How can I naturally get rid of hay fever?
Updated 5/22/2023During the springtime, many people experience seasonal allergies. Some people get allergies worse than others.
In my experience, some people suffer a LOT from them. In fact, some allergies last way past their season for mysterious reasons. There are some things you can do to support yourself if you really suffer from seasonal allergies. But first, let’s look at why yours might be so bad.
What is histamine?
Histamine is the chemical mediator of allergies. It plays many important roles in our body. It’s part of our immune system, an excitatory neurotransmitter, helps our stomach produce acid and more. In our bodies, histamine is produced by immune cells called mast cells.
We also take in histamine from our food. The amount of histamine in food varies widely. Most if it is the result of microbial action. Any food that has been cultured, fermented or aged will have high histamines. Think wine, beer, sauerkraut, kimchee, kombucha, yogurt, aged cheeses, and cured meats. But there are foods that are naturally high in histamines like spinach, tomatoes, avocados, and eggplant.
Wine and beer are high histamine foods
In a healthy digestive tract, we produce lots of histamine-degrading enzymes called diamine oxidase (DAO). But if there is inflammation or some kind of damage to the mucosal cells lining the gut, the production of DAO might be impaired. So when you eat an abundance of high-histamine foods, the excess histamine gets absorbed into your bloodstream and raises your total body histamine levels.
I’ve worked with many people to help them with their histamine intolerance or MCAS. It often involves some kind of work to heal their gut and reduce stress. But I always warn them: When your hayfever season rolls around, you might have to tighten up your diet again!
This is because, unlike something like gluten sensitivity where you have to avoid it 100%, you’re never going to get rid of ALL the histamine. Nor would you want to. You just need to keep your histamine levels moderate by not taking in or producing more than you can break down. So when it’s your hayfever season and your body is ramping up your histamine production, you can help it out by backing off some of the highest sources of dietary histamine. This keeps your total histamine bucket load lighter and you’re less likely to overflow into full-blown allergy symptoms.
What are simple ways to reduce your pollen exposure?
First and foremost, limit your exposure!
Use a neti pot daily to rinse the pollen away from my nasal passages. You can do this twice per day and anytime you’ve had a big exposure, like after mowing the lawn. (See video for instructions)
Wash your face when you come in from outside
Change out your pillowcases regularly
Check your home air filters
Allergies and gut health are linked
When asking my clients about the history of their symptoms, I often hear that allergies became worse after a stressful period in your life, after antibiotic use, after having children, after/during menopause, or corresponded with IBS symptoms.
The thinking is that (ask you read earlier), if there is inflammation in the gut, it’s not producing the DAO enzyme needed to break down histamine. So now they are reacting to the histamine in their food. It could also be caused by dysbiosis. In a healthy microbiome, you’ll have a good balance of microbes that produce and degrade histamine. It might be there is an overgrowth of the histamine PRODUCERS and not enough of the histamine degraders.
Do you find you get symptoms after eating but have never been able to pin it down? Does a meal feel fine, but the leftovers a few days later cause problems? This is because when leftovers sit in the fridge, there is still slow bacterial action and histamine content goes up. Some people find that freezing single portions of leftovers right away helps them utilize leftovers without the histamine reaction.
How do I support my gut health for allergies?
The simplest way is to minimize foods that cause a negative reaction. In this case, you may also minimize the foods highest in histamines like beer, wine, sauerkraut, yogurt, aged cheeses, cured meats, spinach, and tomato products.
DAO enzyme can be taken with high histamine meals to assist in the breakdown of histamine in foods if this is problematic. The brands I like to recommend include Histamine Digest by Seeking Health, HistaGest by Designs for Health, or Histamine Digest by Diem. You can find all of these supplements under “My Favorites” in my Fullscript Online Dispensary under the “Histamine/Allergy” category. These are safe to use long term, so I recommend having them on hand for times you need more support and when traveling.
What if my allergies start up in the fall?
Allergies that kick up once the rains start might be mold. Year-round allergies can also be caused by mold exposure. Do you find your symptoms clear up when you go out of town? It could be in your home. This is worth investigating.
Why is my nose stuffy everyday?
You might have a chronic infection up there. Whenever I’m interviewing a new client and find they have chronic sinus issues, chronic stuffy nose or something like that, I often wonder if they have a chronic, untreated infection in their sinuses. If it’s fungal or antibiotic-resistant, it’s going to hang around. After ruling out the low-hanging fruit like histamine intolerance or a dairy sensitivity, we’ll often run a simple test.
Bacteria and fungi can both colonize the sinuses causing a lot of allergy-type symptoms. The solutions are simple nasal sprays. We send simple swabs (yes, you stick a swab up your nose) off for a lab that comes in under $200 and tests for fungal strains, bacteria and tests for antibiotic-resistant strains. It’s really helpful.
Help for year-round allergy symptoms
If you feel like your allergies are year-round, this might indeed be more of an issue with your ability to regulate histamine in your body. Take heart, this is not permanent.
This often happens after a period of chronic stress, prolonged antibiotic use, hormonal change (menopause), or after changes in gastrointestinal function. It commonly occurs alongside SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) and other GI issues like Celiac disease. If this is the case, you may benefit from addressing your gut health!
In my experience, this usually involves a little investigative work. We’ll need to figure out where your histamine regulation has gone awry. It may call for bumping up your nutrition, cleaning up your diet, eliminating any problematic foods (usually temporarily), and supporting a healthier microbiome. Stress will also likely be something to look into.
