So many of us suffer from allergies and may feel like our only resort is to down Claritin or Sudafed or other medications. These options can become expensive, and are likely to have negative side effects on our body, especially if they are taken long-term. For example, mild side effects from Sudafed can include insomnia, rash, and restlesness. Serious symptoms can include a pounding heartbeat, flu symptoms, severe dizziness and increased blood pressure. I don't know about you, but when I'm feeling terrible from my allergies, I don't want to end up feeling even worse from my medicine!
Luckily, medicine isn't our only option for allergy relief. Honey from local bees can help with your hay fever symptoms without the side effects and cost of medicine. How does this work? Your hay fever allergies are caused by pollen in your local area. The bees collect this pollen from the local plants, and small amounts of it are transfered to their honey. When you ingest this honey in small amounts, it works like a series of allergy shots, by slowly building up your tolerance to the allergen, and decreasing your allergy symptoms. The best way for this to work is to ingest 2-3 teaspoons of the honey daily for a few months before pollen season.
Honey can also help your allergies in the short term, as it is known to have an anti-inflammatory effect. Take a spoonful before outdoor activities and it might help with your allergies for the day.
Note: Raw honey should not be feed to children under the age of one. Honey normally cannot support bacteria, but one bacteria that can survive and is usually benign, C. botulinum, can be dangerous to infants. By the age of one, the immune system of most infants is developed enough to resist the bacteria.
Listed at Carnival of Green
Focus Organic is the main author on Focus Organic.com. Her real name is Stefanie, and she started Focus Organic to learn more about living green and to share what she learns with the site's readers.
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on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 11:58 am.
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