What causes hay fever?
Why is local honey not effective on hay fever?
What is the difference between light grass pollen and heavy flower pollen?
Which honey is effective on hay fever?
What is hay fever?
Hay fever- also known as allergic rhinitis - is a condition that affects over 10 million people in Great Britain.
Approximately 80% of asthma sufferers also have a pollen allergy. This means that many asthma sufferers may not even know that the cause of their asthma is pollen and they only treat the symptoms and not the causes.
Hayfever medication has many side effects, including drowsiness, so it is not recommended for long term use.
What are the symptoms of hay fever?
Pollen counts start to rise from late March until September. Warm and windy weather conditions allow the pollen to be airborne which leads to the following symptoms:
- sneezing and coughing
- a runny or blocked nose
- itchy, red or watery eyes
- itchy throat, mouth, nose and ears
- loss of smell
- pain around your temples and forehead
- headache
- earache
- feeling tired
What are the symptoms of asthma?
If you have asthma, you might also:
- have a tight feeling in your chest
- be short of breath
- wheeze and cough
Studies have shown that flooding the body with heavy organic flower pollen can desensitise hay fever sufferers by means of immunotherapy.
Which honey is effective for hay fever?
Contrary to widespread belief, local honey is actually ineffective in building resistance to pollen. This is because hay fever is usually caused by light grass and tree pollen.
Bees, on the other hand, feed on heavy flower pollen, not light grass and tree pollen.
Raw honey that is produced by countries with a rich diversity of plants can produce a much higher pollen count per teaspoon.
Over half the world's plant species exist in tropical rainforest zones such as Latin America and south east Asia.
When the honey is raw it is still alive. It has not been heated above 37C, which kills the beneficial living nutrients that the honey possesses.
The honey should be unfiltered. Filtered honey as found in the clear, runny honeys on supermarket shelves has had the beneficial pollen removed from it.
Local honey, especially from countries like the UK, is also ineffective on hay fever because it is high in pollutants and pesticides and has a low pollen count of high quality pollen.
How to use raw honey to build your immunity to hay fever
It is never too late to start building your immunity to the pollen grains.
Taking a teaspoon of high mountain flower pollen-count raw honey mixed in a glass of cold or warm water every morning can contribute to building your immunity to hay fever.
If you take this honey several weeks before hay fever season the body becomes accustomed to the allergens by the time the hay fever begins.
Even if hay fever season has started you can still benefit from this honey. "Beats hay fever like a bullet!" one customer told us about our hay fever honey.
Whenever you experience a bout of hay fever, take a spoon of this raw honey to relieve your symptoms. It is also effective in soothing a tickly throat and easing any constriction of air ways.
Many customers of the Latin Honey shop have written to us telling us how effective our Raw Organic Red Gumbo Limbo Honey has been in treating their hay fever.
It is made by bees feeding 3000 feet high in the Sierra Madre mountains of northeast Mexico. Organic mountain honey from Latin America has one of the highest pollen counts in the world and is also renowned for its high nutrient value.
One customer told us:
"For seven years I have suffered from severe hay fever. I tried manuka honey, sidr honey and other raw and organic honeys but none worked for me as the Raw Organic Red Gumbo Limbo Honey from the Latin Honey Shop. It instantly relieved my hay fever."
Raw Organic Red Gumbo Limbo Honey from the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico is available exclusively from the Latin Honey Shop.
Dear Linda,
As this article applies, there is no link between local flower pollen and hay fever because 90% of hay fever in the UK is caused by light grass pollen, but bees don’t feed on light grass pollen, they feed on heavy flower pollen.
The other problem with local honey in the UK is that it has a very low flower pollen count and it also has contaminants and pesticides (especially local honey from big cities and built up areas).
The particular one we recommend for hay fever, Red Gumbo Limbo Honey from Mexico, has a very high heavy flower pollen count so it has an effect on flooding the body with pollen which cancels out the symptoms of hay fever. We are not quite sure why it works but dozens of our customers have told us it worked for them.
I’ve heard that local honey can help with hay fever symptoms, so I buy honey local to me. How would it apply if the honey comes from Mexico, which is not local to me?
Thank you
Very good, prompt service and professional delivery