So many people suffer from allergies, especially seasonal ones like hay fever. They look for remedies to get rid of allergies fast, so they don’t have to linger on in agony every single year. Some may be popping an antihistamine now and again, but never really understanding what triggers the allergy or working out how to alleviate the symptoms.
An allergy can be triggered by many things including certain foods, dust and other irritants.
If you want to minimize the effect of allergies, you have to understand what they are, then you can determine how to get rid of allergies in the best way, using natural remedies.
At its heart, and allergy is an immune response. It is your body’s defensive reaction to invasive substances. These can trigger a response sometimes that is over the top, which creates increased symptoms amongst allergy sufferers.
So how do you determine what allergy you are suffering from, and then work out the natural remedies that will best help you combat the symptoms?
Controlling symptoms
Allergies carry many common symptoms, mostly around breathing and the head. You know the feeling, sneezing, runny or blocked nose, watery and itchy eyes, and that feeling of tightness, almost like a headache.
At the most extreme end of the spectrum, this can be debilitating to the point where people cannot function.
Most people turn to antihistamines to try and control the allergy. There are two additional ways you can hit your allergies to minimize them:
- Find out what is causing the allergy and avoid it.
- Find a natural remedy which will help to alleviate the symptoms.
Once you have found what the allergy is being caused by, and you have worked through the natural options available, you should be able to minimize your symptoms. If you then want to use antihistamine on top, it can often totally relieve the symptoms.
What could be causing my allergy?
Before you even consider home remedies, it’s a great idea to try and work out what is causing the allergic reaction in the first place.
Avoidance can be better than cure in most situations, although not always practical if it isn’t an airborne allergy such as hay fever.
One of the main culprits other than hay fever is to look at what you eat. Often it’s the food and the ingredients in it that are the main culprits for allergic responses, and these can include:
- Bananas
- Citrus
- Dairy products
- Alcohol (especially wheat fermented)
- Caffeine
- Chocolate
- Colorings and additives
- Nuts
- Wheat
- Red meat
A great tip is to try chopping out one of the main potential culprits at a time to see if the symptoms are reduced or disappear entirely. Keep a food diary so that you can keep track of it.
It’s also a great idea to keep a diary generally whenever you get an allergic response. Write down the time, place and situation, and what you have eaten or drunk, to see if you can pinpoint anything that could be the trigger.
If after doing this you can’t eliminate or minimize exposure to whatever is triggering your allergy and making you feel rubbish, then it’s time to look at some home remedies that will help you to get rid of your allergies naturally.
Top 5 Natural Allergy Remedies
- Butterbur
Several members of the daisy family contain the relevant active ingredient. Butterbur roots have been used in herbal remedies for centuries. Its renowned for being able to help with inflammation of the sinuses, and helping to relieve the symptoms of airborne pollen allergies. One word of caution is that undertreated butterbur contains pathogens which can be damaging to the liver and potentially cause cancer. So only ever use butterbur that has been certified free of pathogens.
- Stinging nettle
Don’t get concerned here, you’re not going to sting yourself to get rid of your allergy and you will not be swallowing stinging nettles. The truth is that it contains lots of great things, and it’s been used in herbal remedies for a long time. You can purchase nettle leafs already prepared for consumption and there is a lot of evidence that they can relieve allergy symptoms.
- Apple cider vinegar
This one sounds just a little bit crazy but there is wide anecdotal evidence that it can really help allergy sufferers. Many people find that drinking apple cider vinegar relieves and reduces the production of excess mucous. This helps to move the allergic response through and out of your system more quickly and relieve the pressure on your sinuses and head. Apple cider vinegar also has the great side benefits of being a digestive aid.
- Timothy grass
Otherwise known as phelum pratense, this perennial grass native to most of Europe has often been used as an allergy relief. It’s best absorbed in small quantities under the tongue, and is safe for children to try as well. You can buy it in tablet form in specialist homoeopathic stores. It acts as a natural vaccine, allegedly helping to immunize you against the worst symptoms of airborne allergies such as grass and pollen hay fever.
- Honey
A lot of people who suffer from allergies swear by taking honey to alleviate the symptoms. The theory is that you eat local honey every day, which contains small amounts of the pollen produced locally. By exposing yourself to it in small quantities, your body starts to naturally build up resistance to the pollen that triggers hay fever in your area. On top of that, when swallowed during an outbreak it can help to remove pollen build ups in the throat.
Other Things You Can Use To Get Rid Of Allergies
There are other natural substances you can try to help increase the power of the natural allergy remedies.
Probiotic yoghurt
The first thing you can try is eating probiotic yoghurt. There is evidence that the ingestion of beneficial bacteria and increasing their presence in the human gut can help to stifle the power of allergy outbreaks.
This is based around research amongst pregnant women. Breastfeeding women with good gut bacteria tend to have children who have stronger abilities to resist allergies than women who don’t, or women who bottle feed early.
Eat well
Another great tip to try and address allergy outbreaks is to eat well. You should eat lots of green, leafy vegetables, onions, ginger, garlic and lean meat. Avoid white carbohydrates which contain wheat and other things unhealthy for you. At the end of the day, the more processed food and additives you eradicate from your diet, the less likely you are to trigger an allergic response through what you are putting into your body.
Exercise
The second thing you can do is to exercise. Exercise increases your breathing rate, clears your system out, clears your nose and helps with your breathing. Obviously if you suffer from severe asthma or allergic reactions to allergies then you shouldn’t get more out of breath, but for people with minor allergies, it’s often great for clearing the response more quickly.
Take supplements
The last tip we happy here is to make sure that you are getting all the vitamins, minerals and other great things into your body that may be missing through your diet. If your body is getting everything it needs, it’s in a strong condition to fight an allergy response and respond in the right way.
So a great thing to do is to take a multivitamin tablet each day to see if that has a positive effect.
You can also try flaxseed oil, this has been linked to improving the bodies function to respond to an allergy outbreak. Simply take 1 tablespoon daily of good quality flaxseed oil.
Homeopathy
Another good thing to try is homeopathy. There are lots of homeopathic medicines available which claim to reduce the symptoms of hay fever and strengthen the body to its response to the invasion of the substance that triggers an allergic response.
For example, Nux Vomica (which despite the name won’t make you vomit) has been found useful by many people to relieve the symptoms runny nose and sneezing outbreaks.
Try a natural allergy remedy today
If you are suffering from an allergy then you have nothing to lose from trying to get rid of the allergy through using natural products.
If antihistamine isn’t working for you, if pinpointing what is triggering the allergy doesn’t work then you have nothing to lose by finding and trying natural allergy remedies.
The best news about this is that these remedies are usually easy to get hold of, cheap and safe. So you literally have nothing to lose by giving them a try, if you manage to hit on the right remedy or combination of remedies that alleviate your symptoms then the effort you have to put in is always going to be worth it.
Thank you for your comments and advice but my allergy is at high gear