Springtime is a great time of year. It starts warming up, flowers start to bloom, and wildlife comes out. But it’s also the time of year your allergies spring up. Many people suffer from seasonal allergies, and if you’re one of them, you’re likely looking for a way to lessen the symptoms through the springtime.
Instead of taking allergy medication, you can consider a more natural approach to calming allergy symptoms. Eating local honey for allergies is a natural alternative to allergy medications, and it's way more tastier than the over-the-counter stuff you’ve been taking.
So, how does it work? In this article, we’ll discuss what seasonal allergies are and how eating honey for allergies can help you.
Common Seasonal Allergy Symptoms
Whenever your immune system reacts to a foreign substance that isn’t harmful, it’s called an allergy. Common allergies include bee venom, pet dander, or pollen. Your body produces antibodies that are meant to protect your immune system from harmful invaders, such as bacteria.
Your body may use its antibodies to inflame parts of your body against the allergen, even though it’s not harmful. Seasonal allergies, which are usually experienced during the spring months, affect the sinuses, skin, digestive system. Some common symptoms are:
- Itchy nose
- Itchy eyes
- Stuffy nose
- Runny nose
- Watery, swollen, or red eyes
-
Sneezing
Local Honey is Similar to Allergy Shots
Some people treat their seasonal allergies by taking allergy shots. Allergy shots are taken over time to create long-term relief from allergies. Allergy shots contain small amounts of the allergen you’re trying to build immunity to. You take the allergy shots, and over time, your body slowly builds immunity to the allergen by creating antibodies that fight it. By taking allergy shots, the immune system also improves the way it responds to the allergen. Over time, your symptoms decline as your body becomes better at fighting allergies.
Eating honey for allergies helps similarly. When bees pollinate, they take backtraces of pollen with them, which stays in the honey. Only trace amounts are left in the honey, but it’s enough to build immunity to the allergen. Once you’ve built enough immunity, your seasonal allergy symptoms decrease.
Local Honey to Treat Local Allergies
If you’re someone who suffers from seasonal allergies, you’re ingesting allergens that are from your local environment. Eating unpasteurized honey from local beekeepers such as BCB Honey Farm, can help your specific allergies because it’s made with local allergens throughout the Lower Mainland.
Your local beekeepers use honey that’s pollinated by bees in your area. These bees circle and collect pollen that’s from local plants and that also circulates in the air. Then they’ll bring it back to the hive, where small amounts go into the honey. Since your seasonal allergies are caused by allergens from your environment, eating honey will help your body adjust to local allergens each year.
How To Use Local Honey for Allergies
To take honey for allergies, start by taking 1 teaspoon of local, unpasteurized honey once a day. You may slowly increase the amount of honey every other day. Do this until you eat 1 tablespoon of honey per 50 lbs of your weight. You can divide the dose throughout the day as desired through the allergy season.
Local honey doesn’t have to just be used on its own. It can be used with prescription medications or over-the-counter allergy medications. It’s not intended to be used instead of consultation from a medical provider.
Note that honey should never be given to children under 1 year old, as their immune systems are not able to digest bacteria spores from honey.
If you’re suffering from seasonal allergies, you don’t have to take expensive medication. Look for locally made honey to help calm your allergy symptoms. Shop online at BCB Honey Farm or visit us at our Farm Store or Downtown Store to find your favourite natural, unpasteurized honey today.
Still not convinced? Check out what our customers have to say about our our award winning honey!
I had unpasteurized local honey in my cupboard. My allergies were so bad I was taking a 24 hour cetirizine at night, another in the morning and Benadryl every 4 hours. I made a cup of tea, Added honey, and my allergies were instantly cut, I could breath again, and was finally able to skip the Benadryl every 4 hours. I don’t believe in miracles. But this was totally unexpected.
Ps forgot to say my main point : I bought the honey that the owner said was most popular for taste and has won very high award. Well , it has to be the nicest tasting honey I’ve ever had… Got the " creamed "version, worth every cent .
Bought the large jar of honey a couple months back, appreciated the background info and talk about honey that was kindly offered at the time, and the sample. My own brother worked his way out if a very severe ragweed allergy in Ottawa years ago by habmvibg some daily honey from local bee keepers. There are studies on google about how honey can decrease hay fever similar to antihistamines , I think they worked up to 2 tablespoons a day but maybe less is helpful..just read another study about how raw honey helps feed your gut microbiome. I am not techie enough to copy those studies to here but they weren’t hard to find. Also great to support serious beekeepers in the lower mainland .
A lot of narrative to sell honey but no evidence to support any of the claims. Everything stated is disputed by the asthma and allergy foundation.
Where’s the science to support the anecdotal information masquerading as fact?
In fact this is somewhat true, that local Honey will help with allergens in a local area as long as the bees gather pollen from said area. Now I haven’t tried y’all’s product, but I am a huge fan of honey.