How Long Does It Take For Honey To Help Allergies
Raw honey contains bee pollen that can serve to eliminate the infection and alleviate the allergy suffered by someone. In fact, raw honey can be used to boost the immune system.
According to research that has been done, consuming honey with a dose that is high enough for eight weeks to give a good impact.
Other studies also mentioned that honey can reduce the symptoms of allergic rhinitis or inflammation in the nasal cavity.
This type of allergy can cause itching, sneezing, and watery eyes. To consume this honey can be tailored to your needs.
In addition, you can use a standard dose of one teaspoon or one tablespoon of honey. Of the various statements, if asked about how long does it take for honey to help allergies?
So, the answer is tailored to the condition of allergies experienced. However, the time required is not a little time.
This is because honey overcomes allergies naturally, so it takes quite a long time.
Local honey can also be useful for overcoming seasonal allergies that can cause sore throat, difficulty breathing, coughing, or headaches.
This local honey effectively acts as a good natural remedy for people with seasonal allergies. In addition, by regularly consuming local honey will help you increase immunity to local pollen.
Local honey significantly provides better control of allergy symptoms than conventional medicine. Therefore, you can consume raw honey regularly to cope with seasonal allergies and improve the immune system.
How The Theory About Eating Local Honey Got Started
“The theory got started because local, unprocessed honey was known to contain local pollens,” says Lakiea Wright, MD, an allergist at Women’s Hospital in Boston and medical director at Thermo Fisher Scientific. “Raw honey is more likely to contain local pollen because it isn’t processed. During processing , pollen is removed from honey.”
When it comes to eating local honey for allergies, the idea is that you ingest local pollen and eventually become less affected by it. This allergy treatment method is called allergen desensitization.
“The concept of allergen desensitization is based on exposing your body to small, escalating doses of allergen to desensitize your allergy cells,” says Dr. Wright. In the case of local honey, you would theoretically be ingesting pollen-containing honey in small amounts regularly to minimize seasonal allergy symptoms.
“With regular exposure to an allergen, your allergy cells become desensitized and are less likely to fire off and cause symptoms. Allergen immunotherapy is based on this concept of desensitization,” explains Dr. Wright.
Local Honey For Allergies Does It Work
Aside from raw honey, the most misunderstood beehive product is the concept of local honey. Vague rumors about its possible allergy-prevention virtues are becoming more prevalent, prompting people to seek honey that is local, thinking that it might be good for allergies.
But what does local mean? How is honey qualified and identified as local? Is non-local honey bad or useless?
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How Can Honey Help Pollen Allergies
Pollen can be inflammatory, but honey has anti-inflammatory properties. Given the right proportions, the degree of inflammation caused by pollen can be overcome by the honey. Therefore, assuming that the body is reacting to a specific pollen , the presence of honey may be inhibiting the reaction to the point where the person doesnt realize there is any allergic reaction going on.
If everything goes right, the honeys defenses against pollen will eventually become a command within the body to not go nuts when it detects the pollen. In other words, we can harness the bodys power to heal itself by training the body to react to irritants the way we want it to .
Not all honey is equal some are more potent in their anti-inflammatory properties than others. But if the honey comes from the same place as the pollen, its safe to assume that because they are parts of the same whole , they can work together to balance each other out. Thats really the only geographical-nearness factor that applies to the concept of local honey.
For example, if someone is allergic to alfalfa pollen, it makes sense to consume alfalfa honey. Does it matter if the alfalfa honey is from within a certain number of miles radius? No, it really doesnt. It could be alfalfa honey from another state or another country, and it should work fine.
What You Should Know Before You Use Honey As A Treatment
Doctors and researchers havent recommended a certain amount of honey a person should eat each day to relieve their seasonal allergy symptoms. Plus, there are no guarantees how much pollen may be in a serving of local honey.
Note that you should not give honey to children under the age of 1. This is because raw, unprocessed honey has a risk for botulism in infants. Also, some people who have a severe allergy to pollen can experience a serious allergic reaction known as anaphylaxis after eating honey. This can cause extreme difficulty breathing. Others may experience allergic reactions such as itching or swelling of the mouth, throat, or skin.
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How Honey May Help Treat Dog Allergies
Proponents who recommend the use of local honey to help alleviate allergies in dogs believe that the unique combination of honey and pollen is the main factor that allows a dog a substantial level of allergy relief.
Here is how it works:
Bees visit the flowers in their neighborhood to gather nectar which they utilize in making honey. Other than picking the nectar, the bees also collect little pollen amounts which make up the overall composition of the honey.
