Seasonal Allergy Support
As life awakens from the dormancy of winter, the arrival of spring can stir a sense of renewal and movement within us. However, alongside the beauty of seasonal transitions, springtime often brings the unwelcome presence of allergies. By preparing ourselves in advance and attuning to our bodies, we can mitigate the impact or even prevent allergies altogether.
Prioritizing our health and well-being before allergy season hits is key. By implementing strategies a month ahead of time, we can significantly reduce the severity of allergic reactions. It's much easier to manage allergies preemptively than to tackle them when they're at their peak.
I’m highlighting some key points that can help to optimize our health and build our resiliency. When we can prioritize this and build, then we can often take some hits from the environment without it becoming debilitating. I’m not addressing histamine responses or allergic reactions, as I am focusing on prevention.
If seasonal allergies affect your life, or if you simply feel like you'd like to reawaken your body after this winter and optimize, then integrate some or all of these things into your life. Select what feels like the best fit, is sustainable, and have fun with it! By doing so, you can embark on a journey of optimization and renewal, empowering yourself to embrace a healthier and more vibrant lifestyle.
Eat your Greens
If you reside in a natural or wild environment, I’d highly recommend acquainting yourself with and incorporating some of the wild foods available. Look out for watercress, dandelion greens and flowers, miner's lettuce, nettle, and chickweed. If these wild foods aren't readily accessible, keep an eye out for them in grocery stores, especially dandelion greens, which are typically available this time of year.
Incorporating cruciferous vegetables and other greens into your diet is highly beneficial. Consider broccoli, kale, cauliflower, mustard greens, lettuce, cabbage, and arugula. These greens support liver function, aid in toxin elimination, have a cooling and cleansing effect on the body, are rich in antioxidants, chlorophyll, and have a high water content ensuring hydration and smooth bodily functions. Alternatively you can get your greens in forms of seaweed, matcha, spirulina, and green tea!
Get Moving
Engaging in physical activity offers a multitude of benefits, including mood enhancement, improved circulation, detoxification, strengthened immune function, and better adaptation to stress. Additionally, if you're exercising outdoors, it provides an opportunity to connect with nature.
If exercise isn't already a part of your routine, it's advisable to start with something manageable, even just five to ten minutes of movement each day. It doesn't have to be a strenuous workout; the key is to simply get moving consistently. Start small, and gradually increase your activity level as you become more comfortable. Remember, any form of movement, no matter how modest, can have significant positive effects on your overall well-being.
Sleep
The significance of addressing sleep issues cannot be overstated. Many individuals struggle with sleep disturbances, which can have diverse underlying causes. Since our sleep needs are unique, it's crucial to identify individual root causes and supportive strategies. While I prioritize assisting individuals in finding personalized solutions, here are some additional recommendations.
Consider wearing blue light blocking glasses and minimizing screen time in the evening to promote better sleep. Disconnect at least an hour before bed, and wind down into your evening with relaxing and restorative practices. Take a bath, do some gentle movement, read a book, or do some breathwork.
Incorporating breathwork that is particularly focused on longer outbreaths to is especially supportive of the nervous system and activates the Parasympathetic nervous system.
Establishing a soothing evening ritual can help create an optimal environment for sleep. Herbal remedies, particularly Nervine herbs, can also aid in relaxation.
A powerful transition to support better sleep is not just focusing on the time right before sleep, but to start in the morning and build throughout your day with things that will support better sleep.. Factors such as blood sugar regulation, proper nutrition, physical activity, and daily lifestyle choices all play significant roles in influencing our sleep patterns. By addressing these factors early in the day, we can set the stage for better sleep quality at night.
Support your Gut and Diet
Consider how you can optimize your diet, and help to promote better digestion. This could be a significant change or little tweaks to your current diet. You could change the hours you eat, eliminate sugar from your diet, add more greens or vegetables into your diet. Decide how you can implement something that will take your diet to a higher level and implement sustainable changes. Even if it’s just for the short term, then springtime is a good time to prioritize this. The addition of bitters before your meals, lemon water, or a ferment can help aid in digestion, enzyme production, and help to increase our stomach acid for better absorption of our foods.
Liver support
Here are things to consider to really support your liver for the spring season
Omit the bad fats in your diet, and stick to clean fats.
Consider protein restriction at this time. I love protein! Yet, a few times a year I cut way back, as excess protein can put a strain on the liver.
