Ah, spring training. Hope springs eternal that this will be THE season. THE season that you no longer suffer the sneeze and the itch of spring allergies. Well you better start training then. You don’t expect to show up to gameday, the first day of spring, without having done some serious training. Now is the sweat spot about six weeks before the first itch to start training your immune system to handle those pollens.
What Causes Allergies? Over-reactivity
Our immune system both discerns self from non-self and determines how to react. React too little and we can become inundated with foreign forces resulting in conditions such as chronic Lyme, EBV and cancer. React too much and our body becomes weakened from chronic inflammations to harmless substances such as gluten, dairy, pollen, or dust mite.
Over-reactivity can either be autoimmune or allergic in nature. For both conditions, your immune system needs ‘a chill pill’ called immune tolerance, though each condition is quite different. Autoimmune is a specific. Cellular pathways have gone awry into a not-so-friendly-fire mode. Allergy is non-specific. Whole tissue areas become inflamed.
For allergies, because the reactivity is general, it is not usually confined to just one trigger or symptom. A more general clinical term for allergy is atopy which includes: eczema, hay fever, and asthma. Although allergic symptoms vary they often will have inflammatory characteristics – red, itchy, hot, swollen – and are located on our body’s boundaries: skin, lungs, nasal passage, and digestive system.
Why Treat Naturally? For a Longterm Cure
The time to deal with your allergies naturally is now before the season commences. Your body is more easily able to come into balance through natural medicine before it is being stressed by the daily allergen. The problem with pharmaceuticals is that they suppress symptoms. This is like loading a spring, which creates viscous rebound symptoms. Overtime, using these drugs will make your symptoms worse not better.
Natural Suggestions
Offseason Training:
- Local bee pollen – take 1 tsp daily for 4-8 weeks which can reduce reactivity to local pollens
- Check your Vit D and Vit A levels – deficiencies in either can weaken immune tolerance, but taking too much of either can also cause problems so consult with a doctor.
- Do not suppress cold or fever symptoms with ibuprofen or Tylannol. These acute disease can help with immune tolerance.
- Ideate how to reduce allergic triggers in daily life paying special attention to your bedroom. This may involve installing a HEPA filter or getting the ducts in your house cleaned.
- Digestion – take steps to improve your digestion. Food allergies contribute to the allergic picture.
- Inquire about lemon quince injections available at BruckerMed, a proven anthroposophical allergy treatment.
In-Season Maintenance
- Daily bitters help control food allergies and help decongest the upper respiratory system. See my digestion blog post for more details.
- Neti pot before bed to clear allergens from your nasal passage
- Lemons can help reduce mucous production. Consider increasing your intake of lemon water or put some lemon essential oil in your home diffuser.
- Lastly if your symptoms are just too much use Claritin or Benadryl as a stopgap measure to make sure you are getting enough sleep during allergy flairs as you work with natural solutions longterm.
With treatment, hay-fever usually improves over the course of three seasons. So hang in there and stay with it!