It’s the time of year when people start sniffling and sneezing – the dreaded pollen!
For many people, their hay fever isn’t as ‘straight forward’ as you might think – people who never had hay fever before, can even suddenly start suffering from it.
Now the pollen hasn’t changed, and the pollen was still there all of that time, so what has changed? What has usually happened is that something has changed within that person’s body which means that they can no longer tolerate the pollen.
The pollen itself isn’t the problem as such, it is how the body responds when it comes into contact with that pollen. An excess of histamine is released by cells in the body which create the well-known symptoms of hay fever. And this response can be modulated using herbal medicines.
Some people find that their hay fever doesn’t correlate to the high pollen count they hear about on the weather forecast either – they may be just fine even though the pollen is high. And on other days when the pollen is low they may have very bad symptoms.
The symptoms of hay fever can be:
• Sneezing
• Runny, itchy eyes
• Runny, itchy nose
• Blocked nose
• Itchy palate (roof of mouth)
At Foreman and Jones we treat people in person at the practice and over-the-counter via post.
The usual types of herbs a herbalist might choose are:
• Elder flower and berries
• Ma Huang (only available following consultation)
• Eyebright
• Ground Ivy
• Nettles
• Plantain
There are many more herbs that may be useful on discussion. Please contact us if you would like more information.
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