Prioritize B vitamin rich food, or take a B complex. B vitamins are critical for efficient liver detoxification of chemicals, heavy metals, histamines, and bacterial toxins.
Choline is an essential micronutrient, and helps transport triglycerides from the liver and is critical for liver metabolism. Sources that are high include eggs, non GMO soy lecithin, Nutritional yeast, and Avocados.
Add Turmeric to your diet. Turmeric helps to protect the liver, promotes bile flow, and acts as a powerful anti inflammatory.
Beets are high in betaine, which helps the liver cells clear toxins and protects the liver and bile ducts form damage.
No late night snacking! Our liver's regenerative cycle is between 11 pm and 3 am. If your body is busy digesting a late meal at this time, then it disrupts sleep and the detoxification process.
Load up on greens, and especially bitter greens.
Eliminate what you can of Toxins coming into. Integrating organic foods, clean water, eliminating or reducing plastics in our lives, and less toxic skin care and household products.
Soluble Fiber helps support the liver by binding toxins and moving them out. Add in more vegetables, flax seeds, fruits, beans, oats, and chia seeds for a liver fueled toxic flush every day.
Body Brushing helps remove toxins and keeps skin healthy
Castor Oil packs are a traditional remedy that helps open detoxification pathways. You can put this on your abdomen or directly on your liver for extra liver love support.
Supplements and Herbal Botanicals
I would recommend prioritizing diet and lifestyle first, then bringing in additional support as needed. If allergies are in full effect, then there are many other botanicals and supplements that can support you, but going with the theme here of prevention I'll include some favorites here.
Bitters herbs fifteen minutes before meals to optimize digestion. I prefer bitters in a tincture form and a blend of one to five herbs. Bitter herbs and their actions can vary widely, so you want to think of the other actions of these herbs. Yet here are a few of the common bitters; Yarrow, Blue Vervain, Chamomile, Hops, Lavender, Motherwort, Wild Lettuce, Wood Betony, Gentian, Dandelion, Blessed Thistle, Horehound, Aloe Vera leaf, Sagebrush, Wormwood, Angelica, Calendula, and Yellow Dock just to name a few.
Milk Thistle has antioxidant and anti inflammatory properties that support the liver. It cleanses both the blood and the liver, and regulates metabolic functions of the body through detoxification. Milk Thistle helps the liver to repair itself by growing new cells, and it helps to restore the liver back to a state of good health and normal function. It promotes more bile production, in turn helping with poor digestion, assimilation of fats and oils, and liver stagnation. Milk Thistle is yet another bitter tonic, but it’s emphasis is more liver and gallbladder support.
Nettle is well known as a spring tonic, and has a long standing traditional use as a mild, yet effective remedy for detoxification. Nettles are highly nutritive and extremely rich in iron, protein, chlorophyll, vitamin C, dietary fiber, potassium, silica, and calcium. You can consume them as a tea, tincture or a food source. Nettles are inflammatory modulating, and helps with the body’s inflammation process. Nettles are incredible for the blood, circulation, muscular skeletal system, the liver, the skin, the kidneys, as well as the prostate(root) and uterus (tonifying).
Additional Considerations
You cannot change the weather outside, but to some degree you can control your indoor environment. These can help to promote some relief when you are indoors.
Air purifiers. I really like my air doctor, and use it when pollen is thick and love it during fire season, when I can have some reprieve from wildfire smoke.
Neti Pots to keep your nasal passages clean. I’d recommend this as an evening ritual to cleanse before sleep. If you want an additional boost Baraka salts has an infusion with essential oils that is fantastic! https://store.sinussupport.com/baraka-infused-salt-rinse/
Nasya Oil is an Ayurvedic remedy, and an oil that is placed in each nostril. My mother makes a killer nasya oil that includes Gumweed and Lomatium. I love it, and it definitely helps with allergies. I use this oil as a barrier of protection when in public spaces and when traveling as well.
Contact LouAnne Gwartney at bucknakedbotanicals@gmail.com to order some!
Frequent showers to rinse off any pollens and pollutants from your day. If allergies are bad, then shower at the first chance when you are home, and consider leaving shoes or clothes outside.
My hope is that this may inspire for you ideas of how you may support your bodies in times of transitions with the changes of the seasons. My focus and philosophy is rooted in preventative medicine and not allopathic. Be proactive and take good care of yourself always to continually support greater health and resilience!