Natural Remedies For Seasonal Allergies

If you're like me, you wish you only had seasonal allergies. My whole life I've suffered from everyday allergies, all year around. I've been through medicines, shots and even surgery, and still I sneeze and sniffle everyday. It's a lot better and I can't complain, but I wish there was a cure for allergies. There might not be right now, but here are some natural remedies that might help your allergies this season.

Whenever I see the allergy bar on the news and it's red and high, I moan with disgust. My allergies are bad enough without pollen, grass, ragweed and flower dust flying throughout the air, so when the allergy risk is high, I know it'll be a bad few days. Taking Zyrtec (thankfully it's over-the-counter now) everyday helps a lot, but it's still not even close to a cure. Try out the following natural remedies for the spring and summer season.

Just a spoonful of honey makes the allergies go down

It might seem weird, seeing as bees love pollen and all, but honey, especially from local bees can actually help your

 allergies, as it is seen as a form of immunotherapy. It's similar to how allergy shots (or any shots for that matter) work, where tiny doses of allergenic pathogens are forced into the body in order to reduce the body's sensitivity and increase its build-up.

As bees go from flower to flower collecting nectar, little grains of pollen get picked up as well and therefore end up in the produced honey. When ingested, the allergy sufferer unknowingly consumes pollen, so adding honey to your diet this season is a good form of homeopathic immunotherapy.

It's a little late now, but for future reference, adding honey to your diet weeks to months before allergy season starts for you could help prevent the onset of symptoms in the first place. If you're not a fan of honey, try putting it in tea or even putting it on chicken fingers. It sounds gross but it's delicious, and the honey isn't overpowering this way.

Cleanse your nose and sinuses with a neti pot

If you've never heard of this, it literally is like a mini teapot, and uses a warm saline solution to wash out your sinuses. It can be used after a sinus surgery, for prevention and use after sinus infections, or just for allergies in general, especially in the summer when allergens can be caught in the sinuses through the nose. After you fill it with the solution, you bend down, turn your head to the side and put the end of the pot to one nostril and begin pouring, and then repeat on the other side.

I've used this before and I can't seem to tilt my head at the right angle, because I always end up with the liquid all over my face and warm salt water in my mouth and going down my throat. After a few times of that I gave up, but it's worked for my mom in the past. There are other ways of flushing out your sinuses, such as squeeze bottles, so if the neti pot doesn't sound up your alley, try a different mechanism.

Try implementing a semi or fully non-allergenic diet

This may seem a little over-the-top, but if you're desperate enough you'll try anything right? I know I will! Obviously if

 you have any allergies to food then stay away from that, but limiting your intake of wheat, dairy and excessive sugar could help your external allergies. The definition of an allergy is simply the body's overreacted response to something that is not normally harmful (wow, I remember something from biology class), so it's not the actual allergen that causes symptoms, it's the body's reaction to the substance.

If you're already prone to food or medicinal allergies, external allergies in addition to those could cause your body to go hay-wire. Eliminating the above foods are the most common groups that produce allergies, so lowering them in your diet could potentially greatly increase your immunity against allergens.

These are just three helpful hints that could help you enjoy the coming months just a little bit more. No one likes having their day ruined by bad allergies, so why not give these tips a try? For more tips and information, go to the story on the Yahoo page.

Do you suffer from bad allergies too? Have or will you try and of the listed natural remedies?