Five Allergy Busters

Pollen is in the air!

That’s right, it is allergy season again. After all of this wonderful rain, many of our fall plants are in full bloom and many folks seem to be experiencing some allergic reactions during this time.

If you suffer from seasonal allergies you may actually have some unidentified internal stressors. Allergies are connected to compromised immune, adrenal, and digestive systems. When people begin to build their health, they often notice their seasonal allergies are no longer an issue.

Here are a few things to remember during allergy season while you work on restoring proper function to your body:

1.Diet can play a huge part in our bodies capability to deal with allergens

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald says, “Oftentimes, allergic responses are exacerbated when the body is overloaded with triggers, and diet is an obvious place to start decreasing that burden. Not only that, our diet offers incredible opportunity to drive anti-inflammatory and anti-histamine activity in our body.”

Things like dairy, sugar, alcohol and gluten can inhibit your immune system and only worsen some of the common allergy symptoms such as swollen sinus cavities. Try to stay away from these foods, and any other known allergy or sensitive foods.

2. Herbs for allergies

My favorite herb during allergy season is Stinging Nettles.This can be found in tea, capsule or tincture form at most health food stores. Nettles also grow wild in damp areas, so consider growing them in your garden or wild harvesting them. Don’t forget to wear gloves when harvesting them, they are called stinging nettles for a reason!

I usually start drinking nettle tea daily a few weeks before allergy season hits. They can also be used in savory recipes or as a substitute for cooked spinach. Not only are they beneficial for many health issues, but they are also delicious!

3. Quercetin

Quercetin can be found in foods such as peppers, onions, capers, and can also be purchased in supplement form. According to the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, “Bioflavonoids [such as quercetin] are natural antihistamine and strongly anti-allergenic.” Look for QBC Plex this product contains quercetin, bromelain an enzyme that helps reduce inflammation, and vitamin C – which we all know is good for boosting the immune system.

4. Keep up with your cleaning!

Pollen from outside can easily get in our house, especially when we carry it around on our bodies. Find a place by the back door to leave your shoes instead of bringing in debris.

Don’t underestimate the power of washing your face and hair when coming home. Pollens can build up on our skin throughout the day and washing when we get home helps to keep them out of the house. It is also important to change the bed sheets, vacuum, and replace your air conditioning filters more often than normal.

Be mindful of the type of cleaning products you use. Extra chemicals means extra irritants for the immune system. Stick with natural cleaning products!

5. Homeopathics for allergies are also available and are great when you need some really quick relief.

Most health food stores and even some grocery stores carry regional homeopathics. Homeopathic medicine adopts the philosophy that like treats like, they use diluted amounts of that which ails you to help fix the same problem. Regional allergy products of this sort actually use the pollens from

specific areas to help people with the common allergies in their area.

Resources:

http://www.naturopathic.org/content.asp?contentid=117