Natural Home Remedies for Allergies

Hey guys, Dr. Josh Axe here. Welcome to Ancient Medicine Today here on Facebook Live and YouTube Live. Today we're going to be talking about how to get rid of those seasonal allergies. So if you're a person who gets chronic allergies, your nose runs, your eyes get red, you get those head colds and you just feel miserable, you do not want to miss this.

I'll be going through the best essential oils, herbs, vitamins, supplements, the diet to overcome allergies very, very fast. And hey, help me spread the word that food is medicine. Take a minute right now, punch that share button, click that love button. Let's help spread the word together. Let's dive right in. I want to talk about the things you've got to avoid first.

Now, these foods I'm about to touch on can cause inflammation and really increase that overall histamine reaction happening in the body. And the first one there is alcohol, especially beer.

So if you're having allergy symptoms, especially that redness in your sinuses, You're going to want to stay away from alcohol, especially beer would be number one, staying away from beer of all types of alcohol.

I mean, doing a little bit of something like a whiskey or red wine isn't going to be as harmful, but absolutely all alcohol, especially beer, is going to cause the most inflammation and exacerbate your allergies even more. The next thing here is caffeine. You know, caffeine in general can be really, you know, taxing on the adrenal glands and the kidneys.

And really, your kidneys and adrenals are partly responsible for helping your body filter and really strengthening your overall system and your immunity, helping you fight allergies. So you absolutely don't want to go overboard with caffeine.

Now, doing a little bit of herbal tea with small amounts of caffeine such as a true green tea or a white tea is going to be fine, but again, Lots of caffeine, especially in the form of coffee, is going to cause more issues and exacerbate those seasonal allergies. Next thing here, conventional dairy. Now, there are a lot of problems with dairy for allergies, but here are a few.

Number 1, if you're doing conventional dairy, it's going to— when you pasteurize dairy, it heats it up, you know, over sometimes the boiling point. And what that's going to do is it's going to kill off all the enzymes, so now your body can't really break down. The proteins and the lactose as well that's found in dairy. And so that's going to absolutely cause allergies in and of itself.

Also, dairy is a very dampening food. Within Chinese medicine, the thing that really causes Candida and yeast overgrowth and mucus buildup in your sinuses and in your throat is actually dampness, and milk is very dampening to your body.

So probably, and I mean this, probably the worst food you could drink or eat during seasonal allergy time is going to be a glass of conventional milk or cheese is going to really cause allergies to get much worse. And number 4 here, this might surprise you, but chocolate. Chocolate actually can exacerbate some of those allergy symptoms as well. Now, here's a bigger one though overall, peanuts.

Peanuts, many of them can hold on to mold and sort of at the top of the food allergy list. Peanuts sit really high. Sugar, another thing you want to stay away from, we know feeds yeast, Candida, causes dampness, and causes inflammation which is going to exacerbate allergies. Artificial sweeteners are going to cause inflammation.

Processed foods, fast food, refined foods, you want to get rid of all this stuff. And of course, what do you want to eat instead? Real food, real food that are high in enzymes and nutrients. That's going to be the best thing to fight allergies which we'll talk about here in a minute. Now, 2 ones that might surprise you.

Melons and bananas, you know, melons and bananas are both more dampening fruits and so they're probably the most damp of all the fruits. So if you are going to consume fruits and you have seasonal allergies, doing fruits that are more drying to the body and that are really higher in enzymes such as pineapple and then even berries like blackberries can be better options as well.

And we will touch on the best foods here in just a minute or let's do it now. Let's talk about Raw local honey. Now, you may have heard this before, that consuming honey can actually help you fight allergies. Now, here's the truth. Ideally, in order for you to prevent future allergies, you're consuming about a teaspoon of a raw local honey every day. And here's the reason why. It should be local.

Local is the important keyword there. You know, when honey is local, those bees have fed off of local plants and flowers that you're exposed to that are high in pollen. So oftentimes when Spring rolls around especially and people, it's allergy season.

