10 Ways to Stop Spring Allergies Naturally

It’s not just in your head, spring allergy season is starting earlier every year. With warmer winters, pollen is becoming a nuisance earlier in the season than usual. 

The Mayo Clinic suggests several remedies for seasonal allergies, from allergy medication and allergy shots to more natural remedies like reducing your pollen exposure and cleaning your indoor air. 

Allergies affect everyone differently, but for most, fighting allergy symptoms is an all year struggle that gets worse in certain seasons like spring. Because hay fever and allergic rhinitis can be a daily occurrence, it’s important to have some best practices down so you’re prepared. 

While some do require allergy medication or an allergy shot to find relief from symptoms there are several home remedies you can try so you don’t have to take an antihistamine everyday. 

1. Check Your Local Pollen Count

Pollen is one of the most significant contributors to seasonal allergy symptoms. Pollen aggravates allergic rhinitis symptoms so avoiding high pollen count days by staying indoors minimizes your allergy symptoms. 

There are air quality tools you use to check your city’s current live local air quality. Once you know what to expect, you can take other precautions if you plan to spend time outdoors. 

2. Stay Indoors On Windy Days

Windy days also aggravate allergic rhinitis. High pollen count on windy days is a disaster for allergies. Airborne pollen makes symptoms worse and on windy days, the wind catches pollen and brings it right to your nose. It’s the perfect recipe for sneezing, itchy eyes, and headaches. 

Staying indoors on windy days helps to decrease your pollen exposure. You can also wear a face covering or mask to avoid the worst of the pollen exposure if you need to be outside and feel symptoms developing. 

3. Use An Air Purifier

Using an air purifier with a high efficiency air filter and strong motor will help filter out any airborne pollen or dust particles indoors that could contribute to symptoms like a sore throat or a stuffy nose. 

While you can stay indoors and hide out from the worst of it, pollen and other allergens have a sneaky way of tracking themselves inside. And once they’re in our nicely sealed up houses, game over. Running an air purifier in your home can capture particles that get tracked in on clothing, shoes, pets, and anything else that would otherwise aggravate your allergies.  

And if finding natural ways to solve health concerns is important to you, a high efficiency air filter and strong motor uses only mechanical filtration. That means it’s just filter fibers doing the work, no funky technology that might introduce chemicals or other byproducts into your air. 

For anyone concerned about health, this filtration system is the standard for air cleaning. 

4. Rinse Your Sinuses 

Another way to find seasonal allergy relief is to rinse your sinuses. Nasal irrigation by safely using a neti pot or a saline solution will help to clean your sinuses and relieve sinus pressure. 

Allergy symptoms and inflamed sinuses go hand in hand. These symptoms include headaches, runny or stuffy noses, watery eyes, and facial pressure. Rinsing your sinuses when they are inflamed can help alleviate these symptoms. 

5. Stay Hydrated

Staying hydrated is great to keep in mind everyday, especially when you need allergy relief. Allergy symptoms like watery eyes and a runny nose can cause dehydration, which can aggravate your symptoms even more. Dehydration creates higher histamine levels, which contributes to allergy symptoms. 

Staying hydrated with water, herbal teas, and juices can act as a natural antihistamine. Make sure you’re staying hydrated all year long and be especially aware of your hydration levels when you’re feeling allergy symptoms. 

6. Remove Clothes Worn Outside & Shower When You Get Home

Pollen can and will cling to anything and everything. Pollen can settle on your clothes, your shoes, your skin, and your hair making sure to follow you throughout the whole day and make your spring allergy symptoms worse. 

This pollen can follow you indoors so it’s a good idea to remove clothes you’ve worn outside all day and take a shower once you’re home. The pollen will still cling to your clothes once you remove them but they won’t be as irritating once thrown in your hamper. This is especially true after you’ve taken a shower and washed off any pollen clinging to your hair or skin. 

7. Keep Your Home Clean 

Removing outside clothes, taking a shower, and running your air purifier will go a long way to helping with the worst of tree pollen, weed pollen, and grass pollen indoors. It’s also important to keep your home clean to minimize the irritation that comes with allergens. Pollen particles can still be tracked indoors and settle on surfaces in your home despite these safeguards. 

The good news is that routinely cleaning your home including vacuuming, washing bed sheets, and dusting with a soft or damp cloth will pick up the majority of indoor pollen. Regularly cleaning your home will also help with other irritants that can make you feel worse, like dust and pet dander.

8. Try Local Honey

A spoonful of local honey a day may not help prevent allergies, but when your throat is sore, there’s no better remedy than some hot tea with a little soothing honey. 

Avoid unprocessed local honey that may not be as regulated as honey that has been commercially processed. Stick to processed honey from the store to help soothe your throat and cough. Adding honey to herbal tea is the ultimate natural remedy for a sore throat no matter the cause. 

9. Eat Anti-Inflammatory Foods 

Allergic rhinitis is the inflammation of the inside of the nose. Eating anti-inflammatory foods can help calm this inflammation and any other inflammation your body is experiencing like joint pain. Chronic inflammation can lead to serious illnesses like diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, depression, cancer, and Alzheimer’s. 

Avoiding foods that cause inflammation like fried foods, red meat, and foods high in saturated fats is good to do as much as possible. Instead, opting for anti-inflammatory foods with healthy fats like avocado, nuts, and fatty fish can help with chronic inflammation. 

10. Try Natural Supplements

Natural supplements can help mitigate allergy symptoms as well. There are several supplements you can try although it’s smart to discuss side effects with your doctor before starting anything new. They’re natural, but it’s important to understand the dosage and how these supplements could affect you. Being natural doesn’t mean that they’re safe, especially if you take other medications.

Butterbur root is said to have a similar effect as an over-the-counter antihistamine and could be a good alternative to those who experience either drowsy or jittery side effects from allergy medications. 

Quercetin is another helpful supplement for allergies as it can block histamines that cause inflammation. 

Vitamin C is also a helpful supplement as it supports your immune system and can help reduce an allergic reaction, like the one caused by allergic rhinitis. Studies have found that a Vitamin D deficiency is connected to worse symptoms of allergies and asthma meaning having healthy Vitamin D levels should help alleviate symptoms. 

All of these natural approaches to reducing allergy symptoms should hopefully help your seasonal allergy defense plan. Some are very simple like removing outdoor clothes and running an air purifier indoors. Others might require work and discussions with a medical professional like before trying natural supplements or changing your dietary needs. 

We wish you the best of luck battling your spring allergies and hope these helpful tips can help get you through another season of pollen!