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Ep 37: How to Manage Seasonal Allergies Before Allergy Season Starts
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Spring may be blooming, but so are allergies. In this episode, we unpack why seasonal allergies are more common and more intense than ever, reframing them as a sign of an overwhelmed immune system rather than a standalone condition. We explore the root causes behind allergies, from gut and microbiome health to inflammation, stress, and environmental toxins, while sharing natural ways to support symptoms in the short term as healing happens long term. If you’re tired of just masking symptoms and want to understand why your body is reacting, this episode offers a refreshing, root-cause approach.
Links and References:
Book: The Allergy Solution
Eye Drops: Similasan
Where to find us:
IG @whatsmyageagain.podcast / FB - What’s My Age Again Podcast
Email us at: wmaapod@gmail.com
Where to find Tanya:
IG @tlcholistic / FB @tlcholistic
Book with Tanya: https://tlcholistic.janeapp.com/locations/tlc-holistic
Join the TLC Community: https://www.patreon.com/tlcholistic
Where to find Kim:
IG @kimdesmarais.nutrition /FB @KimDesmarais
Book with Kim: Complimentary Connect Call
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Transcript
Introduction and Purpose
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to What's My Age Again, the realest podcast for women who are done chasing trends and ready to feel empowered. Hi, I'm Kim. And I'm Tanya, holistic nutritionists and childhood best friends who've been there, done that, and bought the collagen.
00:00:16
Speaker
more than once. Each week we provide actionable steps that you can start today to help you thrive through every decade to come. We're cutting through the wellness noise to bring you honest conversations about aging, hormones, health, beauty, mindset, and everything in between.
00:00:33
Speaker
You see, we're also on a mission to age gracefully one WTF moment at a time. Backed by research and real life, we're here to share what actually works, what's a waste of time, and how to truly thrive through the messy, magical midlife transition.
Morning Routines and Intentions
00:00:49
Speaker
We're so happy you're here. Let's dive in. Hi, everybody. Welcome back to What's My Age again. hi Tanya. Good morning. Actually, we're doing this first thing in the morning. We are earlier on your time zone than my time zone, but it is still the morning and I'm very much aware that I am still a little sleepy.
00:01:09
Speaker
How are you? I see a new friend behind you in the screen. i do have a new friend. For those of you maybe that don't know or don't follow me on Instagram, we have um a little greyhound, a new adoption. He is a joy. He is also a work in progress like most of us.
00:01:28
Speaker
um So yeah, exactly. this You know why I'm a little tired still? Yeah. You know, when I get woken up out of a dead sleep, so this morning I was in a dead, beautiful sleep, and let's just say Blue had a little bit of an accident and decided to pee on one of our houseplants, and it was just like the lights were on suddenly. There was commotion. Kim, my nervous system is like still catching up to that, so I'm going to do my best to wake up during this podcast, but like, you know what I mean?
00:02:01
Speaker
Totally. You know what, Tanya? It's so like, first of all, I've been following your stories on Instagram and I cannot wait to meet Blue in person.
Daily Energy and Seasonal Allergies
00:02:09
Speaker
um And yes, we are all a work in progress. um But that story just reminds me, it's like, yeah, like when...
00:02:18
Speaker
It goes back to what we were talking about in previous energy or previous episodes with regards to our energy. Like when we start our day for somebody else, be it like a child wakes us up and we've got to get on and get breakfast and do the thing or the dog pees and oh my goodness, or we check our phone and work emails are the first thing that we say see.
00:02:41
Speaker
It takes our nervous system in a different direction, right? you're it's You're exactly right. And for anybody who knows the difference, you know, who has mornings where they wake up a certain way and then have mornings when they wake up with your dog emptying your bladder on the house plant and commotion, the difference is staggering. But Kim, I just want to add that...
00:03:03
Speaker
I used to feel like this all the time. So what i feel right now is just like not myself 100%, you know what, ah a little bit off, just a little bit off and, you know, a little bit feeling, I can't even explain it, but you ladies know when that nervous system is heightened. And this is what I used to feel like every day before I realized how important it was to start my mornings whenever possible.
00:03:25
Speaker
with that intention and with time for ourselves and not for somebody else. So I guess this is such a great reminder that if you don't know the feeling of the difference, like I do, it's time to kind of rethink how you're starting your mornings.
00:03:41
Speaker
Totally, Tanya. And like you said, like there are going to be times where the dog has an accident on the floor and it wakes you out of the slumber or like your kids, like something goes on or whatever it may be.
Understanding Seasonal Allergies
00:03:53
Speaker
But if you can on a regular consistent basis, practice that nervous system support where you start with intention and you start your morning from a place of calm, it's that That builds resiliency. So with those times where it like something goes, something goes, you know, haywire off the radar, you can still bring your nervous system back.
