Pollen Allergies

Pollen Allergies

Spring is here, and with it comes pollen allergies. If you are one of the millions dealing with this condition, you know that it’s allergy season. You love the sunshine and the beauty of the flowering trees?

I have good news for you. You can live without sneezing, a runny nose, coughing, watery eyes, and other symptoms of pollen allergies. You don’t have to suffer from some or all of these symptoms this season. You can reduce your risk and symptoms of pollen allergies using some simple natural solutions.

In this article, I will explain what pollen allergies are and their symptoms. You will learn how your immune system reacts to pollen and why you may develop pollen allergies. I will also share my favorite natural support strategies to improve your pollen allergies this season.

What Are Pollen Allergies?

Pollen allergies are caused by pollen, which are tiny, egg-shaped, powdery grains that are released from flowering plants. Pollen is carried by the wind, bees, and other insects from one plant to another to serve their essential reproductive role. This is amazing for our plants. However, when pollen is flying around in the air, it can land in your eyes, nose, lungs, and skin. If you have pollen allergies, specific pollen can lead to a variety of allergic reactions.

Since different plants flower at different times, depending on the type of pollen you are allergic to, you may be dealing with allergies during only a certain time of the spring or summer. Those with various pollen allergies may experience symptoms throughout the entire spring and summer.

The Timing of Pollen Allergies

Spring allergies tend to be caused by trees, most commonly by oak, olive, elm, birch, ash, hickory, poplar, sycamore, maple, cypress, and walnut trees. Depending on where you live, your spring allergies may start as early as winter in the Southern regions where trees may bloom earlier. In the more Northern regions, you may not notice spring allergies until May or June.

Late spring or early summer pollen allergies are typically caused by grass pollen. As with spring allergies, your allergies may be dictated by where you live. Northern grasses are common in colder climates and include timothy, rye, orchard, sweet vernal, red top, and bluegrasses. Southern grasses are present in warmer climates, with Bermuda grass being the major grass in this category.

Late summer and fall pollen allergies are usually caused by weed pollen. Again, these allergies may depend on your location. The most common weed pollen allergies in North America include ragweed, sagebrush, pigweed, tumbleweed (Russian thistle), and cocklebur. In certain areas of the world, some trees can also pollinate in the fall.

Not All Seasonal Allergies Are Pollen Allergies

If you move across the country or travel to other states or countries, you may notice some allergies disappearing or new allergies appearing depending on the season and the type of plants and pollens in the area. You can learn more about seasonal allergies in this article.

Pollen can travel long distances, and pollen levels may differ in various areas, times of the year, and times of day. They tend to be the highest between 5 am and 10 am or in the morning to mid-morning. Remember, some allergies are not caused by pollen, but by indoor molds, dust mites, pet dander, or cockroaches, so it is essential to understand the cause of your allergies to prevent them.

Symptoms of Pollen Allergies

While sneezing, a runny nose, and coughing are some of the most common issues pollen allergies cause, they may lead to a variety of other

These symptoms can range from mild to severe and can significantly impact your daily life.

· Congestion

· Headache

· Difficulty breathing

· Asthma symptoms, such as wheezing or chest tightness

· Sneezing

· Runny nose

· Mucous drainage

· Sinus congestion

· Coughing

· Itchy or watery eyes

· Red eyes

· Itchy throat

· Hives

· Stomach aches

· Fatigue

· Irritability

· Itchy skin

How The Immune System Reacts to Pollen Allergies

Your immune system plays a crucial role in your pollen allergies. When your immune system is not functioning properly, it may result in pollen or other allergies. This can happen due to major bodily stressors that interfere with the healthy function or natural maturity of your immune system.

For example, if you have experienced environmental challenges in early life, your body may not be able to develop a natural immune response to certain pollen or other allergens, making you prone to allergic reactions. However, if you experience an immune insult later in life, it may wreak havoc on your immune system and lead to allergic reactions later in life.

A Balanced Immune Response Is Key

While many people don’t connect gut health to allergies, the most common issue that can increase your symptoms or make you prone to allergies is altered and unbalanced gut flora. Your gut microbiome is responsible for 70 percent of your body’s innate immune response and allows your body to differentiate between safe environmental particles, including pollen, weed, and dust, and unsafe environmental particles, including bad bacteria, viruses, and unhealthy yeast.

