‘Tis the Season for Allergies

I know some people have allergies year round (God bless you). I’m fortunate to only have to endure the flu-like symptoms for 2-3 months out of the year and always right around my birthday (January)–JOY!

I’ve spent years propped up in bed just so I could breath and sleep at the same time, and rifled through cases of tissues. I’ve experiment with so many different methods of just surviving this miserable time including a cadre of both over-the-counter and prescription meds–the drugs are a joke. I’ve come with a few tried and trues for you to see what works best for you.

Getting Prepared

  • Cool Mist Diffuser – reasonably priced from Amazon.
  • Therapeutic Essential Oils – Lavender, Peppermint from EBW
  • Medical Face-Masks – from local drugstore
  • Local Honey produced within 150 miles of your home

Build Up Your Immunity

Start ingesting the local honey in tea about 30-60 days before your allergy season starts. The bee pollen gathered to produce the honey is from local flowers and trees that your body reacts to during allergy season. Ingesting the honey creates an immune response and will help to lessen or completely alleviate allergy symptoms.

 

Mask It

Medical Face-Masks may seem extreme but they really do help cut back on the sheer volume of pollen that enters your nasal cavity producing that annoying irritation that leads to runny noses and watery eyes. I especially use them at night.

 

Cool It Off

Can’t stress enough the importance of NOT burning the oils. The heat destroys all the medicinal properties. Rather, cool-mist diffusing lavender into the air at night helps keep the worst of the allergies at bay. Peppermint offers temporarily relief just so I can breath out of my nostrils instead of panting like a dog.

 

Practicals

Remember to keep your windows closed in your house and car to limit the amount of pollen in the air around you.

If you have any suggestions that help you deal with your allergies, let me know.

 

Update:

In addition to the four allergy aids I mentioned above, this year I’ve discovered another HUGE secret to helping me sleep and not use up a box of tissues every day during my grueling allergy season from January to April.

I invested in a Honeywell air purifier. At first I balked at $130, but there were many machines much more expensive than that. I got a mid-sized one that covers 390 square feet. It’s a monster to move around the house but WOW–what a difference it makes. I’ve bagged the medical masks and can lay horizontal in bed all night without waking up to a scratchy throat from post-nasal drip and sinuses that feels stuffed with cotton.

I also lugged the thing back and forth to school for a week where I taught 7th grade Language Arts just to see how it would handle my classroom. It did so great I invested in a second. Even my students were amazed at how their own allergies diminished in my room.

I must add though that I continue to use my diffusers both at home and work adding a blend of Lavender and Peppermint at a ratio of 3:2. My co-workers often tell me they step into the hallway by my classroom just to get a whiff and a little zen moment.