Raw, Local Honey and Its Affect on Pollen Allergies
The much need high unrelenting amounts of rain that hit the west coast this year cured the drought and watered the thirsty vegetation. The plant’s quenched thirst is resulting in a massive super bloom throughout the west coast. Having anyone with pollen allergies, it is a time of super discomfort. Itchy, red eyes, runny noses, and constant sneezing plague allergy prone people daily.
There are standard tips on how to prevent allergies from taking over your body and detracting from your personal wellbeing. These include staying indoors, wearing sunglasses to block the pollen from your eyes and dusting everything in your house. Or, you can just deal with it which is just as much work as the preventative options.
So, what can be done? The solution lies with the issue at hand, we eat the pollen we are allergic to through raw, local honey. This delicious cure contains tiny bits of bee pollen, propolis, and beeswax. So how does this help and why do pollen allergies occur in the first place? Allergies come about when a person is overexposed to something. The reason you have an allergy to a particular plant, tree, grass, flower, etc. is due to the fact that you have spent too much time being surrounded by that substance at some point in your life.
Almost everyone has some sort of immune dysfunction happening due to unavoidable toxins that our bodies have gathered over the years. This causes our bodies to over or under react to invaders, whether it is harmless or not. Once our bodies are over exposed to things such as pollen, our bodies overreact, a.k.a. allergies. This is because your body processes the pollen as if it were an invader so, whenever your body senses the pollen, an allergic reaction occurs.
Now, let’s say, for example, your body has an allergic reaction to poppy flowers. This is due to the fact that you were overexposed to poppy pollen at some point in your life. Honey bees pollinate poppy flower pollen, causing a very small amount of it remaining in the honey that is harvested from these bees. When you ingest the honey harvested from bees in an area with a lot of poppy flowers, you will be ingesting the small traces of the poppy pollen as well.
Contrary to what you might believe, consuming the pollen you are allergic too does not make your symptoms worse. Many recent studies have shown that honey has very strong immune balancing properties. It appears that by internally exposing your body to tiny amounts of the pollen that you are allergic to causes your immune system to become less sensitive to the allergen.
Taking a 1 tsp of raw, local honey each day has been proven to reduce symptoms and wean people off of the need to take allergy meds. It is recommended to consume multiple tsp of raw, local honey per day prior to allergy season for the best results. Another good rule of thumb is to remember to buy honey that is harvested in fall if you have fall allergies. If you consume honey that is harvested in spring, you will no doubt benefit from the substance in other ways, however, it will not prevent your allergies in the fall because there will not be pollen present in the honey from the season you are allergic to.
These tips on consuming what you are allergic to as a preventative tactic ONLY WORKS FOR POLLEN ALLERGIES. It is not recommended to try this with any other allergies. Pollen is the most prominent, unavoidable allergen as it is in the air. Enjoy this tasty remedy and even try new recipes that include raw, local honey. Here is a fun one for the approaching summer months:
Local Honey Popsicles:
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of fresh frozen berries
- Freshly squeezed lemon juice.
- 1 cup of filtered water
- 1 tsp of raw, local honey per popsicle (so if you’re making 6 popsicles then you need 6 tsp).
Directions:
- Add all of the ingredients to a blender and blend on high.
- Pour mixture into popsicle molds.
- Secure lid and add popsicle sticks.
- Let freeze overnight for several hours
- Remove popsicles and enjoy!