00:04:17
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. Love it. and My nervous system, she's getting there. she needs she's She's coming around. Did you also see behind me? Yes, I was just going to say, okay, so we got off on a tangent. Everybody, this is not the topic of today's conversation.
00:04:32
Speaker
I'm looking behind Tanya as she's moving, and there is a giant snowstorm behind her. In Vancouver, though, I hate to tell you. My garlic is growing on my porch. We have crocuses and buds on them, crocuses growing in the garden and buds forming on the tree. so Tanya and I, when we were talking about what to talk about in this episode, we wanted to kind of, we wanted to jump into allergy season. And, you know, in Vancouver, my kids joke about fluffy season. We have cottonwood, in the cottonwood starts kind of falling and creates these piles that look like what's behind you, Tanya, snow.
00:05:13
Speaker
But it's a little different. And so we wanted to kind of get ahead of the game in terms of, because we know things are, start spring is coming, things are going to start blooming. um And last year, so many of my clients and friends were saying to me things like,
00:05:29
Speaker
wow, my allers allergies are so much worse this year, or I feel terrible. like my I've never had allergies like this. So we wanted to dig into that a bit today. A thousand percent. We really want to talk about like what causes seasonal allergies, how we can support allergies at root cause and how we can support allergy symptoms in the meantime, as we're naturally healing the root cause. And as you're talking about that fluffy, um, cottonwood that I'm envisioning right now, and then I'm looking behind me at the fluffy snow, I was laughing to myself and I was like,
00:06:02
Speaker
There was a time where I would have been like, give me the fluffy snow over the fluffy cottonwood because it would have meant that my debilitating allergies and asthma, for that matter, wouldn't have been triggered. And I mean, Kim, we were young, but I'm sure like, obviously, when were in high school, like we remember, I remember, I was allergic to everything. My allergy season felt like it literally started at the first sign of spring. This is when, you know, in Southern Ontario and it didn't end people like, the waiting for the first frost. I'm like the first frost. I need the 10th frost to kill how the ragweed and everything.
00:06:53
Speaker
And it was debilitating, but it's, I learned to think that it was normal. It was common and therefore it was normal. And you just have allergies. Oh, you're going to go camping.
00:07:07
Speaker
And we did go camping every year for two weeks. And I just learned that this was my life. Oh, you're to pet a dog. You're going go camping. You're going open your window. Oh, we have to sleep with the air conditioning on. Like no books in your bedroom, no stuffies on your bed. You have allergies. They were debilitating.
00:07:26
Speaker
But spoiler alert, they gone. Yeah. No, Tanya, you're absolutely right. And this is why we wanted to dig into this today because debilitating is a great word to use. like They affect your life, right? You feel congested. You can feel those that fullness in your head, the brain fog. that We'll get into some more but different symptoms a little later, but headaches, like sneezing, coughing. throat is itchy. You want to shove a fork down there. Your ears, your eyes. Like I could go on and on. Hives.
00:08:00
Speaker
Absolutely. And it's, and it, yeah, it's life altering. It's debilitating. um And we will dig into that in the second as well. So I think let's start with that whole thought of, wow, my allergies are worse this year, as we keep hearing. You know, because it is true. Like, I looked up a stat just 50 years ago. It was in this great book that I have here. on I should actually probably quote it. It's called The Allergy Solution. And one of the stats in there is you know Even 50 years ago, about one in 30 people had allergies. Today, it's now one in three.
00:08:35
Speaker
So this is a massive, massive, massive change. Yeah, that is a massive increase for sure. And i bet that we're all wondering... what's changed, right? um And something that I think is so important to say is everything's changed, but it's important to understand that just because there are more toxins out there,
00:08:58
Speaker
that say there's more environmental pollution, we're exposed to more chemicals, more toxins, more pollutants. um There's more chemicals in our food as well. All of these things, um ultra processed foods, ex excess sugar, inflammatory oils, there's so much more out there that is then in turn causing us to be more toxic. I want to really be clear and say that There's not more allergens per se out there, and we should we will define allergens in a moment, things we are allergic to that cause the body to be triggered.
00:09:34
Speaker
there's there's It's not just because there's more exposure of toxins and things out there. It's causing our bodies to become more toxic and therefore more reactions and more reactory to things that actually aren't dangerous to our bodies.
00:09:50
Speaker
Absolutely. it It changes. It's causing our immune system to not function optimally, right? And our
Allergies as Immune System Indicators
00:09:59
Speaker
immune system, when it comes to allergies, is overreacting, as Tanya, you just said, to things that are actually not harmful for our body.
00:10:09
Speaker
Absolutely. And I always think this is so important to have as a framework when we're talking about allergies and you guys might be trying to navigate your own allergies. Allergies are not the disease or i.e. the diagnosis in themselves. so When you go the doctor and they're like, oh, it's just allergies.
