8 Natural Ways of Tackling Hay Fever

8 Natural Ways of Tackling Hay Fever

By Dr Miranda Phaedonos (Osteopath)

If you live in Melbourne, you definitely know how much worse hay fever season has become. Whether you’re a new, or long-term sufferer, these tips could help you combat this annoying allergy! Eat Local Honey This helps to increase the strength of your immunity as you build up a tolerance to local pollen, therefore decreasing hay fever symptoms. Ideally, you should be consuming local honey (around 1tsp) every day for at least one month before spring (some say five!).

Water, Water & More Water

If you’re dehydrated, the body can actually produce more histamine (what’s responsible for the immune response), thus increasing your hay fever symptoms. So, the more water you drink, the less stress your body is under and the better you feel!

Increase Vitamin C

There’s no doubt about it, this vitamin does wonders for our immune system – it also acts as a natural anti-histamine. Don’t like taking vitamins? That’s ok, just add some more broccoli, strawberries, kiwi fruit, lemon and orange in your diet for natural supplementation.

Wear Your Sunnies

A majority of the pollen that makes its way into the body is through your eyes – it’s no surprise they itch and water as they do! These spores are very sticky, so love to cling. By wearing your sunglasses, the lens picks up most of the spores and shouldn’t irritate you as much.

Wash Your Pets Regularly

If you have house pets that love to be outdoors, pat them down with a damp cloth as they come back inside, or wash them weekly. Pollen sticks to your pet’s fur, making it easy for your fur baby to drag the spored indoors and for you to suffer the consequences.

Home -> Shower -> Change -> Repeat

Just in case you haven’t noticed yet, pollen is sticky! It will stick to your clothes and exposed skin, so taking your clothes off and showering as soon as you get home, on a daily basis, will help to decrease your symptoms drastically.

Know What makes it worse:

If you have known allergies or intolerances to particular foods and ingest them, it can actually make hay fever worse. If the immune response has already begun before stepping outside, you’re more susceptible to reacting to pollen as the body is in a hypersensitive state.

Essential Oils: Lavender, frankincense, tea tree and lemon balm can all play a role in relieving your symptoms.

Hint: Don’t heat the oils up, rather use a cold mist vaporiser to disperse the oils. This means that the active constituents within the oil can do what they’re best at, rather than denaturising and only letting out a pleasant scent.

Are you out of the above essential oils? That’s ok, pop in to Kundalini House, where the lovely ones at the front desk can easily help you restock!

Dr. Miranda Phaedonos is an Osteopath and Yoga Therapist who practises Tuesday, Thursdays and Saturdays at Kundalini House.

For appointments, click here or call reception on (03) 9482 4325.