How to Keep Your Allergies in Check Without Pharmaceuticals
Seasonal allergies can be absolutely debilitating to anyone that suffers from them. Stuffy heads can lead to splitting headaches. Itchy dry eyes can make every waking minute insufferable. And, sinus problems can lead to discomfort, dizziness, and post-nasal drip causing sore throats.
Worst of all, you are never quite sure when they are going to hit.
Pharmaceuticals can help to reduce the effects of some of the symptoms, but they don’t come without their own problems. Both prescription and over-the-counter allergy medications can leave you feeling sleepy or run down, they can dry out your sinuses so much that they feel even worse than before you took them, and they can put a serious dent in your wallet.
Some other less common but more serious side effects are insomnia, increased blood pressure, and rashes.
Luckily, you have allergy relief options that are natural.
3 Natural Allergy Remedies
When you want to skip the pills and take care of those seasonal allergies, try these three alternatives first.
Raw Honey
Honey tastes great, but it’s actually a fantastic nutritional supplement as well. Honey is known for being a sweetening option that contains nutrients unlike sugar, contains antioxidants, and is even part of different weight loss programs and strategies.
However, it’s much less well known that consuming honey, in particular raw honey, can help protect people from seasonal allergy outbreaks. But, there is a catch.
Raw honey needs to be from a local source in order for it to help with your allergies. For example, if you live in northern California, raw honey from southern Louisiana is most likely not going to help.
This is because the bees that produce the honey need to interact with the local foliage.
Neti Pots
If you have never heard of a neti pot, don’t be surprised. They are not a very common item amongst the general population. For allergy sufferers though they are becoming more and more accepted as a way to relieve sinus discomfort including that which is caused by allergies.
A neti pot is actually a very simple tool. It’s a small container that has a long spout. The spout goes into your nostrils so that the solution in the container, which is usually a saline solution, can flush out your sinuses clearing them up.
It works because the flush removes pollen and other inhaled allergens that have embedded themselves into the inner linings of your nose. Unlike taking a pill that fights against symptoms, neti pots help tackle the cause directly.
This is a very inexpensive and simple method with virtually no downsides. Just make sure to properly clean your neti pot after each use.
Probiotics
If you’re used to taking pills to help alleviate the torture caused by allergies, you may have an option in pill form other than a pharmaceutical. That option, though not always taken as a pill, is probiotics.
So, what are probiotics? They are actually live microorganisms you consume. They are considered good bacteria that improve your gut health as opposed to bad bacteria that can cause illness.
You can purchase probiotics as a nutritional supplement just as how you can buy calcium, vitamin C, and other vitamins and minerals. Or, you can try to get your fill from food sources like certain yogurts and fermented foods like kimchi and sauerkraut.
The tricky part about using probiotics to treat seasonal allergies is that the connection is not completely understood. While consuming local raw honey helps train your immune system to react to the common pollens and allergens in the area, and neti pots help remove the allergens from your body, the mechanism for how probiotics works is much less clear.
However, there are studies that show how people with allergy problems that took probiotics found relief by doing so. The studies are not perfect though and more research is needed to be absolutely sure just how much probiotics help and why.
In Conclusion
Seasonal allergies are no fun. They can make anyone’s life almost unbearable from the time they appear to the time they subside.
As severe allergies can completely derail your life by causing you to miss work, shut down your social life, and just be a miserable person from dawn to dusk, the first thing most people do when they feel that initial onset is to run and grab some over-the-counter pills. It’s completely understandable, but sometimes they do more harm than good.
Instead of trying to treat the symptom, an approach that treats the cause in a natural organic manner can be less harmful to your both your body and your wallet. Eating raw honey, flushing your nasal passages with a neti pot, and consuming healthy bacteria in the form of probiotics are three examples of doing just that.
Do you know of any other all-natural seasonal allergy remedies?
Please share this article to help those on suffer with allergies find natural relief!!
