Hay fever is described as mainly a summer ailment and allergic rhinitis the same condition occuring all year round. The usual explanation for either condition is that there is an over reaction to so called allergens such as pollen, spores, dust, fur, feathers, cigarette smoke, house mites, various smells and some foods. There are many treatments aimed at symptoms, but none are particularly effective. There is often considerable expenditure on the physical environment such as changing floorings and providing air filters.

The two conditions cause itching in the nose, and then often the pharynx and eyes. This is followed by watery eyes, sneezing and fluid discharge from the nose. Frontal headaches and irritability may occur. Other symptoms include anorexia, depression, insomnia and conjunctivitis. After a time, coughing and asthmatic wheezing may follow. In some cases the symptoms are bad enough to prevent the person from working, or from doing other activities such as sport or driving.

The interior lining of the nose, like all of the gastro-intestinal tract, is well supplied with mucus secreting glands and ducts which carry mucus to the surface under pressure. These ducts are "havards", habituating and velocity associated reabsorptive ducts, or havards. The interior lining of the nose is open to all kinds of airborne microbes, but is normally protected from these by short chains of amino acids called anti-microbial peptides. These anti-microbial peptides are only effective when enclosed within a fluid of a fairly precise salinity, such as normal nose mucus.

When the mucus passes through the duct to the interior surface of the nose, sodium and chloride are reabsorbed into the body. Normally this results in fluid on the interior surface at the correct salinity. If, however, the mucus is speeded up because of a cold or influenza or because of irritation or even spicy food or some drugs, then more salt is reabsorbed. Thus with the mucus at low salinity, the protection of the anti-microbial peptides is lost, and the interior of the nose is open to the entry of microbes.

These microbes then enter the mucus secreting ducts resulting in an immune system reaction which blocks some of the ducts. This has the protective effect of preventing the entry of further microbes, but the mucus, being produced under pressure below the duct blockage, ruptures the duct and spreads into the surrounding surface lining of the nose. The interior of the nose is now inflamed and is "allergic" to any number of particles, like pollen, which normally would not cause any problem.

This is, for the first time in history, the complete description of the cause of hay fever or allergic rhinitis.

Almost everybody gets a cold, or some other nose irritation at some time, so why does not everybody have rhinitis? These irritations are normally short lived, and so in the majority of people the salt conserving mechanism of the mucus secreting ducts will return to normal when the irritation stops. However when the irritation continues for an extended time, then because the ducts are habituating, they change from their original habituation to adverse habituation. In adverse habituation they continue to conserve excess salt even when the irritation is discontinued.

This adverse habituation can be overcome by the use of ActivSignal^TM Sodium patches, tablets or pills, a new invention of Warren Ward. ActivSignal^TM therapeutic products are fast acting, but are not absorbed into the body and have no side effects. ActivSignal^TM Sodium works by signalling to the body the presence of extra sodium. This signal switches off the excess conservation of salt by the mucus secreting ducts and so stops the condition.

The first commercial ActivSignal product is now under development.

In some cases the excess action of the ducts may resist switching off because blood glucose is too high. The body defends the osmolality above all else. Blood glucose contributes to serum osmolality, so that if glucose is high the body subtracts sodium to compensate, leaving the body apparently low in sodium. Thus the ducts will not switch to original habituation until blood glucose is lowered to normal.

This can be done by following a low carbohydrate diet, together with exercise to "burn off" the glucose. Alternatively, or in addition, adults may use anti-diabetic drugs to induce the liver to reduce the set point for the output of glucose.

Those who have read the earlier pages on this innatehealth.com website will have noted the similarity between the causes of asthma, eczema and rhinitis or hay fever. This connection has long been known, but has never been explained until now. The connection between the three conditions is that they are all miliaria class conditions.