Natural Home Remedies for Hay Fever Relief

Natural home remedies for hay fever relief, helping to keep those seasonal symptoms at bay.

Nature’s Top Tips

Nature provides us with many different kinds of natural remedies that may help with hay fever - from medicinal herbs and spices to a myriad of beneficial plant compounds, vitamins and other nutrients found in fruit, vegetables and other foods we can include in our diet.

The Best Herbs and Spices for Soothing Symptoms

‘Nettle is probably the most accessible and widely used herbal remedy for hayfever’, says our Expert Herbalist, ‘as it can be taken as a tea as well as a herbal tincture and even cooked as a vegetable like spinach.’ Medical herbalists often find Nettle helpful for many allergies and skin conditions and, being rich in Vitamins A and C as well as minerals such as Iron and Silica, this also makes it useful for strengthening the body generally, especially if people are run down.

Elderflower is another herb you may read about that’s very common in the UK and is traditionally used in herbal remedies to help with excess mucous (both runny noses and weepy eyes) as well as for making delicious cordial. The leaves of the common weed Plantain are also considered beneficial, along with beautiful flowering Eyebright which is traditionally regarded, as its name suggests, as helpful for weepy, irritated eyes.

Other herbal remedies that might be considered are those that may be helpful in supporting the immune system such as Echinacea which has a long history of use, Lemon balm which is beautiful to drink in an infusion and also Garlic which can easily be added to your diet (ideally taken raw, so chopped on toast or added to salads or at the end of cooking along, perhaps along with some sweet-tasting basil or parsley to counteract its pungency!)

Fresh ginger root is a great spice that you might want to consider adding more freely to your smoothies and stir-fries. Regarded as an important medicinal herb, the aromatic oils in ginger are both anti-inflammatory and helpful in promoting a more gentle digestion; turmeric is another wonderful spice with similar benefits that you could introduce more of, and is great in porridge and smoothies as well as warming curries.

Consulting a qualified medical herbalist is also worth considering for expert, professional advice.  

Stress and Hayfever

As if hayfever wasn’t irritating enough, when we’re stressed our cortisol levels rise which tends to have a negative effect on our immunity!

This is where calming herbs like chamomile can help. As our expert herbalist says, ‘Although often thought of as something to drink at bedtime, chamomile isn’t actually a sedative but it does help the body to relax and function at its natural best due to the herb’s gentle bitter action and also the soothing essential oils which have anti-inflammatory properties. All in all, if drunk over the course of the day, this can really support the body and mind to stay calm and not be so reactive and easily irritated’.