Spring is a beautiful season. Winter’s cold and the snowy cape withdraw for another year while new sprigs and blooms emerge. Alas, Spring can be a terrible time for those with seasonal allergies.
Meghan van Drimmelen, ND1 suggests several natural ways to approach allergies. A diet of healthy whole foods supports general well-being, including minimizing allergies. Try boosting the fruit and vegetable content in your diet to increase the levels of antioxidants and minimize sugar, dairy, and processed foods. Go for lean meats and good fats such as avocado.
Other foods to include:
- Onions, apples, and berries which contain the bioflavonoid Quercetin and Nettles, a natural antihistamine, which can help prevent histamine release.
- Probiotics for healthier gut flora. Consider kimchi, kefir, sauerkraut, and other fermented foods. If you are histamine-intolerant, go for a probiotic supplement.
- Vitamin C also reduces histamine levels, especially when taken orally or intravenously.
Chef Robin of Swallow Tail shares that nettle can be used just like spinach and in many places are easily found and therefore foraged. Harvest them when young in the spring – pick from the top and wear gloves! The sting can be neutralized by dehydration or cooking.
Dr Axe also recommends several additional supplements, including spirulina, Vitamin A, Zinc, and bromelain.2
You don’t know food until you understand the avocado.
Anthony WilliamsMedical Medium Life-Changing Foods
What’s There NOT to LOVE about Avocados!
The joy of the perfect avocado, that creamy pale green gold. (By the way Anthony Williams suggests that we hold an avocado for 30 seconds to connect it to our own energy. By the time this fruit gets to us, it’s been manhandled! “Making it our own” means the avocado will provide for our needs, according to our energy, DNA, and soul.
Avocaods are nutrient-dense, packed with phytochemicals that soothe the gut, anti-inflammatory compounds, polyp-reducing properties, omega-6 goodness, and glutathione, which helps boost the immune system. Great for the skin, the nervous system and our three brains – head, heart, and gut.
Avocado is super easy to incorporate into your diet. Avocado on your gluten-free toast. Put it into your smoothie. Combine it with cacao for a creamy chocolate mouse or make a healthier non-dairy ice cream. It goes well with your savoury and sweet dishes!
… here is something interesting from Anthony Williams. “Eating avocados helps us pass along this maternal energy.” Being the food closest to breast milk, avocados “fill us spiritually with nurturing, motherly love.” Having avocados helps us tend to others and ourselves when in need. It’s a teacher of unconditional love.
Anthony Williams’ book Life-Changing Foods includes nutritional info, the emotional support, and spiritual lessons relating to a variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices, and wild foods, along with the conditions and symptoms they help. It’s a lot of info so I started with my favourites!
Vibrational Approach
What about flower essences? The more common ones for hay fever include Beech and Holly for the emotional side of having allergies.
If you love essential oils, try rubbing a combo of lavender and peppermint on the bottom of your feet.
Energetic Approach
While it is best to listen to your pulses to see what is going on, here are some Jin Shin Jyutsu Self-help that can help with your allergies.
- Boosting your energy – Place your right hand on the inside of your ankle and your left hand on your tailbone.
- Adapting to your environment – Place your hands on your collarbones. Explore where along the clavicle works for you.
- Liver Self-Help – Place your right hand on the right occipital bone (the bump at the bottom of your skull) and left hand on your collar bone. Switch hands/sides.
Housekeeping
- Use an air filter
- Opt for hardwood floor over carpets
- Wash off pollen from yourself and your pets. Leave your shoes outside.
Halotherapy
Salt Therapy or Halotherapy has been used in Europe for a very long time, by the Greeks and Romans actually. Salt is antiseptic and anti-inflammatory and helps release mucus. People used salt mines to improve conditions, such as asthma, and nowadays Salt Therapy is offered in modern settings as well.
Check out this list of salt cave locations around the world.
Allergies is believed to be a symptom of a weakened or overreactive immune system. Dealing with sources of stress, having a full convalescence to ensure complete recovery, sleeping well and enough, being hydrated, working with your beliefs and shadow self can go a long way to boost your immunity and your relationships with your environment.
