Top Herbs For Allergy Symptoms
Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode on the herbalist's path. I am so grateful, so happy that you are here. And when I just said that term, the herbalist's path, it made me even extra happy just because I hadn't An amazing hike today, walking down the path and, you know, that's kind of how this whole thing came about.
I used to get paid to go hiking, that was my job, was helping connect people to the wonders of nature by hiking up mountains and through waterfalls and incredibly gorgeous places and that's where I really started to get curious about herbal medicine and fascinated by herbal medicine and anyways this isn't at all where I meant to go with this podcast episode, but that's exactly the feeling that came out just as I welcomed you here, so.
Again, I am super grateful that you are here. I am also super grateful that it is springtime, and when I'm on that trail, I'm seeing all these beautiful plants popping up, all of my favorite little friends, like, I'm seeing Indian plums start to get their flowers, I'm seeing the elder leaves start to pop out, I looked for trillium today, but I couldn't find any, the wood sorrel's popping out, like, just Everybody that I love to see, that just helps remind me that the forest is alive, the earth is alive, there is medicine all around, and so much to celebrate.
I guess I'm getting a bit gushy because I really, really do get so intoxicated and absolutely fall in love with such beautiful places, and I think a lot of people do, right? That's why so many people are. Turning to the great outdoors and we know that there is forest bathing, that this is like a real thing.
It really makes us feel significantly better when we are able to embrace nature and just spend time outdoors, hugging a tree, staring at a plant, walking down a trail, even just sitting and watching. Insects fly by, or anything, is really such a state of peace that so many of us miss so often. Anyways, I really wanted to record this episode because I know another part of springtime is seasonal allergies, and depending on what part of the country you are in, you may already be deep in the season, or if you're where I'm at, up in the Pacific Northwest, Everything is just starting to come out here.
So I do know there's people in other places that are already dealing with the itchy watery eyes and the sneezing and the wheezing and coughing and stuffy and runny nose and all of those things that are so annoying, so uncomfortable, so irritating, right? Seasonal allergies. And really, the interesting thing is like, allergies are a normal physiological defense mechanism.
So, they are there to trap foreign invaders that are trying to get into your body. So, in this case the pollen, or maybe it's mold, or dust, or dander, or something along those lines. So our mucus, our snot, and the other stuff coming up through the respiratory tract, is like, this super technologically designed stuff designed specifically to trap those foreign invaders, those particles and things along those lines.
They're supposed to keep them from getting into the lungs. And then when we cough or we're wheezing and things like that, that's the way for us to expel those bad guys, the foreign invaders from the body. Just like when we're sneezing, just like when we've got those drippy, watery eyes and the tears, those are washing the bad guys out.
We have these mast cells in our bodies, which are a type of white blood cell that's found in like the connective tissues throughout your body, under your skin, near the lymph vessels, the blood vessels, in your nerves, in the lungs, in the intestines, like, throughout the body. They are really heavily prevalent on the skin in your intestines and the respiratory tract, which is why most of our allergic reactions are going to show up as rashes or digestive issues, the coughs, the sneezes, all of those kinds of things.
So these allergies are basically, again, it's a, it's a, it's a surface defense mechanism. Anyways, and that's. What's causing the sneezing, the coughing, the stuffy nose, and the tight respiratory packages, passages, you don't have a respiratory package, but passages. But the good news is, if you really want, like, there are ways that you can stop seasonal allergies from recurring.
The bad news is that you do have to do the work to dig to the root cause of the allergies and identify the underlying problem of these allergies and stop having them around you, whatever that may be. That means healing the gut and all of that kind of stuff. I definitely dive deeper inside the heal your body from the inside out and a few other spaces within my programs, but that's not what we're here for.
I wanted to talk about some herbs that you can turn to for acute symptom management like the watery eyes, like the, the wheezing and the coughing and the runny nose or stuffy nose, right? So when we think about the conventional approach to allergy symptoms, the job there is to suppress your allergic reactions with these drugs that pretty much turn off the immune system's reaction to these foreign invaders and desensitize you.
from the allergen. When we look at a more natural, holistic medicine approach, we give more symptom relieving treatments. So we're addressing the watery eyes or we're addressing the runny nose or whatever it may be. But we are simultaneously trying to identify what the underlying cause is and working towards addressing the underlying cause as well.
And yes, this is where herbs can come into play. To help with that acute symptom management with the drippy, sneezy, watery, congested, bunch of yuckity, yuck, yuck, yuck, stuff that nobody likes. So, when I think about wanting to treat those symptoms with herbs, there are a certain amount, a certain fume. Herbal actions that I like to turn to.