People are not used to the pollen exposure because we've spent almost no time outdoors and we've consumed very little local honey and we haven't been eating food that's local that has those SBO probiotics and dirt we're eating on a daily basis. So our body hasn't built up a natural immunity to the pollen.

Well, here's the good news, if you start consuming a little bit of raw local honey every single day and you use that in place of sugar as your natural sweetener. It's going to prepare your body for allergy season as well. And if you do have allergies and need a sweetener during that time, raw local honey or Manuka honey are going to be the best options as well.

The next thing here is hot spicy peppers. The great thing about the compounds found in hot spicy peppers, for instance, cayenne pepper contains capsaicin, and capsaicin really opens up your cardiovascular system, your arterial airways. And so that itself is really going to help improve your overall nasal flow.

So if you tend to get really congested with sinuses, it's going to open those up and either it's going to help your nose to drain or just overall help you breathe better. So hot spicy foods, sprinkling a little cayenne pepper can be great.

In fact, one of the most ancient remedies is mixing A teaspoon of honey with some cinnamon, hot pepper, along with ginger, and doing all those together as a natural remedy is a great blend and a great way to naturally fight allergies. By the way, if you're enjoying this training right now, hey, do me a favor, press that share button, click that like button right now.

You know, more people need to know the truth on how to use food as medicine. All right, let's talk about bone broth here. Now, bone broth is great because of how it strengthens the immune system. Really starting in your gut lining.

We know that the stronger your immune system is, oftentimes that can actually keep those allergy symptoms from your body, it can keep your body from overreacting to certain things. So bone broth shouldn't just be consumed during allergy season, it should also be consumed year-round. Now probiotic-rich foods can help.

Now I typically though wouldn't recommend yogurt as the first thing, I would actually recommend fermented vegetables for fighting allergies if you are in the middle of allergy. Now, if it's not during allergy season, doing some goat's milk kefir could be great for you or a little bit of sheep's milk yogurt.

But if you're in the middle of having allergy issues, I would recommend doing something like a sauerkraut or a kimchi or a kvass, but some form of a fermented vegetable would be the highest on the list for fighting allergies. Now also, here's a unique fact.

Pineapple is great because it contains a compound called bromelain, and bromelain is a proteolytic enzyme found in pineapple that's been shown to help dull histamine reactions and help reduce inflammation. Now there's also another family of fruits that can also help this that are also high in proteolytic enzymes.

Papaya contains papain, figs contain ficin, kiwis contain actinidin, and then ginger, which isn't really a fruit, it's a root, But it contains zinger bean, which also is a proteolytic enzyme that reduces inflammation. So remember these fruits, if you have allergy season, you'd want to do pineapple, kiwi, figs, papaya, and then get some lots and lots of ginger root in your diet there as well.

Apple cider vinegar is very high in organic acids, which really support the growth of probiotics and also really support your liver and detoxification. So again, apple cider vinegar, I'd recommend doing a. Yeah. A tablespoon mixed with water and drinking that before meals.

And then, hey, if you're going to eat meat or get some meat in your diet, I would do small portions of meat, large portions of vegetables and some fruits as your diet, and then organic meat like grass-fed beef, organic turkey, and then wild-caught fish is great because it contains omega-3 fats which reduce inflammation. Now, let's talk about the best supplements for fighting allergies.

Number one is spirulina. Spirulina is known as one of nature's superfoods, very high in vitamins and minerals and very high in chlorophyll, which can be alkalizing to the body and actually also dull any of those severe allergic symptoms. Now, quercetin is a compound that's found in very high levels in onions and garlic and even in certain citrus fruits.

And quercetin helps reduce those histamine reactions in the body. One of the closest things, you know, oftentimes people will go and get synthetic prescription drugs or take an antihistamine drug. Probably the closest thing to that you can take as a supplement is a straight quercetin supplement in terms of it acting as a natural antihistamine.

