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Springtime can smell wonderful, the first flowers are blooming and the air is fresh after a long cold winter. You take a deep breath and then an hour later your eyes are itching and your nose is stuffy, no wait a minute your nose is running, no it’s stuffy again.
You look at tomorrows forecast and see that it will be nice and warm and breezy, sounds pleasant and then they go and ruin it by putting up that colorful chart of the pollen count for tomorrow and all the different types of pollens and of course they are all in the high category.
When I was younger, I had hay fever that varied from annoying to miserable. At that time, the doctor gave me antihistamines to relieve the hay fever, that worked but it also dried out my sinuses so badly I got terrible nosebleeds. Back then doctors just gave you something and they didn’t have the three pages of side effects like there is today. The side effects were still there; we just didn’t know what they all were.
Allergic rhinitis is the proper term for hay fever and is actually an allergic reaction to the pollen in the air throughout the growing season, which can last into the fall with weed pollens. You can also have this condition all year from indoor dust, mites and other allergens. The symptoms for hay fever are the red itchy eyes, stuffy and runny nose, sneezing, back of the throat itching, bloody nose and sometimes a feverish feeling. An allergic reaction like this occurs when the body’s immune system attacks the harmless allergens.
Almost 20 years ago I started to pay attention to how different foods have made me feel. I discovered that certain foods and drink made my hay fever much worse. When I first became a vegetarian, I noticed that my hay fever symptoms diminished dramatically and then as I added or took away different foods I noticed how my hay fever reacted to these foods. It was the dairy foods that made my hay fever much worse. Cheese, milk and even ice cream would make my symptoms much worse the next several days. When I started to think about the different foods with cheese, I realized I ate them without thinking. Cheese isn’t just a big piece of cheese, it is pizza and it is pasta with Parmesan cheese and it is that ham and cheese sandwich or maybe the cheeseburger.
I also noticed that alcohol made my hay fever a lot worse, just a couple of beers made my sinuses worse. All the previous years I never put the two together. But when I didn’t drink any alcohol for a long time, my hay fever was almost non-existent.
Everyone is different, how certain foods affect me might not affect you the same way. There are some general guidelines and for most people diary and alcohol does seem to worsen hay fever symptoms. Dairy for one increases the mucus in the body, which would make the hay fever worse.
Recent studies have shown that acupuncture can help reduce and in some cases totally relieve hay fever symptoms from occurring.
In a study of hay fever sufferers, 5,237 patients were randomly picked to receive up to 15 acupuncture treatments in a three-month period or to a control group receiving no acupuncture. The conclusion suggests that treating patients with allergic rhinitis in routine care with additional acupuncture leads to clinically relevant and persistent benefits [1].
You should have a wet towel handy and wipe your face frequently to keep the pollen out of your eyes and nose. You can use a mask when mowing the lawn; you can get them at any hardware store.
When you get hay fever, your nose really does get abused with the constant blowing and can also dry up afterwards causing a bloody nose. I have found a product that does a great job of keeping your nose moist and keeping you from getting a nosebleed or at least a serious one. The product is called Ayr (pronounced “air”) from the company B. F. Ascher. The gel type works better since it will also trap the pollen before it enters your body.
I recently found that when the pollen is high and I had the start of what seemed to be miserable sinuses from hay fever, drinking a cup of Echinacea Complete Care tea from Celestial Seasonings, stopped the hay fever symptoms. Other Echinacea teas should do the same.
Studies have found that Spirulina can alleviate hay fever symptoms [2].
Some other natural antihistamines include Quercitin, Reishi mushrooms and omega-3 fatty acids like fish and fish oil. CoQ10 counters histamine reducing hay fever symptoms and capsicum which you get from eating peppers is high in Quercitin.
Eating a less processed diet such as what is known as the Mediterranean diet has been shown to reduce hay fever severity. Possibly the combination of these natural hay fever relievers could help you lessen the amount of medicine you have to take.
Hopefully some of these tips will lessen your hay fever symptoms and you can enjoy the outdoors this spring and summer.
© 2009 Sam Montana
[1] PubMed - B. Brinkhaus MD; Claudia M. Witt MD, MBA; Susanne Jena PhD et al. Acupuncture in patients with allergic rhinitis: a pragmatic randomized trial. Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology 2008, vol. 101, no. 5, pp. 535 - 543
[2] PubMed - Effects of a Spirulina-based dietary supplement on cytokine production from allergic rhinitis patients. J Med Food. 2005 Spring;8(1):27-30.
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Excellent roundup! We have a Sneezy in our household, and we have come to the conclusion that food is one of the culprits - mainly nuts. Way back when, I learned that histamines are similarly affected by colds and hay fever. They are like cousins - from the same family, but with different personalities. that's why Echinacea can work for both.