4 home remedies to fight spring allergies

Allergies are a pain. They strike right when the weather gets nice and you want to be outside, causing itchiness, congestion and other annoying symptoms. Here are four home remedies to help you fight back.

• If you're allergic to some kind of pollen, start eating raw honey. Since it contains grains of pollen, it helps to gradually accustom your overactive immune system to the pollen so that it doesn't overreact when it encounters the grains in the spring.
• Aim for 45 to 60 millilitres (three or four tablespoons) a day. You can lick it right off the spoon, mix it into your tea, or drizzle it onto your toast or muffin.
• Make sure you're using raw honey, and use local honey so that it contains pollens from your local region.
• You can usually find this type of honey at roadside vegetable stands and farmers' markets.

• Here's another trick for controlling seasonal sniffles: try sucking down green drinks or supplements that contain spirulina, a blue-green algae.
• This strong anti-inflammatory can quell the overreactive immune response to allergy triggers that leads to your miserable symptoms.

• Sage is a natural astringent and antiseptic. To soothe a raw throat, infuse one teaspoon of dried sage or two teaspoons of chopped fresh sage in one cup of boiling water.
• Strain and cool before gargling.

• Spicy foods don't just add heat to your meals, they're also mucokinetic (mucus moving) and they trigger a fluid release in your air passages, breaking up congestion by thinning out mucus.
• For a quick remedy, mix a half teaspoon of hot sauce in a small glass of water and drink it down.
• Garlic and onions are also natural alternatives to over-the-counter decongestants, so add them to meals wherever possible.

Give these simple home remedies a try. You may just find yourself breathing easier and enjoying the warm seasons more than ever before.