Seasonal Allergies and Nutrition

I don’t need to tell you that hay-fever can make a beautiful spring miserable. If you also are sensitive to leaf molds then autumn isn’t much fun either. Loading up on over-the-counter allergy medications leaves you feeling wired and tired at the same time and a bit like your brain is swimming through jello for the day which doesn’t help matters. You’ve tried everything you can think of and still carry an extra box of tissues everywhere you go. But believe it or not, there are a few things about seasonal allergies that you probably haven’t heard yet.

We all have heard of antihistamine medications, but do you know what they actually do? The arsenal of specialized cells on the front lines of our immune systems include cells designed to carry supplies of biochemical weapons. Mast cells and basophils are little bubbles filled with histamine. They hang out on the margins of where our internal environment meets the outside world, so they are found in skin, the mucus membranes of the lungs, nose, mouth and eyes, and in the digestive tract. When an allergen activates an antibody (IgE reaction) and that antibody binds to a mast cell, the contents of mast cell are then spilled into the surrounding tissues causing lymph vessels and capillaries to become “leaky”. This in turn causes local swelling and puts other parts of the immune system on high alert. This is the start of an inflammatory process that progresses to watery eyes, a drippy nose, and sinuses full of mucus.

The interesting thing is that we also consume foods that are high in histamine and our systems react the same way by creating an inflammatory response to these foods. If our body is already on high alert from an environmental attack, adding in foods that are high in histamine can exacerbate your symptoms. It is a good idea to reduce your intake of high-histamine foods during the time of year you are more susceptible to allergens.

High-histamine foods include some of my favorites so it’s hard to let them go when they are what I want to reach for when I feel yucky, but here they are: chocolate, wine, beer, avocados, aged cheeses, cider, vinegar, smoked fish, soured breads, fermented foods like sauerkraut and tamari, yogurt, sour cream, pickles and olives. There are also foods that cause us to release our own histamine stores including ripe bananas, eggs, fish, milk, pineapple, strawberries and tomatoes. If you can focus on other foods or at least limit these foods during allergy season, your symptoms will likely lessen.

Additionally there are a few nutritional supplements that have a few tricks up their sleeves. Vitamin C actually acts as an antihistamine in doses over 1000mg. You can try taking 1000mg buffered C up to 5-6x a day to help “unstuff”. The bioflavonoid quercitin, and the herbs boswellia and nettles are also wonder-workers. Look for allergy relief blends of these nutrients to help boost your body’s ability to manage allergen attacks.


(also published in The Patch.com)