ASK WELL
Are My Allergies All in My Head?
Allergies exist. But emotional factors can make them better or worse.
Q. Are my allergies all in my head?
A. No. But emotional factors can make allergies better or worse.
Doctors have long suspected a connection between allergies and the psyche. In 1883, Dr. Morell Mackenzie, a pioneer in the field of ear, nose and throat medicine, observed, "It has long been noticed that attacks of prolonged sneezing are most apt to occur in persons of nervous temperament."
In the 1940s, doctors discovered that allergic patients could be tricked into experiencing allergy attacks. In one case, a doctor exposed a patient to a goldenrod plant, without telling the patient that the plant was artificial. The patient immediately developed sneezing, runny nose and nasal congestion. These symptoms resolved quickly once the doctor revealed his deception to the patient.
Observations such as this stimulated interest in hypnosis as a possible treatment for allergies. In 1958, the prestigious medical journal The Lancet reported a case of a woman whose allergies were cured by hypnosis. But initial enthusiasm for this technique waned after other doctors were unable to replicate these results. Eventually, hypnosis was abandoned as a treatment for allergies.
Still, doctors continued to note a high incidence of apparently psychosomatic symptoms among allergic patients. In a British survey of more than 10,000 people conducted in the 1990s, for example, 20 percent indicated that they developed itching, hives and other allergic symptoms in response to various foods. But fewer than 2 percent reacted to these foods on formal skin testing.
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