Hay fever

Here are some different ideas for treating hay fever:

Prevalin Allergy Plus

This is a drug-free nasal spray.  I found it worked really well, but you have to be careful not to spray too much up your nose.  It dries into a white gunk so you look pretty weird if you spray loads of it up your nose.  You only need a bit to coat the insides of your nostrils.  It seems to start working as soon as I sprayed it.  It’s much better than the vaseline that I was using around my nostrils.

Pollen traps

Try smearing a pollen trap around your nostrils, to reduce the amount of pollen that gets into your nose.  A simple one to try is vaseline (petroleum jelly), or you could try Hay Max pollen balm, which is a bit more expensive, but supposed to trap more pollen.

Health4All Stinging Nettle Leaf Capsules

I haven’t tried these, but they have great reviews.

Honey or Edible flowers

Eating honey is supposed to help you build up exposure to pollen to reduce your allergic reaction, but has never helped me.  You need to start eating honey well before your hay fever starts.  Some people say to eat honey from local bees, but as hay fever is mainly caused by wind borne pollen (rather than pollen from flowers that are pollinated by bees), this doesn’t seem very logical.  Eating edible flowers is also suggested, but again presumably works mainly if your hay fever is caused by flowers that are edible.

Ioniser

When you get indoors, try to get rid of as much pollen as possible by changing your clothes and having a shower.  Keeping on top of the dusting is also really important – where you can wipe surfaces down with a damp cloth to try to trap as much dust as possible.  An ioniser helps to clear the air of any remaining dust, so that you don’t keep sneezing inside the house.

Acupressure

There is an acupressure point near the elbow that is linked to the nose and throat.  So why not try an acupressure armband, which fits around your elbow?  Amazon sell one called a Qu-Chi Hayfever Band.

Nettle stings

A crazy new idea to try is to sting yourself with nettles in the run up to hay fever season.  The idea is to re-set your immune response.  I have no idea if this works, possibly only for the very desperate.

Pineapple juice

A less unpleasant idea to try is pineapple juice.  The bromelain in pineapples is anti-inflammatory and may help reduce mucus.  The most bromelain is found in the core of the pineapple, but it might be easier to see if pineapple juice helps you in the first instance.

Sunglasses

If you suffer from itchy eyes, wrap around sunglasses are a great way of cutting down the amount of pollen that gets into your eyes.  Also, if you use contact lenses, try swapping to glasses instead, as pollen can get stuck to your contact lenses.

Other simple precautions

Keep windows closed in your home and car when the pollen count is high.  When you come in from outside, try showering and washing your hair straight away to wash the pollen off you.  Don’t dry washing outside, where it can pick up pollen.

For more information, see the Allergy UK website here.

See also our page on Rhinitis here.