Natural Remedies for Seasonal Allergies

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Vannoy Gentles Fite, author of Essential Oils for Emotional Wellbeing and the new Llewellyn’s Book of Natural Remedies.

People all over the world suffer from seasonal allergies, which are mainly spread by pollen during different seasons. No matter what part of the world you live in, there are allergies there. The reactions to seasonal allergies vary from stuffy noses, sore throats, and itchy skin to more serious complaints such as bronchitis, migraines, and even fever.

Various cultures the world over use healing remedies, such as the recipes in Llewellyn’s Book of Natural Remedies, to heal numerous minor symptoms associated with seasonal allergies. You can choose from essential oil recipes, Ayurveda recipes, herbal recipes, or a plethora of home remedies to help rid you of those symptoms.

I like to use Ayurvedic recipes when possible. Ayurvedic practitioners use food, herbs, and essential oils to heal many of today’s physical and mental ailments, and seasonal allergies are easily adapted to the Ayurvedic lifestyle.

In Ayurveda, you would care for several aspects of yourself to treat your allergies. Try a self-massage with neem oil rubbed on to your entire body. Follow a dosha-balancing diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, no meat, very little dairy, no alcohol, and eat seasonally. Include ghee in your diet as well as herbal teas. Exercise each day, no matter how you feel. Meditate and pray daily. Ayurveda healing doesn’t just include medicine; it incorporates every area of your life.

Essential oils can be used to help alleviate coughs and headaches. Try running a diffuser with these essential oils (or a combination of 2 or 3) to get your respiratory system in check: Lemon, peppermint, eucalyptus, melaleuca, lavender, rosemary, frankincense, and clary sage.

Herbal teas play a huge part in me keeping my seasonal allergies under control. As soon as I feel a sore throat coming on, a cough, or my sinuses are acting up, I put the kettle on to boil. I usually make a combination of two different types of herbs, because I figure whatever therapeutic properties one doesn’t have, the other one will. I like to mix honey in the tea after it is steeped because honey in itself combats allergy symptoms. Herbs I use in my herbal teas are peppermint, nettle, chamomile, mullein leaf, and green tea.

There are a lot of home remedies for ridding oneself of seasonal allergy symptoms. Eat a lot of garlic; take teaspoonfuls of honey and lemon; gargle with salt water; use a neti pot and rinse your nose with saltwater; take probiotics; hydrate; take a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar daily; employ acupuncture; do panchakarma (detox); use a HEPA filter in your home; and consume quercetin (found in green tea), broccoli and cauliflower, vitamin C, pineapple (contains bromelain), and honey.

Using natural healing to help alleviate allergy symptoms can be fun and entertaining as well as healing. You can choose from one type of healing, or all of them. Give yourself a massage, drink an herbal tea, put garlic in your food, and eat a seasonal piece of fruit. Healing with alternative methods is cheap, enjoyable, and effective!

Our thanks to Vannoy for her guest post! For more from Vannoy Gentles Fite, read her article, “An Introduction to Ayurvedic Healing.”