While many people with pollen allergies have had allergies since childhood or teenage years, it is certainly possible to develop pollen allergies later in life or experience worsened symptoms as you grow older. It is also possible to reduce your symptoms and even eliminate your pollen allergies through proper immune support.

Immunexx and Allerbalance are two supplements that can help support your immune system and reduce allergy symptoms. Immunexx contains beta-glucans, which have been shown to improve immune function and reduce inflammation, while Aller Balance contains natural ingredients such as quercetin and bromelain that have antihistamine and anti-inflammatory effects.

Immunex

Aller Balance

Natural Solutions to Pollen Allergies

If you have been dealing with pollen allergies, I have good news for you. There are many natural support strategies that can help reduce or even eliminate the symptoms of pollen allergies without medication.

Your lifestyle plays an enormous role in the way your immune system acts and responds to the environment. Certain lifestyle practices can help to balance the immune response and dampen allergy-like responses. These natural support strategies are not FDA approved to prevent, mitigate, treat, or cure allergies. However, many people have seen helpful results by following them.

Anti-Inflammatory Diet

You may be wondering what your diet has to do with allergies caused by pollen. The truth is that your diet has a lot to do with everything that happens in your body. Eating an inflammatory diet that is high in sugar, simple carbs, refined oils, conventional dairy, gluten, processed food, junk food, and artificial ingredients increases inflammation in your body. An inflammatory diet, especially when high in dairy and gluten, may also increase mucus production and sinus issues. An inflammatory diet also compromises your gut flora, further increasing your risk and symptoms of pollen allergies.

To lower your risk and improve your symptoms of pollen allergies, I recommend a nutrient-dense anti-inflammatory diet. Eliminate inflammatory foods, such as sugar, refined oils, conventional dairy, gluten, conventional animal products, and any processed or junk food.

Instead, eat nutrient-dense anti-inflammatory foods, including leafy greens, such as kale, spinach, collard greens, and chard, vegetables, such as cucumber, celery, and

asparagus, low glycemic index fruits, such as lemon, lime, and berries, herbs and spices, such as turmeric, ginger, mint, rosemary, and oregano, healthy fats, such as avocado, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, and organic butter or ghee, clean protein, such as pasture-raised beef, free-range poultry and eggs, wild-caught seafood, and fermented foods, such as sauerkraut, kimchi, and kefir.

Consider Low Histamine Foods

Histamine is an important neurotransmitter and immune messenger molecule. It is essential for your body’s healthy functioning. It is involved in processes involving hydrochloric acid secretion for digestion, triaging water reserves to key areas of the body, the inflammatory response, and communicating with your brain. Histamine receptors are found all over your body, including your smooth muscle and endothelial cells, intestines, and central nervous system.

While histamine is essential and plays a very important role in your health, it is important to have just the right amount and not too much histamine. Histamine intolerance means that your body has too much histamine. Too much histamine is never a good thing. In fact, it can lead to a variety of mild to severe symptoms and serious health issues.

Under normal circumstances, your body releases specific enzymes to break down histamine build-up. However, when you have too much histamine, your body won’t be able to keep up and won’t be able to break down all the excess histamine completely.

Histamine intolerance can affect your entire body, including your lungs, gut, brain, heart, and hormones. It can lead to a variety of issues, including digestive problems, sleep disturbances, bladder problems, anxiety, headaches, and skin problems. Pollen and seasonal allergies are some of the signs of histamine intolerance.

Try a Low Histamine Diet Trial

To reduce histamine intolerance and consequent pollen allergies, I recommend that you remove or reduce high-histamine foods, including cured meat, dried fruit, sour food, vinegar-containing food, aged cheese, nuts, high-histamine vegetables (e.g., tomatoes, spinach, eggplant), and smoked fish.

I also recommend avoiding histamine-releasing foods, including bananas, chocolate, avocado, tomatoes, shellfish, strawberries, cow’s milk, preservatives, and dyes. Instead, focus on low-histamine foods, including artichoke, beets, bok choy, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, cucumber, collard greens, jicama, kale, leek, lettuce, onion, Swiss chard, zucchini, leafy herbs, coconut oil, ghee, grass-fed butter, apples, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, pears, pasture-raised beef, grass-fed poultry, and wild-caught fish.

