Natural Ways to Treat Your Seasonal Allergies

Spring is here. The weather is finally warming up, so we can get out and enjoy the fresh air. If you’re like many people, you might be kept indoors by allergies. With more than 50 million Americans suffering from seasonal allergies every year, if you don’t suffer yourself, you know someone who does.

Allergies are typically a result of overexposure to various toxins and your body’s response to them. For some people, it doesn’t take much at all to bring on the misery, while others seem to be able to handle quite a lot of allergen exposure without repercussions.

Dr. Martin Gleixner compares your body to a bucket. When you combine all your body’s necessities, your gut health, your lifestyle, your genetics, and finally your exposure to toxins, your bucket just might overflow. As a results you may feel fatigued, moody, achy, and break out in skin reactions or have an asthma attack.

Before you grab the over-the-counter meds that may leave you with some unfortunate side effects, consider taking a more common sense approach to allergy relief.

Natural Ways to Treat Your Seasonal Allergies

1. Close your windows. After a long winter, opening up windows for some fresh, spring air sounds glorious. Until it’s not. Pollen will make its way into your home. Add to it the dust your vacuum kicked up and the time you spent snuggling with your cat, and you’re in for a miserable day.
2. Clean off your shoes, and leave them by the door. Or better yet, outside. Your shoes drag in all sorts of germs and allergens. Make it a habit to remove them any time you enter your home. Cleaning your carpets will help get rid of anything that has already made its way in.
3. Rinse out your nose. All of the allergens you are exposed to throughout the day can get caught in your nose and just hang out there. Use a Neti Pot or another nasal rinse every morning and evening.
4. Shower before you go to bed. If you go to bed feeling fine and wake up feeling miserable, you’re likely carrying allergens around in your hair and on your body. Just imagine laying in and breathing in all of those toxins all night long!
5. Use an air purifier. Depending on what triggers those allergies, an air purifier may provide the relief you’re desperately searching for. 
6. Reduce your stress. If you’re stressed out for an extended period of time, you compromise your immune system. Your body could produce an excess amount of the stress hormone, cortisol, resulting in an imbalance and contributing to allergy issues.
7. Maintain a healthy immune system. Get a good night’s sleep, eat healthy, whole foods, exercise, reduce stress, and take a quality probiotic for gut health. All of these things will improve your overall health, allowing for your bucket to not so easily overflow.

Remember, “No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.” When seasonal allergies make you dread this time of year, take these common sense steps to beat the allergies this season.