In case you haven’t noticed, it is spring.  That means that the flowers are blooming, and the trees are blooming and the weeds are starting to bloom too.  It won’t be long until the grass is blooming as well.

If you are one of the many people who suffer from seasonal allergies, it means that you will soon be dealing with burning eyes, runny nose, headaches for some, rashes or whatever way your allergies manifest.  I am one of those people.  I have suffered from allergies for most of my life.

When it first was diagnosed I was in the eighth grade.  That spring I experienced my first allergy induced migraine.  In that case allergies, migraines and whatever else combined to make me really sick.  It started with a slurring of my speech, followed by a loss of fine motor control and eventually vomiting and a loss of major motor control.  As I lay on the toilet in the nurses office the school called my mother and told her I was having a drug overdose, to come and get me.  It was a combination of hay fever and migraine, though just the hay fever was diagnosed at the time.

Since that time I have dealt with the results of seasonal allergies, never again as extreme as that time, but often making me extremely ill.

When I got married to my wife in 1988, my mother-in-law Ruth Hoey told me about a remedy I should try, honey.  Raw, local, natural honey.  I started eating local honey before the next allergy season.  My allergies have never been as bad since.  The honey doesn’t completely eliminate the symptoms, but the severity of them is much less.

So now I have a regiment.  In late winter I begin eating at least a tablespoon of honey a day, hopefully I start doing this at least 3 or 4 weeks before the pollen starts to show.  It may only be my imagination, but in the years when I am consistent in the daily use of honey I hardly have to deal with allergies.

They key here is that it must be local, and it must be raw.  If my allergies are to pollen, the honey should be made from the same pollen I am allergic to.  I look for locally produced honey from as close as possible to my home.  I have heard that bee pollen works as well, but I have never tried it.  Some people chew on the honeycomb, but with the amount I eat it is impractical, and I prefer the honey to the comb.

This year I have mixed it up a little.  I now combine a tablespoon of honey with two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in a large glass of water.  This serves to eat my honey, and provides for a tasty drink different from my normal tea, water or coffee, and both better tasting and better for me than soda (which I do my best to avoid at most times).

Some people might think that the result is a product of my imagination, but I would much rather eat a spoonful of imagination than an antihistamine any time.

So, if you are one of those that suffer from seasonal allergies, try getting on a program of honey leading up to and through the allergy season. It may help you avoid some of those symptoms, and the medicines that we use to address the symptoms.  I hope it works for you like it has for me.

By the way, those dandelions you see growing in my yard are there so the bees have something to eat early in the spring when other flowers have yet to come out.

PEACE!

KT

Day 46