With this in mind, offering your canine friend small quantities of the local honey every week ensures that your dog benefits from small amounts of the local pollens to which his body system can subsequently develop immunity with time.
After generating the resistance, your dog should no longer exhibit any clinical signs of the allergy.
In essence, although it is impossible for all dogs to achieve optimal cure from the allergies by only consuming local honey, incorporating a weekly dose of the raw honey should work excellently in minimizing the typical clinical signs as well as help your dog feel a bit relieved and better during the allergy season.
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Dont Get Too Hung Up On Geographical Location Of Honey
If we operated on the misunderstood concept of local honey, then theres no point in anyone outside of New Zealand ever buying and using manuka honey , arguably the worlds most powerful honey. Manukas great healing reputation has everybody scrambling to shell out lots of money, but if local were the most important acquisition factor, nobody else in the world should bother buying it because manuka honey is only local within New Zealand . Except so many people continue to buy manuka honey because it works.
And thats the overriding concept: honey has unique properties that makes it an extremely beneficial food. There are so many ways to categorize it , but in the end, its simply natures wholesome sweetener.
Birch pollen honey for birch pollen allergy,Honey: its medicinal property and antibacterial properties,The use of bee pollen as a superfood.
Honey Has Health Risks
When people talk about eating honey to prevent allergies, they donât mean the kind at the supermarket that comes in a plastic bear. Itâs often local, unprocessed honey. And it can have some pretty nasty stuff in it, from bee parts to mold spores and bacteria. These things are usually removed during commercial processing.
Itâs rare, but eating unprocessed honey can cause a serious allergic reaction. You might have itching, hives, or swelling of your mouth, throat, or skin. The culprit: pollen or bee parts in the unprocessed honey.
âOne of the reasons I never recommend unprocessed honey for allergies is because someone may be allergic to it and not even know,â Ogden says. âI worry about local honey that hasnât been processed or tested.â
And if youâre allergic to bees, itâs possible unprocessed honey could contain some bee venom and cause a severe reaction, Ogden says.
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How Do You Stop Allergies Immediately
Clean out your nose. Try an over-the-counter allergy medicine. Consider a prescription nasal spray or eye drops. Decongestants may also help relieve nasal congestion. Close your windows, and turn on the air conditioning. If things get bad, try allergy shots, also known as allergy immunotherapy.
The Real Benefits Of Honey
While local honey might not cure you of your seasonal allergies, it can still deliver a lot of benefits: Sore throat remedy Strong source of prebiotics and nutrients Immune booster Sweetener alternative to processed sugar
If you want to give raw honey a try, make sure you source it from a local and trusted producer. This beekeeper will be someone who doesnt use any chemicals or other treatments, has bee hives within 5 miles of where you live, does not feed or move their bees, never filters or heats their honey, and uses wooden frames and natural wax foundation. If you cant find a beekeeper that meets all those criteria, aim for as many as you can to ensure the most beneficial raw/local honey.
*As a reminder, its important to keep in mind that honey is not safe for children under 12 months, as it can lead to a serious condition called botulism.
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Using Honey For Dogs With Allergies
Just like is the case with most humans, many dogs also suffer from environmental allergies.
Summer, spring, as well as fall, can subsequently trigger these distinct sensitivities in our furry friends with symptoms like licking thigh and feet, rubbing the face, and scratching being the most common.
Nonetheless, while allergies are unavoidable, knowing how to deal with allergies in dogs is vital for having a healthy and happy pet and one surprising but significantly effective natural way to deal with help alleviate these concerns is using Local Honey!
Usually, this is the most common veterinary usage of the favorite sweetener, and it is for a good reason too.
Local honey is known to have a wide array of the same pollen spores which significantly trouble allergy sufferers when grasses and flowers are in bloom.
Taking honey subsequently introduces these particular spores in harmless quantities and helps make the body accustomed to them being present, consequently minimizing the chances of a reaction immune-system-response such as histamine release occurring.
Histamine is simply the bodys reaction to the presence of allergens and is responsible for initiating the symptoms of runny eyes and itchy skin.
Whats more, numerous medical studies also support the usage of local honey in combating environmental allergies. The most important thing to understand is that it is not just any type of honey that worksthe recommended type is local honey.
Why local honey?
Guideline On How To Use Honey For Dogs With Allergies
How Much Honey Should You Give to Your Dog?
