Tackling Seasonal Allergies

April showers have given way to blooming May flowers, trees are shedding yellow pollen, the bees are buzzing and you are. . .sneezing! Eyes running, post nasal drip it's allergy season in fill swing. Before you reach for the Benadryl let's look at another approach to tackling seasonal allergies.

Rather than treating the symptoms (just described above), let's look at a possible reason why the body is in full hay fever mode. If the body is already in a chronically-inflamed state, than the addition of another allergen will push it over the edge. When we look to the diet we see many foods that could be putting the body into a state of system wide inflammation, the two biggest culprits being wheat (gluten) and dairy. If you suffer through a miserable Spring every year and yet would not consider yourself allergic to either wheat or dairy try eliminating them from your diet for a few weeks and see if your symptoms abate.

There are also foods that fall into a 'high histamine' category, in that they contain high amounts of this chemical, known as a biogenic amine. Histamine plays a role in several of the body’s major systems, including the immune, digestive, and neurological systems. We get all the histamine we needs from our own cells, but histamine is also found in certain foods, and coupled with the increase in environmental irritants, the histamine in the food you are eating may be a trigger that pushed you into the misery of allergy season. It is probably unrealistic to try to eliminate all the foods containing histamine from your diet, but at least cutting out the ones that have the most in them might prove beneficial for you at this time of the year.

Lastly, stinging nettles is an excellent ally at this time of the year. Documented in scientific literature, nettles, Urtica dioica, contains a natural anti-histamine and has been used traditionally to bring relief to sufferers during allergy season. Used as a tea or as a tincture, nettles taken two or three times a day at the onset of Spring and through the worst of the pollen, is a safe alternative to the over the counter remedies and can be a great help in alleviating symptoms. together with the other suggestions will help bring a little normalcy back into your life.