Y'all, OMG IT'S SPRING! HAPPY EQUINOX! HAPPY SPRING!!!!!!! Bye, Winter! Suddenly, spring is popping off here in the NC Piedmont. Wow. How the time flies.
Here at Full Flower Herbs, we want you to actually enjoy spring, and we know you can't do that when you're stuffy and snotty and miserable from allergies.
We're here to help you enjoy spring with less allergic misery. In our box of tools, we’ve got diet, herbs, including our own Full Flower Herbs remedies, and vitamins. Let’s get you ready for pollen season!
Diet
Let’s start with diet.
- Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Eat flavonoids–deep red, blue and purple fruits.
- Avoid fried foods and industrial seed oils–highly processed oils extracted from soybeans, corn, rapeseed (canola), cottonseed and sunflower and safflower seeds. These oils have an unstable molecular structure and oxidize easily, especially when heated. Swap these out for olive, avocado, and coconut oils. (Palm oil we’ll leave off the list because it is frequently grown by destroying rainforest habitat.)
- Support your gut microbiome with fermented foods like raw sauerkraut and miso. You may want to take a probiotic if you suspect you have a weak microbiome, as from taking antibiotics.
- Avoid food allergen triggers. (Gluten is common.)
Allergic Load
Allergic load is a helpful concept to understand when trying to work on allergies. "Allergic load" refers to the total amount of allergens a person is exposed to at any given time, and whether that exposure exceeds their body's capacity to handle them, leading to symptoms. Your body has an allergic load it can bear. Like a glass of water, your body can receive a certain amount of triggers/allergens without having symptoms. Say you have a gluten allergy. You eat gluten everyday, which fills up half of your glass. Another third of your glass is filled up with environmental exposures, say, cosmetics that contain toxic chemicals, dust etc. Then comes pollen season. Pollen allergies fill the glass the rest of the way full, causing it to overflow and cause a histamine response–runny nose, red itchy eyes, excess mucous production, swelling…
By decreasing the amount of triggers you are exposed to, you create a less reactive internal environment. Some things in your environment you can’t control; some you can. Food allergens are one that you can control that can have an outsized impact on inflammation and histamine reactions.
Herbal Therapeutics
Whether or not you explore reducing environmental triggers and toxicity, herbs can support our body’s fight against allergens in a big way. Herbs offer properties that can assist our body and give us a fighting chance against pesky allergens. These properties include:
- Antihistamines/mast cell stabilization
- Blood cleansing/detox/elimination/anti-inflammation/alterative herbs
- Immune support
Antihistamines
Antihistamine herbs stabilize mast cells–the immune cells that release chemicals that cause allergic reactions when they are activated by allergens. They work quickly and may be used for acute reactions, but can also be of benefit used preventatively. Examples include goldenrod, ragweed, perilla, ground ivy, turmeric, lemon balm, holy basil, hibiscus, and peach leaf.
Our Allergy Relief formula combines some of these friends, goldenrod, ragweed, ground ivy, turmeric, lemon balm to stop allergic reactions and rashes quickly.
"In the last few weeks I've been waking up with a dry throat, dry eyes, and inflamed, leaky sinuses due to seasonal allergies. I've been taking Allergy Relief and drinking [Full Flower Herbs] Moistening Tea to help relieve symptoms. Allergy Relief is effective and swift! My allergies completely go away. I typically take a 2 dropper dose followed by another dose 10 minutes later if my symptoms persist. The moistening tea really helps to relieve the dryness, but honestly the Allergy Relief on its own also helps with that if I'm patient." -Rose
Elimination Support
Histamine reactions tell us one thing for sure. Our liver is struggling to keep up with the work of cleansing the blood. Through supporting liver function with liver stimulants, we can help the liver to keep up with processing metabolic waste products, as well as toxins and histamines. My favorite herbs for this are dandelion root, burdock (slow and gentle), yellow dock (more fast acting), and calendula (a warming option among mostly cooling options). These happen to be the herbs we use in our Happy Liver, Clear Skin formula, along with cleavers for their lymphatic and diuretic cleansing properties.
