Friday, April 25, 2008

herbal remedies trial day 1


Ahhh, spring is in the air! Tight little buds are appearing on trees, grass is getting greener, and pollen is floating around on the air currents fertilizing with a vengeance. And thus, I am a sneezing, snot nosed, red eyed, itching, burning mess. Seasonal allergies are killing me.

Yesterday my day consisted of movies, books, sneezing, blowing my nose, and trying to not itch my eyes. Claritin only works half the time, benadryl makes me fall asleep, and Claritin D makes me feel drunk and like I'm walking through a dream, only the dream is my life.

I HATE taking medication. I feel like there are so many extra unnatural chemicals that I end up putting in my body that I really don't want there. (This coming from a cigarette smoking, processed food eating girl sounds crazy and illogical, but it's true.) And so, in an attempt to not fill my body with even more crap than I already do, I've decided to try some natural remedies.

Natural remedy #1: Stinging Nettle
This is to help with nasal allergy symptoms. Strangely enough, nettles are high in histamine molecules, but it works anyway.

Natural rememdy #2: Quercetin
Quercetin is a bioflavonoid found in yellow onions, garlic, citrus fruit, and buckwheat. Quercetin and other bioflavonoids like luteolin inhibit the release of histamine from mast cells. I think you need to have this build up in your system, so I should have started taking it 6 weeks ago, but oh well. I'm also not sure if these will work together in harmony or not, but I guess we'll find out.

Unfortuantely, I already have taken both benadryl AND claritin today, but I am now starting the daily dosage of natural remedies and plan to use only these in the future if possible. I will keep you posted on how well they work. In June, I'm going to attempt to use bee pollen to build up my immunity for the fall allergy season so long as I'm not allergic to it, ha. Cool hippy guy at the herbal store I went to said he suffered from seasonal allergies for YEARS, and then he started using bee pollen and has not had a problem since.

So wish me luck kids, because my quality of life during allergy season is not so hot.
Word up.

2 comments:

* said...

you should try a neti pot. they look weird but i hear they work?

or if you haev time and insurance, get allergy shots. that's what i did in high school for allergies to mold, pollen, ragweed, trees, dust, and probably more and now i don't have to take medication very often.

Anonymous said...

if you and my mom teamed up on the herbal remedies the world would never be the same. She is always wondering if I have got a sufficient amount of Omega-3s in my diet. Have you got your Omega-3's?