You Might Have Fewer Allergies If You Ate More Dirt

The title sounds like clickbait. It's not. There's substantial evidence that early-life exposure to dirt, dust, animals, and microbes significantly reduces the risk of developing allergies and asthma. This isn't fringe science—it's the hygiene hypothesis, supported by decades of epidemiological and immunological research.

I'm not advocating eating mud pies or abandoning hand washing after using the bathroom. The medical profession's adoption of hand washing in the mid-1800s dramatically reduced maternal and infant mortality from puerperal fever. Ignaz Semmelweis, the physician who proposed that doctors wash their hands between autopsies and deliveries, was ridiculed by his colleagues, institutionalized, and died shortly after—only to have his theories validated posthumously as germ theory became accepted.

Hygiene matters. But our modern obsession with sterilizing every surface, eliminating all bacterial exposure, and using antimicr...

What Is Irritable Bowel Syndrome?

Most patients don't walk into the office saying "I have IBS." They describe gas, bloating, inconsistent bowel movements, abdominal discomfort—symptoms they've normalized because they've had them for years. When I ask about bowel habits, I hear "I'm regular—I go once a week, every week."

That's not regular. That's constipation.

Approximately 20% of the population suffers from some form of IBS. One in five people you meet has digestive dysfunction they've either normalized or don't recognize as abnormal. They live with chronic gas, constipation, diarrhea, or alternating between all three, assuming everyone feels this way.

Diagnostic Criteria for IBS

IBS is diagnosed when a person experiences abdominal pain or discomfort at least three times per month for the past three months, without other disease or structural pathology that explains the symptoms. The pain typically correlates with changes in stool frequency or consistency, and often improves afte...

PCOS: What It Is and Why It Matters

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome affects 5-15% of women of reproductive age—approximately 6 million diagnosed annually in the US. Despite how common it is, most women receive inadequate explanations about what's actually driving their symptoms.

Common manifestations include irregular or absent menstrual cycles, subfertility or infertility, male-pattern hair growth (hirsutism—not just facial hair, but thick growth on arms, chest, abdomen), difficulty losing weight despite caloric restriction, low libido, and persistent acne on face and torso.

PCOS also correlates with increased risk for Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, sleep apnea, endometrial hyperplasia, and endometrial or ovarian cancers. If you're reading this list and recognizing your own patterns, you're not alone. And more importantly: PCOS isn't a genetic sentence you're stuck with.

The Problem with "It's Genetic"

The prevailing medical explanation for PCOS is genetic predisposition. Thi...

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A to Z Guide to the Foods that Contain Your Food Allergies

You've identified your food sensitivities. You're avoiding wheat, corn, dairy, soy, or eggs.

Then symptoms return, and you have no idea why.

The problem: these ingredients hide in packaged foods under different names. Modified food starch. Maltodextrin. Lecithin. Hydrolyzed vegetable protein. Natural flavoring.

You're eating your allergens without realizing it.

Here's a comprehensive reference guide to every place your trigger foods show up—including the hidden names manufacturers use to obscure their presence.

Why This Matters

Food manufacturers don't make allergen avoidance easy. The same product from two different brands can contain completely different ingredients derived from entirely different sources.

"Natural flavoring" might mean corn derivatives in one product and soy in another. "Modified food starch" could be wheat, corn, or p...

Food Allergy 101: The Basics of Food Allergies and Sensitivities

Exhausted after a full night's sleep? Constantly bloated? Digestive issues that won't resolve?

Your body might be reacting to what you're eating.

Food allergies and sensitivities don't always show up as hives or anaphylaxis. More often, they present as chronic low-grade symptoms that chip away at your energy, digestion, immune function, and overall health—without you realizing food is the culprit.

Here's what you need to know about how food sensitivities work and why they matter.

Two Types of Food Reactions

Food reactions fall into two distinct categories, and understanding the difference is critical for identifying what's affecting you.

Immediate Food Reactions (IgE-mediated)

These are classic food allergies. Your immune system recognizes a specific food (shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts) as a threat and launches an immediate response.

Symptoms appear within minutes to eight hours after eating the trigger food. Rea...

What Causes a Food Allergy

Food allergies and sensitivities are increasing at rates that don't match genetic timelines. Your genes didn't change in the last 30 years. Something else did.

Understanding what causes food allergies requires looking beyond "your immune system overreacts" and examining the specific breakdowns in digestion, gut barrier function, and immune regulation that create allergic responses.

Here's what's actually happening and why it matters.

The Mechanism: How Food Allergies Develop

A food allergy is an immune system response to a protein your body recognizes as a foreign invader.

About 70-80% of your immune system lives in your digestive tract. When food proteins trigger immune reactions in the gut, the response cascades throughout your entire system.

The breakdown process:

1. Incomplete digestion. When your stomach doesn't produce enough hydrochloric acid or your pancreas doesn't secrete adequate digestive enzymes, food proteins don't break down completely i
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What are allergies?
By J. J. Gregor DC, DIBAK, DCCN

It's allergy season again here in North Texas.  I’ve been told since I moved here 14 years ago that there are two types of people here: those who have allergies and those who will get allergies.   

Growing up in West Virginia, I experienced horrible sniffling, sneezing, sinus headaches, you name it, for a week every spring and every fall.  What's crazy is that when I moved to Dallas, all my allergies 'went away'.  So, why when I moved to one of the worst allergy prone places in the US, I suddenly felt my best? 

Allergies are an immune response or reaction to specific substances.  Allergens are all around us and are particularly problematic in the spring with trees budding out, flowers blooming, grass being cut and tons of pollen flying through the air.  And in Fall, it's the budding of other seasonal plants and the sap moving in trees. 

Conservatively 10 to 20% of the population of the U.S. suffer from some seasonal allergy at var...