It’s the time of year when pollen levels rise and people start sniffling and sneezing. But for many people, hay fever isn’t as straight forward as you might think.

Even those who have never suffered with it before can suddenly develop those dreaded symptoms – so for them what has changed?  More often than not, it can be attributed to something as simple as a small change within that person’s body that suddenly leaves them intolerant to pollen. The pollen itself isn’t the problem as such, it is how the body responds when it comes into contact with it – an excess of histamine is released by cells in the body which create the well-known symptoms of hay fever.

Some people find that their hay fever doesn’t correlate to the high pollen count they hear about on the weather forecast either.  Yet on other days when the pollen count is low they may have very bad symptoms. These include:

• Sneezing
• Runny, itchy eyes
• Runny, itchy  nose
• Blocked nose
• Itchy palate (roof of mouth)

At Foreman and Jones we can either treat hay fever sufferers in person or over-the-counter, via post.  The usual types of herbs a herbalist might choose to treat the symptoms are:

• Elder flower and berries
• Ma Huang (only available following consultation)
• Eyebright
• Ground Ivy
• Nettles/contact-us
• Plantain

As with all conditions, we treat and prescribe according to the needs of the patient and their physiology – so there are many more herbs that may be useful on discussion. 

Please contact us if you would like more information.