What is Hay Fever?
A portion of the world’s population experiences hay fever around spring time. This percentage varies between counties but the CDC reports approximately 25% of people in the USA have seasonal allergies, aka hay fever. Hay fever symptoms include; itchy eyes, runny nose, blocked sinuses, sneezing, coughing and excess mucus production. These symptoms are associated with histamine production from your immune system. Basically, plant pollen levels increase in the air during springtime so we breathe more pollen into our airways, which triggers an immune response in people who are allergic to pollen. The immune system detects that the body is “infected”, but we understand that the body is actually just having an allergic reaction to pollen.
How do you stop Hay Fever?
Some allergies are genetic and some people with no family history of allergies may develop allergies. What we can do is help our immune system and its response to the allergen, ie. the thing that causes the allergy. As the human body produces histamine in response to a perceived threat to our vital organs (the allergen) some people are able to manage allergy and hay fever symptoms using antihistamines. Antihistamines are medicines that work by blocking the body’s immune response to histamine. There are both man-made and natural anti-histamines.
Aromatherapy can also help ease the symptoms of hay fever, colds and flu, while helping your immune system to work for you, not against you.
The one aromatherapy blend that has helped my family find relief from hay fever and also to prevent colds and flu, is the Immune Booster. Follow this link for more information on the Immune Booster and where to find it.
Write a comment below with your favourite alternative therapies for hay fever.
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