Natural remedies for seasonal allergies

Allergy Season…ahh chooo!

It seems the older I get, the more sensitive to things I become. This is just one of the reasons I began trying to use more natural products in our lives.  Seasonal allergies are starting to hit me harder and harder each year.  I feel the need to itch my eyes as I sit here typing.  I don’t consider mine bad enough to try prescription meds or even over the counter meds.  I really don’t like taking medicine in the first place, so I wasn’t going to go that route just yet anyway.  So when I saw this link today I was all for it.  Easy home remedies and most of them are cheap too.  No crazy mumbo jumbo either.  Most of these have been used for colds as well. 

I found this on the Yahoo site “Shine”. 

Seven natural remedies for seasonal allergies

By Vincent Pedre M.D

With spring starting, allergy sufferers are dreading the onset of allergy season. Perhaps you are like so many patients for whom the typical allergy medications don’t work that well.

For those of you who think you may have run out of options, there are powerful natural alternatives that can help prepare your body in advance to prevent allergy symptoms and treat them if you already are suffering.

Seven natural remedies for seasonal allergies:

1. Begin with a non-allergenic diet: Although allergens are external, it is actually our body’s response to them that is the cause of the allergy -- it is an allergic reaction. If your body is already inundated with food allergy triggers, your immune system will be hyper-wired to react to external allergens. Eliminate wheat, dairy, and excess sugar, the most common allergens.

2. Try a spoonful of honey: Choose local honey produced by bees that live in your area. The theory is that consuming honey may be much like immunotherapy, in the same way that allergists introduce tiny doses of an allergen to reduce sensitivity. As bees collect nectar from flowers, they inadvertently pick up pollen grains, which get into the honey, creating homeopathic immunotherapy.

Using honey as a preventive works best with a daily dose several weeks or months before allergy season. For example, New York City recently approved beekeeping, and one brand, called Hi-Rise Hive, is sold at local health food stores.

3. Take vitamin C and quercetin: Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant and also a mast cell “stabilizer.” Mast cells are tiny cells that line the mucous membranes, which when exposed to an allergen, release histamine.

Histamine in the bloodstream is the cause of symptoms such as, eye irritation, sneezing, and a runny nose. Vitamin C makes mast cells less reactive, thus reducing allergy symptom, and quercetin is a powerful flavonoid that enhances the effects of vitamin C.

Take 1500mg of vitamin C with 500mg quercetin at the first signs of allergies and repeat every four to six hours as needed. This crafty combination can put a sneezing attack to rest within 20 to 30 minutes. Another great product, Natural D-Hist also contains singing nettle leaf, bromelein (an enzyme), and N-acetyl cysteine (thins mucous).

So there is 3 of the 7.  I don’t know if I can do #1, I am pretty stuck in my ways for my favorite foods.  But 2 and 3 are seem pretty easy.

Click on over to Yahoo’s SHINE to see ideas 4-7.

Debbie