You can try reducing your consumption of these foods for a week or two and see if you notice an improvement in your pollen allergies. If so, you may have issues with histamine and should consider a lower histamine diet on a more regular basis.

Good Hydration Requires the Best Water Filtration, Ionisation System on the Market

Water is essential to your health. A fetus develops within a water-bound environment inside the amniotic sac, and a baby’s water-rationing system takes effect quickly after birth to avoid dehydration. Histamine helps to redistribute water inside your body to keep you hydrated and healthy. It helps to ensure that your vital organs receive enough water to maintain optimal functioning.

If you are chronically dehydrated, histamine has to withdraw water from major regions of your body to send it to vital organs to sustain life and function. This chronic dehydration can lead to excessive histamine activity and histamine intolerance. As you have already learned, histamine intolerance can lead to a variety of symptoms, including pollen allergies and related symptoms, such as congestion, sneezing, fatigue, pain, watery eyes, and coughing.

To keep your body healthy and reduce symptoms of pollen allergies, it is important that you stay hydrated. I recommend avoiding toxicity from tap water and plastic water bottles and using glasses, glass bottles, aluminum bottles, and mason jars instead. Start your day with 32 oz of fresh, clean water.

You may add some lemon or ginger for an extra boost of alkalinity and digestion support. Drink regularly throughout the day, about 4 oz every 30 minutes or so. Make sure to also drink green juices, herbal tea, and green smoothies and eat hydrating fruits and veggies throughout the day in addition to water.

The Best Combination of a Filtration, Ionization, Hydrogen rich, Water System Protection from PFAS Chemicals

Reduce Stress & Prioritize Good Sleep

Chronic stress and poor quality of sleep can increase inflammation in your body and compromise gut health. When you are under stress, your body also releases histamine to protect itself. However, when you are under chronic stress and your body is fatigued from low-quality or little sleep, your body will release too much histamine. As you know, too much histamine is not good for your body and can lead to a variety of issues, including allergies.

To reduce pollen allergies, I recommend that you take charge of your stress levels and sleep habits. Try meditation, breathwork, guided relaxation exercises, grounding, time in nature, journaling, positive affirmations, mindset shifts, gratitude practice, and prayer to reduce stress. Spend time with loving family members, supportive friends, uplifting

people, and friendly pets. If you need help with transforming negative thoughts into positive ones, developing positive coping strategies and mindset shifts, or simply want to talk things out, you may reach out to a therapist, life coach, or spiritual counselor.

Make sure to go to bed and wake up around the same time every day. Develop a nighttime routine that works for you. You may want to play board games or other games with your family, color, read, listen to calming music, meditate, stretch, and sip on herbal tea while staying away from electronics for the last hours of the day. Invest in a comfortable bed, bedding, and pillows. You may want to try a salt lamp or essential oils to create an extra feeling of calm and relaxation.

obiotics also play an important role in your gut microbiome and immune coordination. Probiotics can be very effective in reducing allergy symptoms. I recommend that you take Probiotic 7 in 1 to optimize your gut health and improve your immune health.

Optimize Vitamin D Levels

Vitamin D is critical for your immune system. Low levels of vitamin D are associated with chronic inflammation and a risk of developing allergies. While getting sun exposure on a regular basis is essential for your vitamin D levels, it is difficult to meet your needs, especially when working indoors or living in a colder climate.

To optimize your vitamin D levels, I recommend taking 1,000 IU of vitamin D3 per 25 lbs of body weight daily. Ortho Molecular’s Vitamin D3/K2 supplement is potent and can help optimize your vitamin D levels when taken daily.

Using Quercetin and Vitamin C together can significantly improve your immune response to allergens. Quercetin, dihydroquercetin (DHQ), and rutin are active bioflavonoids that help modulate an exaggerated immune response.

Vitamin C and other bioflavonoids, like quercetin, are fantastic for supporting the immune system and decreasing histamine reactions. That’s why I recommend Allergy Support, a potent supplement powered by Vitamin C, quercetin, and other bioflavonoids, to improve your immune response.

Quercetin from Pure Encapsulations and C + Bioflavonoids are also good options.

Viatrexx Trees & Shrubs – for Spring allergies

Viatrexx Pollens Mid – for summer allergies

Viatrexx Pollens Late – for Autumn allergies

To your good health!

Colombe Gauvin N.D.

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