In general, the total amount of honey that you feed to your canine friend is dependent on the size of your dog. Usually, it is recommended that smaller dogs get one teaspoon weekly, whereas the larger dog breeds should consume a tablespoon every week.
Often, the effects of taking the local honey are cumulative as such plan to serve your dog for between three to four weeks before the beginning of the allergy season in your region.
You can usually use this guideline and go ahead to adjust as per the size of your furry friend. It is vital that you carry this out daily or risk the allergy symptoms from reappearing.
However, it is essential to understand that feeding your dog more than the recommended one tablespoon of the local honey per day can subsequently result in a negative impact on their health.
Why? This is because dogs are carnivorous and boast a digestive system and teeth purposed to consume meat and not sweets. In essence, too much honey may also lead to tooth decay, not to mention the added calories that can result in obesity.
Numerous pet owners often find reprieve from their cyclic allergy symptoms through taking regular local honey doses themselves. In the end, you may begin with, one teaspoon per week and accordingly adjust as per how severe the allergy symptoms are and your overall weight.
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Does Local Honey Help Seasonal Allergies
As an allergist, I love hearing this question and guiding patients on TRUEevidence-based medicine. There is a widespread and FALSE belief that eating local, rawhoney can help allergies by regularly exposing you to pollen – not unlike the concept of how allergy shots work. Allergy shots help desensitize allergic people by exposing them topollen injected at regular intervals. An important difference here is that the amount of pollen in allergy shotsis known, and slowly increased to a certain level, for best results. Studies have shown allergy shots are very effective for decreasing seasonal and year-round allergy symptoms.
Local, unprocessed honey does contain small amounts of pollen from the environment. The pollen in honey is mostly from the flowers where bees are found, butflowering plant pollen is not the cause ofallergy symptoms.Pollen from trees, grasses and weeds are the true allergy causing culprits, and these plants arenot pollinated by bees! Thus, the amount of allergenic pollen in the honey is typically very small. This is considered a contaminant, like the bee parts, mold spores, bacteria and other environmental particles that can be found in honey.
In the end, I fully support buying local honey for all the right reasons. Just dont ask the bees to cure your allergies.
How To Reap The Rewards
Like many other things in life, honey is best in moderationyou dont have to consume an entire jar in one sitting to enjoy the benefits. For allergies, just a spoonful of honey a day during allergy season can potentially make a difference. Despite how delicious it is all on its own, there are plenty of creative ways to incorporate a spoonful of honey into your regular diet, too. You can add honey to sauces and as a sugar substitute in baked goods, but if you really want to enjoy the health benefits of local honey, its best to keep it raw and unheated.
Some of my absolute favorite ways to use it include adding a tablespoon to fruit smoothies, which my kids adore, drizzling some on top of a sharp, dry cheese for a special snack or hors doeuvre, and as a topping for plain Greek yogurt to turn it into a healthy dessert. It also makes a great natural sweetener for lemonades or iced tea.
One of the best things about local honey is the natural variety. The avocado honey, for example, was much less sweet than the wildflower one, with an almost molasses-like flavor. Its fun to experiment with the different types in recipes.
No matter how you choose to enjoy it, the benefits are clearly worth going local. Keep in mind that honey never goes bad, so even if you pay extra, its a worthwhile investment. Share your own uses for local honey with us on .
Image source: Sher Warkentin
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How Honey Could Cure Your Allergies
There have been no peer-reviewed scientific studies that have conclusively proven whether honey actually reduces allergies. Almost all evidence regarding the immunizing effects of eating honey is anecdotal. But these reports have proven persuasive enough for some people to try to fight their seasonal allergies by eating honey every day.
Without scientific inquiry, we’re left with only theories about how honey could reduce allergies. The prevailing theory is that it works like a vaccination. Vaccines introduce dummy versions of a particular virus or germ into the body and effectively trick it into believing it’s been invaded, triggering an immune system response . This produces antibodies designated to fight off the foreign invaders. When the body is actually exposed to the harmful germ or virus, the antibodies are ready for them.
As innocuous as honey seems, it can actually pose health risks in some cases. Honey proponents warn that there is a potential for an allergic reaction to it. And since honey can contain bacteria that can cause infant botulism, health officials warn that children under 12 months of age whose immune systems haven’t fully developed shouldn’t eat honey at all .
The study was never published, but the anecdotal evidence in favor of honey as an allergy reliever continues: Several of the study participants asked if they could keep the remaining honey after the experiment was concluded.