The liver isn’t the only game in town when it comes to cleansing. Our elimination pathways include the liver, kidneys, lymph, skin/pores, and GI tract. For a holistic approach it pays to support each of these pathways–and skin is supported by supporting the other pathways, enabling wastes to go out through other pathways than the skin, improving skin troubles in the process.
For supporting healthy elimination via the kidneys/urination, my favorites are dandelion leaf, cleavers, stinging nettle, and yarrow–many more herbs are diuretic. And for lymphatic cleansing, examples are calendula, violet, cleavers, and poke (a very strong, low-dose, but abundant herb).
Immune Support
The immune system is responsible for responding to invaders like pollen, so strengthening and modulating our immune system is part of a holistic response. I’ll highlight one specific way immune tonics can help to regulate our immune system: balancing T cells. Th1 cells are a type of immune responder that helps with cell-mediated immunity, defending the body against infections directly. Th2 cells defend the body via antibodies that recognize and fight pathogens.
Allergies occur when Th2 cells are overly active, leading to the production of IgE antibodies that trigger allergic reactions. Th1 cells can protect against histamine responses by releasing interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), which slows down Th2 cells and lowers IgE levels. A balance between Th1 and Th2 responses is crucial for a healthy immune system. Too much Th2 activity can cause allergies, while a stronger Th1 response can be protective. Herbs that stimulate Th1 include reishi, echinacea, astragalus, and licorice.
Meet Our Allergy Tonic: Fair Fight
Good news! We have done the work of creating an herbal remedy that brings together these different therapies into a handy tincture, with our allergy tonic Fair Fight. A blend of herbs to prepare your body's defenses for seasonal allergies, made with fresh local NC herbs stinging nettle, turmeric, burdock, and mullein, with Organic reishi mushroom. These herbs work together by means of supporting elimination, strengthening and supporting both the respiratory and immune systems, and modulating inflammation. Though it takes some time to exert its influence, this formula has acquired some devotees who rely on it annually.
Spring Sale
If you're reading this near to the time of publication, we're having a Spring Sale. Some of these very remedies are on sale through Saturday 3/22.
Vitamins
Finally, let’s add in vitamins. Take Vitamins D, A, E, C, and EPA/DHA (fish oil, or vegan options like algae). For adults we recommend 500-1000 mg of Vitamin C and 5000 IU of Vitamin D* daily, and following label directions for these others.
*For Vitamin D, now that we have crossed the threshold of the Equinox, you can now get your D directly from the sun, the optimal way. Twenty minutes a day of exposure to the sun at 50 degrees or higher will give you the D you need. My teacher Dave Meesters from Terra Sylva School shared this rule of thumb: When the shadow is shorter than the object casting it, Vitamin D can be synthesized in the skin. Sunscreen blocks vitamin D production, so wait 20 minutes before applying sunscreen. Let's adjust our thinking about the sun. Sunshine on our bodies = good/health promoting. Too much of that good thing = bad/skin cancer.
Putting It Into Practice
There you have it. This is a fairly holistic protocol that could be made more holistic and tailored in a one-on-one practitioner relationship, but is actionable outside of such a relationship. Let me know if you incorporate some of these practices. What results do you notice? As in any program you’re starting, it’s helpful to take a baseline snapshot of where you’re starting from. How bad are your various symptoms on a scale of 1-10? What other seemingly unrelated symptoms are you noticing? Inflammation rarely shows up as a single symptom, and you might notice some other symptoms improve while you work on the inflammation causing your allergies.
Shout outs and big appreciation to my teachers at Terra Sylva School of Botanical Medicine and Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine for teaching me what I have shared with you.
Thanks for reading! Wishing you a lovely spring, with more outside time, more appreciation and connection with nature, and with a lot less sneezing and misery.
Spring blessings,
Lindsay Perry
Community Herbalist, FFH Owner