So the next compound here is butterbur, and we know butterbur is fantastic for actually helping headaches, but especially if you're a person that your allergy symptom is affecting your You're getting that sinus headache right there, a lot of pressure. Butterbur is one of those supplements you would want to take there as well or consider taking. Probiotics we know are good to take year-round.

They're bolstering your immune system, strengthening your gut. I would recommend doing 2 capsules 3 times a day or extra probiotics when you're experiencing allergies. Vitamin A can be great because of its support for the immune system. Zinc, zinc is actually known often or referred to as your immune system mineral. Now, vitamin C is known as the vitamin. For the immune system.

Zinc is known as the mineral for your immune system and it's really good at also helping heal the gut lining. Bromelain, we talked about being in pineapple, you can also take that as a supplement. Stinging nettles, I'd recommend taking— you can take this as a tea or in capsule form. This has some great anti-allergy properties.

By the way, if you're enjoying this live training right now, do me a favor, punch that share button, click that love button. Or a like button. You know, so many people are struggling with seasonal allergies and they have no idea there's a natural way to combat it through diet, supplements, and lifestyle tips. So here's some lifestyle tips for you. Stay hydrated.

You know, oftentimes we don't get enough water and liquids in our diet and really increasing your body's fluids can really help with helping you overcome allergies faster. You want to make sure you stay plenty hydrated. Limit your pollen exposure. And listen, most of the time I tell people, get outdoors.

But really the only time you don't want to be outdoors if you don't want to keep suffering is when you're in the middle of allergy season. So again, if you are— if it's allergy season, don't go for a walk out in the park. Literally stay inside because if not, you're going to get more pollen and more pollen and more pollen. You really want to stay away from the pollen during that time.

Now, here's something else though. If pollen is really low or year-round, that's the other thing, you want to be outdoors as much as possible when it's not allergy season because your body in very small doses is building up your immunity. That's also why you want to shop at your local farmer's market and get some of those dirty veggies and consume raw local honey.

If you get outdoors more, you're going to be healthier. Yeah. Eat local and do local honey. That's going to help you have lesser symptoms typically during allergy season. The other thing is shower before bed. Wash all the pollen and the mold and things off of your body is a good thing to do. Wash your clothes and bedding. Again, pollen is a major problem there.

And then wipe down pets and wash your pets, declutter, keep doors and windows closed. Again, all of those things, again, keeping the pollen at bay. Is an important thing to get rid of those seasonal allergies. So remember some of these top tips.

Again, some of the big things you want to avoid, you want to avoid excess alcohol, excess caffeine, conventional dairy products, chocolate to a degree, peanuts because some of the mold issues there, sugar, artificial sweeteners, processed foods, melons, and bananas.

You want to consume not lots, healthy amounts, a teaspoon or a tablespoon a couple of times a day of raw local honey, hot and spicy foods, bone broth, probiotic-rich foods, pineapple, apple cider vinegar, organic meat products. Remember these supplements: spirulina, quercetin, butterbur, probiotics, vitamin A, zinc, bromelain, stinging nettles.

And I want to mention this, the best essential oils for allergies, thyme oil is one of the best. Thyme contains thymol, so I would do a mixture of thyme and lemon oil. And frankincense. So thyme, lemon oil, and frankincense. And I would do a single drop of those internally or rub or do them as aromatherapy or rub them right beneath your nostrils and on your temples.

Those are some of the best essential oils to do to help during allergy season. And then some lifestyle tips, what we talked about, stay hydrated. And overall with these other things, reduce your exposure to pollen. If you can follow this game plan, you're going to be fine. Yeah. Hey, you are going to feel better. You're going to have less of those seasonal allergy symptoms.

And hey, if you want to learn more on how to naturally fight allergies, hey, just Google search my name along with allergies. We've got some great articles on my website, draxe.com. So if you just Google search Dr. Axe allergy season, you'll find some articles there as well, guys. Hey, thanks for watching.