An interesting natural therapy for hay fever, allergies, etc.

 by Laura

I have long been a big supporter of natural treatments and medicines that are derived directly from nature. They may be taken as teas, decoctions, or processed into little pills to take when the plants are not available in winter.

But here is a case where someone just instinctively made his own common-sense “potion”, plastered it to his skin, and in only a few days was symptom-free.

The gentleman shall be known only as C. S. of Mount Vernon, Washington, since he may not want the status of online celebrity-hood.

But he wrote a letter to leaders who run a summer camp, hoping it might help kids afflicted with hay fever while at camp.

His experience was this: “I gathered the pollen from the grasses that were blooming, mashed them up, and mixed them with Vaseline. I put a glob of that mixture in the crook of my arm, figuring it was a sensitive area, and wore it for two or three days. The hay fever symptoms disappeared.” He repeated this in August when ragweed season starts, and had the same success. This relieved his long-standing “summer misery” as he called it, of the previous thirty years before trying this remedy.

No one knows how he hit upon this approach, but it makes sense for a lot of reasons. First of all, I like that fact that he gathered pollens that were in HIS local area, and not some random, generic treatment that may or may not be specific to the local offenders where he lived.

Second, he placed his mixture directly on his skin. It is wise to avoid internal use of even herbal medicines and treatments unless one has been trained by a knowledgeable herbalist. The elbow, I suppose, was chosen because it is out of the way of cuffs, watchbands, and jewelry. It also has thinner skin than is found on the arm itself.

Third, it is just amazing that this treatment worked so quickly! Compare this to the months of injections proposed by the average allergy physician to desensitize a patient to, for example, grass pollen.

So I applaud Mr S for sharing his experience for a very common ailment that afflicts millions every year. I, too, used to take Claritin for assorted allergies but it seemed very silly and even counter-productive to take a treatment all year round when most of the offenders were each present only a few weeks of the year. Makes moolah for the drug companies, tho.