with massage and some physical therapy exercises) with his return to being normal again.  Now the acupuncturist didn't just do acupuncture, he assigned hubs with lot of homework: breathing exercises, stretching, nerve gliding exercises.  He also tested him for common food allergies, using a crazy and unsubstantiated science called "applied kinesiology," and found reactions to peanuts, tomatoes and casein.   However, after he eliminated those foods, he noticed a decrease in puffiness in his hands.

So, I went to my appointment today.  Long story short I reacted to histamines, wheat (but not gluten), shellfish, dust and pet dander.  I then had a 20 min acupuncture treatment to reset my immune system.  The Dr thinks that the more quickly and completely that I can eliminate wheat the faster I'll see this clear up.  I figure I'll give it a month and try to do it cold turkey.  If it causes a significant improvement, I'm a believer.  However, this means no stuffing or pie at thanksgiving, and no cookies or cake at my baby showers. :(

I suppose I've been Paleo-curious for about a year, so why not give the wheat-free thing a try?  For those that don't know what a Paleo diet is, it's basically no grains.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted as to how it goes.