Here Comes Spring (Hay) Fever!

Well after all the fun posting photos of snow, Spring has sprung, hasn’t it!

With Spring comes Spring fever. This is a malady that makes you feel like doing nothing. It attacks us, hand-in-hand with its old ally: hay fever. Hay fever makes us feel like yuck.

Itchy eyes, ears, nose, throat; runny eyes, nose; stuffy nose; and cough are just a few of the delights that visit us each year, if we are among the pollen afflicted.

Pollen is so tiny, yet can cause such misery!

Outside of chemicalizing oneself half to death, what can a person do?

Spring pollens do not bother me, but I have found several ways to beat ragweed, which possibly would help with any other pollen problem. I’d love to share them with you!

1. The first thing I always do is eat honey all year long. Not just any honey will do. It must be raw, as in uncooked. If the label isn’t boasting, it probably isn’t. It also must be native, as in from near where I live. Honey contains miniscule flower parts in various forms, and eating about a teaspoon of it daily helps me beat my pollen allergies, like an immunization.
2. Outside of that tiny dose of honey, I avoid all sugars. Sugar kills immunities, especially the super-processed sugars.
3. I take vitamin C. A lot. Vitamin C is supposed to help with the body’s immunities, so it is what I need. I also find that for me, the things I’ve read about C acting as a mild antihistamine are true. They say you can tell if you’ve had too much when you develop diarrhea. They say to cut back a bit if that happens. I usually get by with taking 2000 milligrams per day.
4. I wash my face a lot. Every time I think the pollen is getting to me, I wash it off. Have you ever seen a magnified photo of pollen? It looks prickly like a cactus. No wonder it bothers the sensitive tissues of face, eyes, and nose. After washing, I apply a coating of some light hand lotion to my face. As it dries, it seems to make a barrier between my skin and the pollen prickles.
5. I stay indoors and keep windows shut. I know, some of you cannot do this, but those who can may find it helps. After all, the pollen is out there, not in here.
6. If I find that I am just simply miserable, I use heat on my face. I run a bowl of hot water, as hot as I’d ever want a bath, and dip water from it with a washcloth and hold this over my face, renewing as it cools. Or I stand in the shower with the water hot, spraying on my face. It takes about 10 or 15 minutes, but this wet heat draws out the histamines in my body. Histamines are what cause allergic reactions, and are what anti-histamines are supposed to circumvent.
   Anyway, as the heat applied to my face draws out the histamines, my face is itchy and my nose grows stuffy. Oh, but—when that itching stops, it means all the histamines my body could produce are out. Most bodies cannot produce any more for several hours, like four to eight. Hours. Of no itching, sneezing, stuffy nose, runny eyes, etc. It’s plenty of time to take a nap or go to a restaurant or visit a friend like a normal person.
7. If I go so far as to become wheezy, I drink hot coffee. Coffee is supposed to be a good emergency substitute for asthma drugs. I don’t have asthma, but hot coffee helps me breathe when the pollen count is high.

There you have it, what I do instead of taking pills. Sometimes, when it really is tough outside, I have to add pills to my regime, but not often. I love not being tied to chemicals and I think you will, too.