Anyone who is heavily affected by allergies or is a constant victim of whatever is going around, knows that allergy season is not fun.
As someone who is always affected by allergy season, I’ve heard all the different remedies, but this one made me think and pose the question: Can eating local honey actually cure allergy symptoms? If it does, I might just be investing in some honey come spring time.
I found an article that talks about why eating a spoonful of local honey a day can alleviate your allergy symptoms. When bees go from flower to flower, they collect pollen spores and these spores are then transferred to honey. Because of this, your body can build an immunity to the pollen thus, “curing” your allergies.
However, even though there is great evidence currently supporting this method, in the past there was not. The New York Times released a study that is almost a decade old.
That 10 year old study was refuted this year when another study was done and the results were completely different.
This study looked at the pre-seasonal use of 2 types of honey: pollen infused (local) or regular honey. Then, compared this to people who just consumed their normal medication and looked at their symptoms.
44 patients that were diagnosed with birch pollen allergy either ate the pollen honey or regular honey daily from November to March. 17 patients made up of the control group who just used their normal allergy medication in order to reduce symptoms.
People who ate the birch pollen honey compared to the control group had:
- 60% reduction in symptoms
- Twice as many asymptomatic days
- 70% fewer days with intense symptoms
- 50% decrease in the need for antihistamines
Because there were two studies that contradicted one another, I wanted to find more supporting evidence on pollen honey consumption curing allergies. Personally, I don’t think that trying this honey method can do any harm. Honey has a wide variety of health benefits such as:
- Prevent cancer and heart disease
- Reduce ulcers and other gastrointestinal issues
- Anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-fungal
- Increase athletic performance
- Reduce cough and throat soreness
- Balance the 5 elements
- Blood sugar regulation
- Heal wounds and burns
- Natural probiotic
- Strengthen the immune system
I wanted to include that in this article so that people see that even if it doesn’t help the allergy issue, it can many health benefits and can be used to help other problems.
The whole idea behind honey working to cure allergies is that it encourages a build up of immunity, just as allergy shots do.
Even though this method seems like a great homeopathic way to get through allergy season, it’s important to know that there are health risks when consuming raw, local honey. Because the bees’ pollen covered spores are infused in the honey and not being filtered out, it also means that bacteria and mold can potentially get in the honey. However, this does not mean that the local honey is always going to be infected, but just to be aware that with the pros of local honey also comes some cons.
Takeaway…
After researching this topic, I think I am going to invest in some local honey and try the method out. As I said before, I really don’t think it does any harm in trying — especially if antihistamines aren’t cutting it.
I don’t suffer from allergies but its interesting to think honey can cure it. Seeing as that lots of allergies are caused by pollen which is a result of bees it funny that honey, another result from bees, can be the cure. The health risks of eating raw local honey sound pretty severe, only if it happens though. I wonder if there are other locally grow types of foods that can cure other types of health issues.
I suffer from severe allergies too and i find myself often buying allergy pills just to stop my nose from running and my cough from being a distraction. I can say confidently though I would much rather buy and eat honey than compared to buying tons of generic brand pills. I will absolutely take this study on personally and try it out on myself. Very well done and thank you for giving me something new to try.
As someone who gets horrible allergies, I’m surprised I have never heard of this method before. I’ll definitely be sure to try it next time especially because nothing else ever seems to work. The mechanism in how honey can help build immunity is very logical to me. There are so many health benefits to eating raw honey and on top of that a cure for my allergies, I don’t see any reason to not try this method at all!
Great Read! The moment I feel sniffles coming on I grab some local honey and eat it! I will eat it right out of the container or put it in some tea, but the results never change. my sniffles seem to go away within the next day. Now… could it be the placebo effect? Maybe, but I will say that I find it really hard to believe that the brain would be strong enough to make me “feel better” when I think I might be getting sick, the chances are there but probability wise, I doubt it. So glad you posted this? Did the study say anything on what amount you should consume or how often? Just curious