So our alternative herbs, anti inflammatory herbs, astringents can be really helpful, antispasmodics, decongestant herbs would make sense here, right? And sometimes even diuretic herbs can be really nice. So an alternative, there's kind of like, the jury's out on exactly what alternative herbs do, but in general it's kind of like this you Nutrifying, blood purifying herb.
And that's a very blanket statement. Again, the jury is still out on exactly what it means. But when I think of it and I think about something that would be great to help with overall allergy management, I think about something like burdock root, which grows readily available all in the wild. Well, not in the wild, but in disturbed roadside areas around where I live.
And it's really, really nice as a gentle liver cleanse that can help to break down fats and improve the liver's metabolism overall. And when you use it with yellow duck and dandelion root, you can have even greater detoxification effects for the liver. Just a really nice herb to get on board also because it is so nutritive and if you're taking it with maybe nettles or something along those lines, you're building up the body and the system.
It's really nice during this time of year as well because it does do that cleansing, kind of moving out the sluggishness that can happen over the winter months when we're eating heavier foods and maybe inside more, not moving as much. Anyways I wouldn't exactly say burdock is like the ideal for symptom management unless we are dealing with skin rashes because we're treating the liver with the burdock and when we're treating the liver we're going to be, you know, improving the skin's health as well.
So it could be great. In that realm, no doubt about it, but let's talk more about like, okay, I've got, let's say itchy, watery eyes. That's a form of inflammation. It is your body fighting off some type of foreign invader, right? And in this particular case, an herb I love to turn to that can be really, really helpful easing that inflammation of the eye is chamomile.
It is going to just provide this cooling and calming effect for any kind of inflamed, watery, itchy eye situation. So you can just do like a simple tea bag if that's what you've got. Great. Brew it up and plop it on the eyes and let it sit there for a while. You can make a tea and just do a nice eye wash as well.
I like to Use like a muslin bag or if you have a bandana that's clean, you could use that for sure. Speaking of clean, it is really, really important to keep everything nice and sterile and clean when we are dealing with the eyes because we don't want to get more foreign material into the eyes to cause even more Inflammation, right?
More need to fight things off. So, another category of herbs that I feel is really, really important to talk about today are astringent herbs. So when we think about astringent herbs, these are going to be herbs that are going to tone and tighten excessive mucosal tissues or I'm sorry, secretions, excessive mucosal secretions.
And Tone Tighten tissues as well, so these are going to be really, really nice if we've got those watery eyes, if we've got the running nose, if we have way too much mucus, we're really, really congested, maybe there's some swelling going on in the respiratory passages. That could be really annoying and making it very hard to breathe.
So I turn to astringents in that time. An astringent herb that I happen to love a lot in this particular situation is Yerba Santa. So it's very warming and it's a really refreshing herb. Resinous plant and it helps to expectorate all of the Stuck mucus and junk inside of the respiratory Passages. It's also astringent.
So it's going to kind of suck up the excessive mucus and Lessen the swelling of the mucus membranes, which can be fantastic And it's going to help open up the bronchioles so you can breathe better. Really, really nice herb to have around for upper and lower respiratory infections and specific for seasonal allergies.
So I think that's one that you could absolutely love. If you don't want to like, use your own yerba santa, I will say that Wish Garden Herbs has an amazing product, it's called Kick Ass Allergy, I like to say kick ask with a K there, but no K and it is yerba santa leaf, it's nettle leaf, echinacea, orange peel, and more echinacea, so they do the perfect Herbaria root and the flowers as well, and it's all done in a glycerin, so it's a lot sweeter than a regular old tincture, and this stuff works so well if you have just too much going on.
Too many mucosal secretions! You definitely want to try the Kick Ass Allergy from Wishgarden Herbs. It's like super top quality and I'm pretty picky when it comes to somebody else making my herbal remedies, but if you're ever going to choose a company to make herbal remedies for you, they're definitely one of the top notch ones because they are are really up front and forward in the sustainability initiatives of every herb and their packaging and everything else that they do, like even if they've used a formula for years and something happens where that particular plant is hard to get or at risk or adulterated in any way shape or form, they'll shift their formula out of respect for that plant and for our planet and I'm a lover of the planet.
Hopefully if you're listening to this podcast, you are as well. Anyways, that's a really great product if you don't want to make your own. Definitely worthy of picking up at the store or I'll drop a link in the show notes to their Kick Ass Allergy. They do have Kick It Allergy too, so much more kid friendly and they have one that's pregnancy safe as well.
