HEALTH Herbal treatments for hay fever

Woes of the nose


In the last of this three-part series on hay fever and allergic rhinitis,we look at herbal treatments

Herbal Medicine
Sabine Hiller

Click here for Part 1
Click here for Part 2

Part 3
Many people look for herbal alternatives because of the side effects they may have experienced with pharmaceutical drugs. Some anti-histamines make you feel drowsy and taking steroids long-term is not a good idea. The use of over-the-counter nasal decongestant sprays can lead to rebound nasal congestion after as little as three or four days, if the spray was used more than twice daily.
Hay fever usually responds well to herbal treatment, but to get the best results it is advisable to seek professional advice. A medical herbalist will look at all the factors that may contribute to the allergic reaction, and put together a personalised prescription for you. This article will give you an insight into some of the herbs a medical herbalist would usually prescribe, plus discuss a few extra tips that should help you get through the season.
Herbs used by medical herbalists for hay fever include nettles, elderflowers, eyebright, plantain, chamomile, golden rod and many others, the combination depending on the individual patient. Lifestyle advice, such as increasing vegetable and fruit intake (see my last article (April 6), available at www.mayonews.ie/living) will also be given when consulting a medical herbalist for hay fever.
Nettles have been shown to inhibit some of the key inflammatory events that are responsible for causing the symptoms of allergic rhinitis, and I would nearly always include nettles in a hay fever prescription. Now is still a good time to get out and pick your supply of nettles for use in tea and cooking, but make sure you only pick young shoots and avoid older leaves.
Chamomile contains plenty of quercetin and other anti-inflammatory compounds and inhibits the release of histamine. As histamine is one of the main culprits for the symptoms of hay fever, chamomile may help to reduce those symptoms, and herbalists often include chamomile in anti-allergic prescriptions. However, people with an allergy to plants of the daisy family need to avoid chamomile.
Nigella sativa, or black onion seed (also called ‘black cumin’), is a spice much used in Indian and Middle Eastern cookery and can be bought in Asian and African food shops. Besides giving an interesting aroma to curries, yoghurt-cheese and other dishes, it is also an important herbal medicine. It was used by Hippocrates in ancient Greece and is an important traditional remedy in Islamic medicine. Many of its uses have been confirmed by research, and clinical trials have shown that the oil of this little black seed relieve the symptoms of allergic rhinitis. While the exact mechanism is not as yet clear, it seems that Nigella reduces inflammation by inhibiting a variety of inflammatory mediators. Researchers also suggest that Nigella may help to stabilise the immune system, but more research is needed to confirm this.
Some people swear by local honey and bee pollen to prevent the onset of hay fever symptoms, and the idea is that taking the unpasteurised and unfiltered local honey for some weeks before the pollen season will lead to desensitisation. While bee pollen has in laboratory research indeed been shown to have an anti-allergic effect, there is as yet no clinical evidence to support this. In fact, a clinical trial done a few years ago could find no evidence that local  honey is effective for allergic rhinitis. In this case, the honey was taken over a period of ten days and compared to both placebo and a non-local honey. However,  whether local honey could indeed be a useful preventative if taken before the hay fever season, may be worth investigating.
Gargling with warm salt water can give relief, as does the use of the neti-pot – a device used by Yoga practitioners to irrigate the nasal passages that can be very helpful in preventing and relieving nasal congestion. Avoid over-the-counter saline nasal sprays as the preservative contained in them can make matters worse.

Sabine Hiller BSc(Hons) MIIMH MNIMH – is a qualified professional medical herbalist based in Westport. She is a member of the Irish Institute of Medical Herbalists and the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (UK). She can be contacted at 098 35909.