Roughly 17.6 million American adults suffer from allergies (per the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America), yet despite its sweeping effect on the population, there is no cure. As a result, many turn to supposed natural remedies to help heal their symptoms. But how well do they really work?
“In regards to complementary therapies, there are some that do have a positive effect on allergies and its treatment and act in a complementary effect,” Dr. Leonard Bielory, director of the Rutgers University Allergy and Asthma Associates, told weather.com.
In his own practice, Dr. Bielory uses complementary medicine in addition to other treatments. He tailors his treatments to patients and cautions against using anecdotal advice from the Internet to create your own natural regimen. As with any health remedy — whether it’s over-the-counter, by prescription or natural — make sure to consult with your doctor before embarking on treatment.
Neti Pot Saline Rinse
Do a quick Internet search for natural allergy remedies and you’re sure to find several sites heralding the benefits of neti pot saline rinses. But can you trust the recommendations? According to Dr. Bielory, they could be helpful. “The principle meaning, lavaging or washing away the surface … is a good principle, it just depends how much and how long,” he said.
In his own practice, Dr. Bielory said he does recommend nasal salines, but with one caveat: “I’m very cautious to my patients about how often they use it and the irritation that may occur there over time if they use it too much.”
As with many other remedies, Dr. Bielory recommends using this treatment in moderation, otherwise you risk irritation. “For day-to-day use with allergies, if it’s just a single use perhaps, that works,” he said.
Nettle Leaf
“Nettle leaves actually contain histamines,” Dr. Bielory said, “and it’s the basis of homeopathic treatments for allergies.”
According to the doctor, in the homeopathic regimen the idea is that “like treats like.” In this case, “if you have histamine-induced allergies, you take histamine as a treatment regimen.”
Unfortunately for believers in homeopathic treatment, Dr. Bielory said in multiple studies analyzing this kind of treatment, “it’s not been shown to work in allergic rhinitis.”
When it comes to probiotics, there is conflicting information on the subject, so Dr. Bielory set the record straight. He said that 20 years ago probiotics were simply thought to be complementary, but now some are being used in medicine in the treatment of a variety of inflammatory bowel diseases. But what does that mean for allergies?
The doctor said that you need to be taking probiotics for a long time and it needs to be a dietary change in the microbiome of your gut. Some studies now suggest that adding probiotics to your routine early in life (prior to the onset of allergies), the more likely it is that they could have an effect on the development of allergies. “Evidence is hinting that you could [treat active allergies with a probiotic], but it requires an incredible multi-year investment and the studies are weak; it’s a signal that is shows a positive impact,” Dr. Bielory said.
In order to potentially have a positive effect on the development of allergies, Dr. Bielory noted that some probiotics work better than others. “There are studies that in yogurts and foodstuffs, the concentration [of probiotics] is too low to make any impact and the items you buy from stores or over the counter are non-living and provide no biotic component,” he said. “The only way that you should be getting it is by prescription, otherwise it would be a waste of money.”
Eucalyptus Oil
Some natural remedies listed here work to help assuage an actual allergy, while others work to combat the symptoms. Eucalyptus oil falls into the latter category. According to Dr. Bielory, eucalyptus oil “is a decongestant.” He said that when you take menthol, eucalyptus or other herbs may be added and “each of them has components that soothe the nasal mucosa.”
It’s even something he uses in his own practice. When working with patients, Dr. Bielory said he recommends a nasal lavage that lists menthol, eucalyptus, birch oil, and cinnamon, among other things, as ingredients. “Each ingredient adds to the overall mucolytic process, which decreases the thickness of the mucus, washes it off and provides mild decongestant for the nasal mucosa,” he said. “It helps open the sinuses so you can drain better.”
If you choose to use eucalyptus oil by itself, the doctor said it will provide some kind of relief, but it may not be right for everyone. “Some people can develop a contact dermatitis [an itchy rash on your skin as an inflammatory response] to that,” he added. “These are not well studied items.”
Local Honey
Message boards across the Internet praise the supposed healing properties of local honey when it comes to allergies, but doctors are quick to dispel that theory. According to Dr. Bassett, founder and medical director at Asthma & Allergy Care of New York, “People think, ‘well I eat honey, I’m good,’ and that’s not really the case. Most of the studies have indicated that it’s not very helpful.”
The idea is that local honey combats allergies because it creates a natural immunity to local pollen. But Dr. Bassett said that is misguided. “[Honey] is usually representative of a plant that’s pollinated by insects,” he explained. “Those plants aren’t typically the ones that cause allergies; pollen-triggered allergies are the ones that are wind pollinated, the scrubby ragweed and so forth. Because they’re wind-pollinated, it’s a different mechanism, it’s a different pollen. People who eat honey can’t really protect themselves, or can’t really depend on that to protect themselves.”
According to Dr. Bielory, quercetin, as a bioflavonoid, is in “a family of agents that actually in concentrations does control or decrease the release or activation of mast cells, which is the allergy cell.”
Like many remedies on this list, quercetin is good in theory, but requires more studying to determine its real potential. “It has not been shown in clinical studies yet what dose, what duration, and what onset” can help allergy sufferers. Dr. Bielory added, “those studies have not been done to give good advice as how to use quercetin to provide relief of protection.”
Omega-3
There is some truth to Omega-3 as a natural allergy remedy, but Dr. Bielory explains it’s more of a long-game treatment.
“Omega does interfere” the doctor said, “overtime if you were to change your diet entirely to [be] fish-based or an omega-based diet by decreasing the amount of meat.” He pointed to people who naturally have a more fish-based diet and said, “they have less inflammatory responses that are due to immune responses.”
That being said, he cautions, “just taking Omega-3 as a capsule as a separate complementary [treatment] does not [work] unless you change your entire diet. It just doesn’t change the inflammatory mediators in the inflammatory response that you have.”
This content was originally published here.
