Allergies Remedy

It's that time of the year again when itchy nose and watery eyes make life for allergy sufferers nearly impossible. Whether you experience mild symptoms or deteriorate completely, seasonal allergies, also referred to as hay fever, can make life uncomfortable. Pollen, the harmless culprit, causes your body to create histamines to wage war on what it thinks is spores or dust mites. The released histamines causes your soft tissues to swell in the hopes of resisting and expelling any foreign bodies it deems hazardous. What's worse is that allergies can develop through your life, and what was once a happy spring day outdoors turns into a sneezing and crying fiasco.

Over-the-counter remedies, known as antihistamines, block your body's fighting ability, allowing the harmless pollen to be processed by your body without any adverse effects. Unfortunately, most antihistamines cause drowsiness along with dry sinuses, and usually need to be taken on a daily basis to block your body's responses towards pollen.

But what if you could prevent an allergy attack? Completely. And naturally.

In this instructable, I'll show you what some people swear is the best allergy remedy: Honey & Pollen!

Let's get started!

Step 1: Benefits of Honey & Pollen

That amazing golden syrup that bees conjure up is internationally and historically used to cure a plethora of ailments and diseases. And allergies to boot.

Using local honey, that has been made from pollen in your general area has the best remedial use to prevent an allergy flare-up. This is because the pollen that is causing a ruckus in your sinuses is the same pollen that the bees have processed to create their honey.

The idea behind eating honey to cure allergies is like gradually vaccinating the body against allergens, a process called immunotherapy.

Honey contains a variety of the same pollen spores that give allergy sufferers so much trouble when flowers and grasses are in bloom. Introducing these spores into the body in small amounts by eating honey should make the body accustomed to their presence and decrease the chance an immune system response like the release of histamine will occur. Since the concentration of pollen spores found in honey is low -- compared to, say, sniffing a flower directly -- then the production of antibodies shouldn't trigger symptoms similar to an allergic reaction. Ideally, the honey-eater won't have any reaction at all.

[source: AAFP].

In addition to eating local honey, one can also eat local pollen. That's right! While bees are busy drinking the nectar of flowers, their bodies rub against the pollen of the plant, and unbeeknownst (tehehe) to them, they take this pollen back to their hive and eat it later. However, bees usually take much more pollen with them than they could possibly use, and so bee keepers will take the extra pollen and sell it for its remedial benefits. Taking in small amounts of the pollen daily during allergy season can help build up immunotherapy just like local honey!

Step 2: Action Plan

So rather than taking an over-the-counter antihistamine, which only combats allergy symptoms, we're going to prevent the entirety of allergies by dealing with at the source: the pollen.

Take a 1/4 teaspoon of local raw (unpasturized*) honey as early in the morning as possible, along with a teaspoon of local pollen, which could be found at a local bee keeper's. Don't fret if you do not see results immediately, as your body may need time to develop it's immunity to the pollen.

The National Institutes of Health report you should never consume raw honey in order to prevent food poisoning, particularly if you are already immunocompromised. It’s especially dangerous to give raw honey to infants under the age of one. According to MayoClinic.com, giving raw honey to infants may cause infant botulism,