Natural Allergy Treatments
I am lucky that I don’t seem to have serious hayfever or pollen allergies. I know a lot of people who do and spend a few weeks each year being miserable and sneezing. Several people have asked me for natural remedies for allergies so they can avoid taking too many strong medications. Here’s a roundup of some ideas that many people believe are helpful. As always, check with your doctor if you have a serious medical condition.
–Omega-3 — deficiencies of omega-3 are believed to result in worse allergy symptoms. Good sources include egg yolks, salmon, and omega-3 supplements. If you are vegetarian or vegan, you may need to supplement essential fatty acids.
–Apples and onions — to be more precise quercitin, a flavonoid found in apples and onions, green tea and several other foods, is also believed to reduce allergy symptoms.
–Reduce mold — I have a friend who would suffer an outbreak of sinusitis everytime it rained steadily for 2 or 3 days. She finally deduced that the dampness triggered mold spores which aggrevated her allergies. Reduce mold by making sure there aren’t large pockets of dampness, leaky shingles, or wet storage items that might promote mold growth.
–Reduce dust — dust mites are the nemesis of a lot of people. Keeping hypoallergenic pillows and comforters and reducing pet dander helps keep dust mites in check.
–Neti pot — probably the best natural anti-allergy item that many people mentioned is the neti pot, or an oddly shaped small container that facilitates nasal irrigation. Most of the time people use plain warm water and try to eliminate any allergens that were inhaled.
I’d love to hear of other natural allergy remedies you’ve tried.
Shared at Works for Me Wednesday
Great tips. I don’t use a Neti pot but plain water works for me.
I second the Neti pot. Also, my husband swears by putting honey in your tea or coffee, especially if it’s local honey. It does seem to work!
Julie, thanks.
Jodi, another neti pot user. I put honey in tea and have heard it’s good for a cough, but these days I use it mainly because it tastes good
Great tips! We use a neti pot here as well. I’d love to do apples and onions, but I’m allergic to both go figure. Nettle is also supposed to be good for seasonal allergies. I used to give my kids nettle tea and use an herbal tincture for kids that contained it. Not sure if it helped or not as we had other issues that made it not a good option for us.
Kelly, thanks for the update. Have never tried nettle. Will look into it.
Allergy season will be here soon, thanks for the tips. I hate living on medicine each spring, but it always seems to be needed.
Jennifer, hope this season is not too bad. Maybe if it rains a bit more, the pollen will be washed out quickly!
Allergies season is just kicking off where I live, so this is a timely list. I easily forget how important my general health is to warding off pollen’s ill effects–thanks for the reminders to do fish oil, vitamin D, etc.
I got my first neti pot in the fall, but I don’t enjoy using it–I think it’s time to pull it out though!
Anne, I find the vitamin D seems to help a lot. The neti pot takes some practice, but it makes a lot of sense. Thanks for commenting.