By Caroline Roberts, Naturopath
The season to celebrate renewal, clearing the winter cobwebs and making your body sing by spring cleaning inside and out.
Spring brings fresh joy with jasmine breezes and blossoming flowerbeds. It’s time to open the windows, dispel dust bunnies, strip off winter layers and bask in the golden sunshine. For some, spring is filled with the splendour of nature’s essences. Others dread spring as it heralds hayfever hassles. Spring allergies arise with symptoms ranging from a runny nose, rashes, sneezing, watery eyes, itchiness, congestion and fatigue. Fortunately, Kunara can offer hayfever help with natural solutions for a super healthy spring. Try these six steps to get rid of the sniffles.
1. Expel allergens
Offload annoying bug baggage to ease your inflammatory load.
○ Ancient Secrets Nasal Cleansing Pot clears sinuses like a nasal colonic. Chase with a smear of black sesame oil inside the nostrils to prevent perilous pollens.
○ Rinse your eyes in diluted rosewater or fennel tea to flush out irritants.
○ Cleanse your mouth with Organic India Tulsi tea or NutriBiotic Mouth Fresh to flush this lymphatic rich area. Oil pulling by swishing warm sesame oil in the mouth for a few minutes then spitting out can also expel irritants.
○ Clear your colon with a weekly cleanse of Activated Charcoal Powder by Charcoal Me.
○ Eat only low starch vegetable broth or legumes for a few days.
○ Minimise mucousy foods which act like glue to allergens. These include dairy, rice, wheat, potatoes, gluten, sugar and bananas.
○ Drink 2 litres of alkaline water a day or detox teas such as Yogi DeTox.
○ Try horseradish or wasabi to clear catarrh and fortify membranes via its pungent allyl isothiocyanate content. Horseradish is considered the best nasal decongestant as its heat makes more mucous and tears, leaving a drying after effect. It increases blood flow, flushing allergens. Nutralife Garlic + C, horseradish and anti-allergy formula with perilla is excellent. Ethical Nutrients Sinus and Hayfever Relief is another fantastic formula with horseradish, eyebright and olive leaf for the optimal immunity. Herbs of Gold Hayfever and Sinus Ease with horseradish, eyebright, garlic, skullcap and vitamin C is another affordable option.
2. Strengthen defence walls
A good gastrointestinal lining will process allergens and protect the body from invasion or accumulation. Formulas that Kunara offer for mucous membrane immunity include Natures Sunshine Eyebright/ Golden Seal Combination. Studies show that Golden Seal stimulates the secretion of the anti-allergy chemical interleukin 12 which calms allergies. It also contains berberine which reduces swelling, itching and inflammation. Nutralife Gut Relief and Healthy Essentials SB are great if there’s a GIT component to spring sensitivities. Consider these if there are symptoms such as skin issues, bloat, cramps, constipation or diarrhoea.
3. Alleviate allergic reactions
Sometimes the only reliable way to appease allergies is through medicines that attenuate the immune response.
○ Herbs of Gold Bromelaine Forte can be a great anti-inflammatory and help to relieve symptoms of sinusitis.
○ Terrific turmeric can be taken as a root powder, fermented liquid or tablet such as Bio Curcumin Plus by NutriVital. Research shows it’s a superhero in assisting eczema, hayfever, asthma and bronchitis due to its anti-inflammatory and anti-histamine curcuminoids.
○ Fusion’s Allergy blends the best natural antihistamines to reduce allergic symptoms. It contains perilla, prized for its anti-allergy affects in asthma, eczema
and dermatitis.
○ Ask a Kunara naturopath for a sweet extract of liquorice to soothe itchy skin, tickly coughs and inflamed intestines. Championed by Chinese herbalists as the supreme anti-allergy tonic, science supports this claim concluding it contains over ten anti-inflammatory flavonoids, chalcones, saponins and glycyrrhetic acid.
○ The homoeopathic hero for spring sinus issues is Brauer Sinus mix.
4. Cleanse your environment
We can’t live in a plastic bubble but we can reduce exposure to common allergens such as plants, animal hair, foods, insects, medicine, mould and more by the following measures.
○ Steam clean carpets, bedding and vacuum living spaces regularly.
○ Clear moulds with borax or Simply Clean Simply No Mould powered by 5% hydrogen peroxide.
○ Wash clothes with eucalyptus or tea tree oil.
○ Cleanse the bathroom with Ecostore Bathroom and shower cleanser
○ Wear a mask, covering clothes and gloves while cleaning or gardening.
○ Do your exercise when pollen counts are lowest before sunrise or sunset.
5. Lush spring nutrition
Let food be your medicine with these spring eating tips.
○ Incorporate vitamin C and flavonoid-rich foods including apples, berries, broccoli, buckwheat, capsicum, coriander, kale, kiwifruit, mango, onions, papaya, parsley and watercress.
○ Raw garlic cloves reduce mucous with its decongesting, anti-histamine hit.
○ Enzymes papain in pineapple and bromelain in papaya are powerful anti-inflammatories.
○ Beta-carotene builds the body’s barrier against allergens. Think colorful foods such as apricots, carrots, goji berries, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, mango and leafy greens like spinach.
○ Omega 3 fatty acids reduce pro-inflammatory eicosanoids and prostaglandin1. Salmon, flax seed oil and eggs for abundant omega 3’s.
○ A shot of apple cider vinegar helps hayfever by optimizing assimilation and elimination. Its high potassium also clears catarrh.
○ Honey desensitises the body to pollens while optimizing digestive enzymes to deal with allergens.
6. Super immune supplements
To side step symptoms keep your immune system strong with Kyolic Garlic. This pungent panacea packs an anti-histamine punch while warding off viruses and bacteria with its antibiotic allicin content. Other Kunara favourites are Fusion Astra 8, Nutralife Ester C, Ethical Nutrients Extra C, Comvita Olive Leaf Extract and Thompsons Astraforte with Astragalus and Reishi Mushroom.
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