'Tis the season when allergy symptoms thanks to allergens like tree pollen hit home and maybe even affect you, like me. Living at Lake Tahoe is a treat during autumn but...this year while the super bloom is happening, pollen plus the ups and downs of temperatures are wreaking havoc on my mind and body. So I've got the budding trees and dust to dander (super tips to get rid of it!) from the dog and cat to make me miserable. Achoo!
Walking in a snow flurry last week and gardening in the sunshine a week prior is enough to make anyone feel a bit out of whack.
But honey comes to the rescue! That's right, by turning to immune-boosting, antioxidant-rich honey, you may find your own allergy symptoms, from hay fever to seasonal-change woes, may stop in their tracks.
The truth is, I've been too busy fighting allergy symptoms that I forgot about home sweet cures ike chocolate and honey. Blame it on the new season and oh, oh, oh--the shedding dog and cat. Hairs, hairs, hairs everywhere. My black T-shirts and sweaters look like a white bunny rabbit's fur. A week ago, I contacted a gp. My eyes were watery. Not to forget the post-nasal drip and sneezing--not fun. And today, my throat is less raspy (dander and dust are no longer extreme and maybe the new rugs are helping). But tree pollen is high and today the air quality is poor. It's time for this honey book author to practice what she preaches and take her own sweet ancient cure, straight from the hive.
Allergies (Stop Seasonal Misery): Dealing with a runny nose, and coughing can ruin an indoor and outdoor event, thanks to seasonal pollen. Every year when the yellow pollen arrives in the spring like an uninvited visitor at Lake Tahoe I hold a tissue in one hand and am on the phone to a pharmacist with the other. I am always on a mission to find the natural remedy to stop my sniffles.
What Honey Rx to Use: Try eating a tablespoon of locally produced honey. Proponents of honey tell me that your immune system will get used to the local pollen in it (it should be withing a 50-mile radius from where you live).
Why You'll Bee Happy: If you have mild allergies, honey may enhance the immune system to build up a better arsenal against airborne allergens. Honey enthusiasts like D.C. Jarvis, M.D., believe honeycomb is excellent for treating breathing problems. The honey prescription, according to him, was chewing honeycomb, which may line the entire breathing tract... "Vermont folk medicine uses honeycomb as a desensitizing agent; from the results obtained by its use it appears to be anti-allergic in its action," notes the good doctor who gives credit to the honey bees.
Beekeepers tell me that honey may help allergies linked to trees and ragweed--the culprit in hay fever and its irritating symptoms during spring and autumn months. So, as beekeepers are workerbee busy at work selling local honey to allergy sufferers, like me (and maybe you, too), I am busy including all types of antioxidant-rich honey in my diet because I want to be covered. And if honey can help me cope with congestion and pesky sniffles, I'm in.
While further research is needed, I'm not going to wait for scientists to go to their lab rats for a go-ahead. Today I'm going to the health food store and getting a jar of local honey. Oh, and I ordered one-day delivery of manuka honey and ginger organic candy drops. I wait.
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