Two Easy Steps to Natural Allergy Relief

Cleaning and boosting your immune system are two easy things you can do to limit or eliminate the effects of seasonal allergies. By doing these two simple things, you can find much more relief than from any medicine available, prescription or over-the-counter, and they won’t make you feel drowsy.

System Cleaning

By cleaning your throat, nose, and eyes, you clear your head of most of the particles causing the allergic reaction, resulting in instant relief. Cleaning once a day may be enough for most people, but you can clean anytime, especially after being exposed to an allergen.
Throat: Swish and gargle with salt water. Clear your throat and get as much phlegm out of your throat as possible.

Nose: Use a neti pot or a water bottle to clean your nasal passages. Fill the container with warm water and add salt. Tilt your head to one side and lean over your bathroom sink. Pour the water into the top nostril. Allow the water to flow out of the bottom nostril into the sink. Blow your nose to clear it out. Here’s a video demonstrating the use of the neti pot.

Eyes: Slash water on your eyes and face. Carefully clean all matter from your eyes.

Boosting your Immune System

You may have noticed that your allergies are worse after a short night or when you’re immune system is depressed for other reasons. You can greatly reduce your allergies by taking steps to boost your immune system. Remember that your body is made to take a lot of punishment. If you are compromising your immune system because of stressful work demands, you can use other methods to boost your immune system without quitting your job. Here’s just a few of the ways to naturally boost your immune system.

Vitamin C: Everyone knows that vitamin C helps the immune system, but many people don’t know that a cup of orange juice, a few slices of orange, or other natural sources of the vitamin are much more effective than taking a pill version. Vitamin C rapidly disintegrates when a food source is disturbed. Vitamin pills are synthetic and don’t have as strong an effect on the immune system. Because this vitamin is so important, it is readily available in nature. If you don’t have access to citrus fruit, you can try sweet peppers, strawberries, brussles sprouts, broccoli, sweet potato, cauliflower, tomatoes, and many other foods.
Stress Relief: Unhappiness has been shown to cause a depression in the immune system. If you are stressed out, look at ways to relieve your stress. Great ways to relieve stress are to help your friends and family with their problems (instead of focusing on your own), take a hot bath or shower, listening to restful music, and exercising, to name just a few.

Homeostasis: Constant extreme changes can lower your body’s defenses. If you can, avoid extremes like overeating, frequent extreme temperature changes, erratic sleep patterns, yo-yo dieting and other unstable conditions.
While these two steps can greatly reduce allergies, remember that there are other great natural products that can also help. If after doing these two things, your allergies are still not manageable, look at your local health food store for homeopathic, herbal, and other remedies.