So along with the glorious weather, up goes the pollen count. For the approximately 20 million hayfever sufferers in the UK, that hardly feels fair does it? But do you have to dose yourself up with steroid sprays, drops and antihistamines or is there a more natural solution that doesn’t leave you with side effects?
Pharmaceutical vs Natural Treatments for Hayfever Symptoms
“I don’t have any side effects and the antihistamines work just fine”, I hear you say. Well all pharmaceuticals have substances in them that are not found in nature and therefore the body can respond in unpleasant ways such as getting drowsiness and headaches.
Side effects of steroid sprays and drops can include fatigue and even mood swings. Steroid treatments for hayfever can also play havoc with the natural production of cortisol, which helps us wake up alert in the morning, deal with stressors throughout the day and lowers to help us sleep at night.
There are natural alternatives that work in the same way as pharmaceutical products, as I’ll discuss below, which can help alleviate the symptoms of allergies. But as I will go on to explain, you still need to treat the cause when it comes to allergies, as histamine is an important and useful chemical in the body that regulates where the blood flows to, so ideally we only want to use these substances to deal with the symptoms whilst we treat the cause.
Natural Anti-Histamines
Notably the bioflavonoid quercetin has been found in a number of studies to have a natural anti-histamine effect. This natural substance is found in foods such as buckwheat (particularly buckwheat tea), onions, green tea, apples and berries but is even more beneficial in supplement form.
Vitamin C containing bioflavonoids can have a powerful effect in alleviating hayfever symptoms, as the bioflavonoids increase the absorption and therefore the antioxidant and anti-histamine action of the vitamin C.
Substances such as Boswellia, Luteolin and Curcumin are all natural anti-inflammatories.
Methionine helps break histamine down and binds it to get it out of the body, as some people can’t break down histamine in the body effectively due to certain variations in their genes.
Substances such as Beta Glucans and Lactobacillus L92 help to modulate immune function.
Natural Alternatives to Steroid Sprays and Drops
Netti potting can have a similar effect as steroid sprays and eye drops without the side effects and urine therapy can increase its effectiveness even further.
Haymax is a natural and non-toxic preparation which can be put in the nostrils and under the eyelashes to catch any pollen and reduce aggravation to the eyes and nasal passage.
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy is about introducing a tiny bit of the substance you are allergic to into the body with the aim of getting the immune system to become effective at dealing with it. However, most forms of immunotherapy are through injection.
Injections go straight through the first line of defence of the immune system into the blood stream – as you’ll see below, that’s how we get allergies in the first place, by compromising that first line of defence, which is extremely stressful and dehydrating to the body, further worsening the conditions under which the allergy manifested in the first place.
Bee pollen can be a useful oral form of immunotherapy, starting with 1 grain under the tongue and increasing by a grain a day as long as no reaction is felt.
Causes of Hayfever
Leaky Membranes So as I’ve stressed above, alleviating the symptoms can provide initial relief but we must also treat the cause. So how do allergies exist in the first place? Pollen is not a dangerous substance is it? We have an external skin, but did you know that we also have an internal skin, our mucous membranes, where our skin turns inwards in our urinary tract, respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract and also the reproductive tract for us females? This internal skin is meant to keep things that we breathe in or ingest out of the blood stream. We cannot have an allergy unless something has somehow got through that internal skin. So how can that happen? The membranes of our internal skin can become “leaky” for a number of reasons. The main reason is when we suppress an appropriate inflammatory response. We can have inflammation as the result of an external injury, such as a cut or a bite or an injury to tissue, but also as the result of excessive toxicity within the body. Toxicity can build up not just through what we ingest, breathe in, or think, but also through what we suppress. So the body might have the need to release toxins through diarrhoea, vomiting, increased perspiration or even, for us ladies, heavier menstruation. However, we often thwart the body’s attempt to release the build up of toxins by using medications and products such as anti-perspirants, which stop symptoms but lead the body to throw an inflammatory response to try to deal with the toxins.
Detoxification
In addition, if the body's routes of elimination (bowel, liver, lymph, etc) are not working effectively, this can also prevent the toxins from getting out. So then what happens (which also happens in injury), is that the white blood cells will move towards, and stick to the side of, the blood vessels, histamine is released into the area and the blood vessel becomes more permeable, so that the white blood cells which are part of our immune system can start cleaning up that area for us.
Pain, swelling, redness and loss of function occur as a result of our body trying to rid itself of the toxicity. It is an intelligent response. If this is allowed to run its course, the white blood cells can get through into the tissue, clean up the situation, and then the blood vessels will cease to be permeable. However, if this response is suppressed by medications, for example anti-inflammatories, then the process cannot take place, the toxicity goes deeper and the blood vessels remain permeable, or “leaky” as the body recognises that there is still toxicity that needs to get out and keeps that membrane permeable.
Repairing Leaky Membranes
Where the membranes in the gut, or indeed anywhere else, are leaky, allowing the allergen into the blood, there are a number of useful supplements. These include:
L-glutamine
Colostrum (for those who are not allergic to dairy)
Collagen
Zinc
Vitamins A and D (which should be taken together as they compete for cell receptor sites)
Again, advice should be sought as to what to use when and for how long, depending on the particular issues presenting. This is why I never give dosages for supplements in my blogs, as without guidance people can continue taking inappropriate supplements for inappropriate lengths of time and throw off their vitamin and mineral balance.
Lowered Immunity
Even if a substance permeates our internal skin and gets into the blood, our immune cells should still be able to deal with it, as long as our routes of elimination are working well. But when the amount of toxicity coming into our body is greater than the immune cells can deal with, or our routes of elimination aren’t operating well enough to get the toxins out effectively, of which dehydration is a huge part (read my blog about water to find out more), then the immune system’s next intelligent reaction will be to batten down the hatches to try and keep the allergen out.
So our immune system hasn’t “gone wrong” – it’s actually trying to protect us. The symptoms of hayfever, created by the release of histamine, which is a natural substance that is part of our immune system, are there to keep things out of our blood stream by sneezing out the pollen, creating mucous or creating itching which makes our eyes and nose water.
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