Kitchen shelf medicine cabinet- for Allergies and Hay Fever

Saturday is (most of the times) a day off from my kitchen duties. Rahul, my better half, made us a very scrumptious dinner. But as we were having our afternoon tea, a little before dinnertime, another egg allergy hit him. Poor him, he just had to go to the bed without eating anything.

We had just tea and some peanuts. I went over the process of making the tea over and again in my head, but could not figure out where the allergy came from. Little one did have egg in his breakfast….but all the usual precautions were taken- the egg utensils were washed in a separate sink (immediately), Pumpkin (my 18mo old) was given a thorough wash, his eating table was rigorously scrubbed and cleaned…but still some micro particles managed to escape and made their way into our tea. And well, Rahul is highly sensitive to even trace amounts of egg.

Earlier, in the event of an egg allergy, the first thing that he would do would be to run to the medicine cabinet and grab some anti-allergens. As is the case with any other medicine, this would have its own set of side effects, to which Rahul has recently become intolerant –psychologically rather than physiologically!

And that pushed me to sort of explore the alternative natural cures to alleviate his   symptoms in the situations like these. I thought that sharing this stuff might help some people out there as well.

So, here are some recipes for the allergies including hay fever. This is definitely not an alternative to the regular medicine, if your allergies are really sever, but you can still try these things to alleviate the symptoms of allergy, or maybe help you bring down the dose of your medication:

1. Honey is said to cure hay fever because the bee pollen in honey can desensitise your body to other pollens. Increasing honey in your daily dietary intake should reduce hay fever symptoms significantly.

2. Vitamin C is a known natural antihistamine and is be found in citrus fruits like oranges, lemons and grapefruit.

3. You will love this one! Red peppers and chilli peppers contain an active component called capsaicin. When eaten, this component opens nasal passages and helps reduce congestion brought on by hay fever, alleviating symptoms significantly.

(So, going to an Indian Restaurant for some really hot and spicy food could prove good for you! ;))

4. Carotenoids They are the naturally occurring pigments in plants, which act as powerful antioxidants to help reduce inflammation in your airways and improve your immune system. A good source of carotenoids can be found in foods such as

carrots, apricots, pumpkin, sweet potato and spinach.

5.  And this is one of my favorites, I take it after a hard day’s work, the Chamomile tea. It is usually promoted as a tea that calms you down. But it is also contains antioxidants and antihistamines, called flavonoids and these act effectively as an anti-inflammatory agents. Chamomile tea can also be used as an eye compress. The compress provides a cooling effect to the swollen, red eyes caused by hay fever/allergies and reduces irritability considerably.

6. Garlic Increasing your dietary intake of garlic can help boost your body’s immune system, while also acting as a decongestant and helping to alleviate minor hay fever symptoms. It’s also an anti-inflammatory and a good source of quercetin, a natural antihistamine.

7. Ginger Ginger acts as anti-histamine and aids in the treatment of allergies. In addition, the research has shown that ginger has antioxidant, anti-viral, anti-inflammation, and anti-tumor effects, as well. So, this is a good one to have in your normal diet, even when you don’t have any allergies. I use a lot of ginger in my cuisines- love the flavour too!

8. Onions Onionskins contain a natural antihistamine and anti-inflammatory proven to reduce symptoms in hay fever sufferers. It is best if you could chew on raw ones (but make sure that you stay indoors afterwards- not go out torture other people ;P).

Besides these things from your kitchen, a few other things that you can try your hands on are:

• ·      Chinese medicine of acupuncture can reduce hay fever symptoms, such as a runny nose and itchy eyes, dramatically.
• ·      You can use self-hypnosis or some sort of self-relaxation technique. It is known to bring about a dramatic reduction in the hay fever symptoms, such as a runny nose and irritated throat.
• ·      And spreading a thin layer of Vaseline inside the lower nostrils can help combat hay fever and reduce symptoms significantly. The Vaseline traps pollen entering the nostrils, effectively blocking it from entering the nasal passages and stopping hay fever symptoms from worsening.

I gave Rahul some freshly ground ginger (about 1 inch piece) mixed with two tea spoons of honey before he went to sleep. Let’s see how he feels in the morning….