Seasonal allergies. You either have them yourself or know someone who does. Am I right? Of course I am!
I think I mentioned once before that a couple years ago my allergies got so out of control my eyes puffed up. It was during that time that I was taking 3x the recommended dose of Zyrtec. And you know what? I was always hungry! Turns out, antihistamines can cause weight gain and I remember reading they are sometimes used to treat anorexia to trigger hunger. So not only did I have such swollen eyes my skin was cracking, but I was starving all the time – 5 months before my wedding no less! Not ideal for a bride-to-be if you can imagine. Thankfully, since then I haven’t had anything nearly that serious and haven’t needed to take more than the recommended dose.
This fall, allergies hit Landon a lot harder than me and he ended up with a sinus infection. We thought he was recovered and decided to open windows for the first time THIS year a couple weeks ago. Within two days, I was taking allergy meds again and a few days after that Landon’s sinus infection came back. Welcome to the house of misery.
I’ve noticed the healthier I eat and the more toxins I remove from my life, the more modern medicine affects me. Just taking one Zyrtec a day had me hungry ALL. THE. TIME. And remember how the “non-drowsy” Dramamine knocked me out on our way back from Nashville? After 4 days of antihistamines, enough was enough. Here are the things we’ve been doing that are much more holistic to keep our allergy symptoms at bay.
Tea
When my allergies are really bad, my throat itches. So much so that I feel like I will swallow my own tongue trying to get relief. One day after a walking break at work, I was beside myself and desperate so I tried some peppermint tea. And it worked! I also have read that nettle works well and since then have been using that. Not that peppermint tea doesn’t alleviate symptoms, but I find that the nettle tea works a little faster for me.
Diffuse Essential Oils
Oh yes, I am on this bandwagon just from our recent experience alone. (Now, I am still researching which brands I trust and all that so don’t feel like this is a recommendation for these brands. I am very pleased with how they are working though.) Every night, I have been adding 5 drops each of peppermint, lavender, and lemon essential oils to a diffuser filled with 100ml of water. Is 5 drops a bit excessive? Possibly but we need some major relief right now. I’ll probably decrease it in a few days.
When Landon was worse off we had the diffuser on his side of the bed, but I could still smell it and feel my nose clear up at night. Now that he’s better, I put it on my nightstand. Even though the diffuser runs out during the middle of the night, I can still smell the scents when I walk in our bedroom during the day. It’s like a breath of fresh air and much safer to breathe in than the “toxins outside” as Landon likes to say.
I hope nobody else is suffering too badly from fall allergies. With all the heat we’ve been having, it seems the first frost is a lifetime away! ❄️