So I will drop a link in the show notes for those no doubt about it. And then let's talk about another herb that does act a bit as an astringent. It's also alternative. It's very nutrient dense. It's got expectorant properties, fantastic for the blood and building the blood in all kinds of ways. And this is nettle.
So the stinging nettles that so many people hate and are so afraid of are a go to for most herbalists when it comes to dealing with allergies. Allergies and beating seasonal allergies. I will say by the time that this episode airs, it's highly likely that most of you are already well on your way to allergy season, but next year I highly recommend that you start taking freeze dried nettles.
about two months before allergy season begins. If you take it with freeze dried nettles with quercetin, it's going to be even more powerful and potent. And one of the best companies to get freeze dried nettles from is Eclectic Herb. They are right down the road from me. Another amazing company with fantastic values.
The founder, Ed Alstat, who's no with us, was the one who kind of I don't know, kind of brought out to the world that freeze dried nettles are really impactful for allergy season. And again, their quality is just top notch. So I'll link to that as well. And if you want to dive deeper on the medicine inside of nettles, that is our herb of the month in the Kids Save Herb Club and Apothecary Mama.
for the month of March. So if you join either of those, you can have the Nettles lesson throughout the month of April. And in Apothecary Mama, you get to keep all the herbs of the month forever and ever and ever. Anyways, we talk a lot about how it's great for allergies and gout and edema and really so many different things that we dove deep on in there.
So Another herb that I think is really fantastic because it grows around most of the United States. It grows in quite a great abundance, and it's goldenrod, this beautiful yellow flower that is in the daisy family. And it is going to be really wonderful to use. It's not as powerful as an astringent for sure.
It's also an antispasmodic. So our coughing reflex is a spasm. Maybe it could be antispasmodic for the coughing if you just need to kind of tone that down a bit. The leaf is specific for treating seasonal allergies. Though ideally, if you're going to be making your own goldenrod extract, you're gonna extract the leaf before the plants have gone to flower, because the pollen in those flowers can also trigger allergic responses.
So that's when it is going to be ideal. You can use the leaf in a tea or a tincture and it's really, really magnificent for lung congestion, sinus congestion, congestion, really great for the sneeziness and the itchy, the watery eyes, all of that kind of stuff. Yeah, and again, it's readily available. So hopefully you already know Goldenrod well enough, like you can identify it by the leaves, maybe you have some patches in some special areas near you that you have seen in that beautiful yellow blaze on a hillside, and you know where it is the next year.
stellar. Then you can go out with your plant ID books and you can gather yourself some goldenrod, of course in a sustainable way, and making sure that you are respecting the land and the plants and the caretakers of the land, whoever they may be. Always a really important part in making your medicine, and then gather some good old goldenrod and make medicine for allergy season.
Really, there's So many different herbs that you can turn to. We did a whole lesson on how to deal with allergies back in, actually last year, a year from now, in 2023 inside of Apothecary Mama where we dove much deeper on all the other herbs that you can turn to, but this is for sure a fantastic resource.
And I know that it can help you a bunch if you use them. And again, if you don't wanna make your own, you know who to go to. I'm only gonna talk to you about the best quality herbal products out there because I wouldn't have it any other way for my own family. So anyways, I hope that you are getting outside, maybe you're starting to plant in the garden, you're watching all of your plant friends popping up, maybe getting out for a hike or two, spending time with your family in the sunshine, and embracing spring without seasonal allergy misery.
Okay, that's it for today. I thank you so much. Once again, for being here and tuning in to this podcast, I appreciate you and I hope that your day is amazing.
Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of The Herbalist's Path. Being on this journey with you is absolutely incredible. If you dig this episode, please leave me a review on your favorite podcast player and share it with your friends, so that together, we can grow together. We can make herbalism, hashtag spread like wildflowers.
On another note, I must mention that while I know you're getting some good info here, it's important to remember that this podcast is purely for entertainment and educational purposes and is not intended to be a substitute for medical treatment. While the information in this podcast Podcast is absolutely relevant.
Herbs work differently for each person and each condition. That's why I recommend you work with a qualified practitioner, whether that be another herbalist, a naturopath, or your doctor. So thank you again. I am truly honored that you're tuning into these episodes and on the path with me to make sure that there's an herbalist in every home again.
Don't forget to share this episode with your friends so that we can make herbalism. Hashtag spread like wildflowers.