VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Hi everyone. Welcome back to our channel.
What are seasonal allergies and the symptoms associated with them?
What role does nutrition play in managing seasonal allergies?
What are some natural things that you can do at home to help with seasonal allergies?
What nutrients and supplements are beneficial for seasonal allergies?
And can you combine multiple nutrients for optimal allergy relief?
These are the questions that I'll be addressing in today's video.
I'm Katie Bailey. I'm a registered dietician at Flusso Nutrients where we provide supplement education and professional quality supplement options for you to make the world of nutrition supplements a little bit easier to navigate.
As always, make sure you check with your main nutrition literate healthcare provider before starting anything new. As we can't know your full medical history to provide a personalized recommendation. So without further ado, let's jump into today's video.
What are seasonal allergies and the symptoms often associated with them?
Seasonal allergies, sometimes referred to as hay fever or allergic rhinitis are an allergic response or hypersensitivity to the exposure of allergens in our environment like pollen, dust, pet dander, and mold, just to name a few that occur during certain times of the year.
The immune system reacts to these allergens and chemicals called histamines are released to help fight off the allergen.
This immune response leads to uncomfortable symptoms like itchiness and sneezing, coughing, watery or itchy eyes, runny nose or nasal congestion.
Over 25% of US adults and about 19% of children have at least one seasonal allergy, and the conventional treatment for allergies include things like nasal sprays, decongestants, and antihistamines.
Natural Remedies for Seasonal Allergies
What role does nutrition play in managing allergies?
Well, nutrition plays a pivotal role in assisting our body's defense mechanisms against allergies.
Eating a balanced diet that is rich in certain nutrients, which I'll discuss a little bit later, can help to modulate our immune system as well as decrease inflammatory responses.
Incorporating these specific nutrients can help to reduce our symptoms and enhance the body's overall immune response.
And research has shown that individuals with seasonal allergies tend to have a decreased microbial diversity in the gut.
Nutrition for Allergies
So therefore, eating a diet that's going to promote gut health as well as help to diversify the gut, like eating a variety of fiber rich foods, among other things may be beneficial in helping with allergies as well.
Following an anti-inflammatory diet may also help mitigate the immune response associated with the release of histamine.
This would include decreasing our consumption of processed foods, added sugars, artificial ingredients, those inflammatory fats and alcohol, while increasing our consumption of fruits, vegetables, quality proteins, and omega fatty acids.
For some individuals, they have a hard time breaking down and getting rid of excess histamine, so reducing high histamine foods could be beneficial as eating those high histamine foods is going to add to that histamine that we're already struggling with.
High histamine foods are going to include things like hard cheeses and chocolate avocados, tomatoes, fermented foods, as well as leftovers.
What are some natural remedies that you can do at home to help with seasonal allergies?
Sometimes it's not possible to completely avoid allergens, but at home there are things that you can do to help decrease your exposure.
So using air purifiers or filters in the home to help reduce allergens in the air, making sure to vacuum regularly to get rid of that dust and pet dander, as well as washing your bedding in your blankets.
Often neti pots are also really helpful to help clear out your sinuses and congestion. What nutrients and supplements are beneficial for seasonal allergies?
Vitamin C Supplement Benefits
There are five nutrients in particular that I'm going to talk to you about today that can assist in alleviating your symptoms.
The first one I want to talk about is a vitamin C.
Vitamin C is an antioxidant that helps to counteract the inflammatory response that is triggered by allergens, and it also helps to bolster our immune system.
A robust immune system is going to be better equipped to deal with the allergens and more effectively reducing the severity and the frequency of reactions.
So food sources that are rich in vitamin C include things like our citrus fruits, our berries, and bell peppers.
Quercetin for Allergies
The second nutrient is quercetin, and quercetin is a flavonoid that's found in many fruits and vegetables.
It acts as a natural antihistamine, so by inhibiting the release of histamines, it can help to mitigate the symptoms of seasonal allergies.
Research has also found it to be effective at reducing congestion by calming down the hyperactivity of our airways. It's also been shown to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
Food sources of course, attend include things like our cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower, as well as apples, blueberries, onions, and green tea.
Stinging Nettle Root for Allergies
Next is stinging nettle, which is an herb that has been used for centuries to treat many different ailments including seasonal allergies.
It has natural anti-inflammatory and antihistamine effects that can help provide relief for symptoms like itching and sneezing.
It can be consumed in many different forms like tea capsules and tinctures.
Bromelain for Allergies
Next nutrient is bromelain and bromelain is an enzyme that is derived from pineapples and it can alleviate symptoms by helping to reduce swelling in our nasal passages and helping to improve breathing.
The last one I want to talk to you today about is n-acetylcysteine, also known as NAC, and this is a form of the amino acid called cysteine, and it's a precursor to glutathione, which is a powerful antioxidant in the body.
It can help mitigate the oxidative stress that's caused by allergic reactions, and it also has expectorant properties, meaning that it can help aid in the thinning and the clearing of mucus in our airways, providing relief from congestion.
Combination Supplements for Allergies
So can you combine multiple nutrients for optimal allergy relief?
And the answer to that is yes, absolutely.
Incorporating a variety of these nutrients into your daily routine can help your body enhance your body's ability to cope with these allergens and reduce the severity of your symptoms.
Now, you can have these nutrients separately, or now they do have supplements that have multiple of these nutrients combined into one capsule to make it a lot easier to get these beneficial nutrients.
I have linked to one of my favorite quality combination supplements below if you're interested in trying it.
To wrap up our topic for today, seasonal allergies can significantly impact our life, but by adding, incorporating key nutrients like vitamin C, stinging nettle, quercetin, NAC, and bromelain into our diet, this can offer natural and effective relief by reducing inflammation as well as reducing histamines and bolstering our immune system.
So if you like today's video, please hit the like button and subscribe for more nutrition videos. Let us know in the comments if you've tried any of these remedies before or if you have any questions.
If you're interested in working with our clinic, you can click this link to schedule an appointment. We do take insurance and you can find more information about that on our website.
Thank you for watching. I'll see you next time. Bye.
Check out the high-quality supplements we discussed in this video - links below for your convenience!
1) AlliHist Relief by Nutra BioGenesis: create an account, and then you will be re-directed to this supplement:
2) Natural D-Hist by Ortho Molecular: create an account here, then search the name "Natural D-Hist by Ortho Molecular" (please note, that non-clients might not have access to order this one) - https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/flussonutrients
3) ALL PROFESSIONAL QUALITY SUPPLEMENTS: https://flussonutrients.nutridyn.com & https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/flussonutrients