00:10:28
Speaker
they are a symptom. And what just you just said, Kim, they are a symptom of an overactive immune system that is reacting to everybody. That's like, oh my God, this cat hair is deadly. Let's mount a reaction. And we should really get into what is an allergy really? What does all of this mean?
00:10:46
Speaker
Totally. And and just so just to kind of recap exactly what you just said, Tanya, like the Like you said, the allergies are not a diagnosis. It's a symptom of our immune system reacting. And the leading things that have contributed to the past 50 years where our allergies were all of a sudden we're going, why is my allergies worse this year?
00:11:09
Speaker
We do have increased environmental pollution. Our diet, right? What we're putting into our body, the chronic stress that we are constantly under. And we've talked about this in many podcasts, Tanya, how it affects our immune system. Lack of movement. We're not outdoors as much anymore, right? We're not we're not moving our body as we used to. So this creates that you know that an immune system that is not optimal,
00:11:39
Speaker
and we are overreacting to things. So yeah, I just wanted to recap that quickly. For sure. And as you're doing that, I'm just sitting back here thinking like, imagine what my life would have been like for decades. It was from birth. When my parents picked me up, I'm ah i'm adopted. When my parents picked me up at the hospital and seeing those first pictures at four days old, I was like red.
00:12:00
Speaker
I wasn't like pink. I was like literally glowing red, angry skin. And so I quite literally had allergies from birth until finally in my 30s when I started to change my health. Imagine what a difference it would have been if all of those times allergies weren't defined as my diagnosis or something that I had. Imagine if I had focused on or been taught to focus on immune system and nervous system health and diet and all of that. my life would have been so different. And that's fine. I'm here because again, this was ah an experience I needed to go through. And I, you know what I mean, got to it. And now we can share our experiences. But just imagine thinking of allergies as the symptoms.
00:12:49
Speaker
And not the Exactly. And I think that's where our society, you know, especially here where we live in Canada, so often we look for a symptom, a diagnosis, and then a solution to that symptom, a sort of a band-aid solution. So, you know, we look in the antihistamines, in the pharmaceutical or in a pharmacy, we we mask our allergy symptoms with certain things, right? at Like medications and we don't, which, you know, could be a piece of the puzzle.
00:13:24
Speaker
We're going to get into how we deal with those symptoms because as you said, they are debilitating. But what we forget to do is go deeper and peel back the layers of the onion to why do you have allergies in the first place? And what can we do to heal at a root
Holistic Allergy Relief
00:13:40
Speaker
cause. And oh my goodness, Tanya, like just hearing your story about that, there's so many things to dig into about allergies from birth and your birth story and all of that. But I love um i love where you went there with dealing with the symptoms and masking them versus looking to what's really going on with our immune Absolutely.
00:14:01
Speaker
For sure. And like, let's give the basics right now. This is not going to be a long science class. But okay, so we've talked about an allergy being the product of an immune system malfunction, right? So instead of for responding appropriately to a a harmless substance, which would be doing nothing, like, you know, pollen or pet dander or whatever, um Again, the immune system is confused. It overreacts.
00:14:26
Speaker
And this is what happens. The overreaction is what's going to cause the symptom, whether it's sneezing, itching, congestion, rashes, all of the things, headaches, we could go go into more. But here is a step-by-step.
00:14:39
Speaker
Histamine. We've heard of histamine because we've probably all heard of antihistamines, which we're going to talk about a bit later because I know a lot about those. um Histamine is a natural chemical messenger and your immune system makes that messenger.
00:14:54
Speaker
So when we have an allergy, specifically, let's talk about seasonal allergies. Because Kim, I think we definitely have food sensitivity and food allergy episodes coming later down the pipe. So we're talking about seasonal allergies here. So for example, pollen is high. That cottonwood is coming out in Vancouver. Your immune system mistakenly sees that cottonwood that is harmless as a threat, right? So what it does is it releases histamine from mast cells and it triggers inflammation to protect you. Because we know inflammation when it's used right in the body is protective. You know what I mean? When you break something and you get a little bit of swelling, it's protective. But inflammation in the wrong way or systemic inflammation is damaging. So this mass release of histamine, this is what causes the classic symptoms that we're talking about. It's actually your immune system trying to defend you, but it's overreacting. So the histamine itself isn't bad. Histamine is very necessary in our body.
00:15:59
Speaker
But when it's misguided and misused like this, this is when we're having an issue. And when we call something an allergen, as we did before, that's simply the substance that's triggering the response. So the cottonwood,
00:16:11
Speaker
would be an allergen. You are allergic to the cottonwood. Totally. It's the trigger. And also just to add to that, yeah usually, or with an allergy, the reaction to the trigger does not happen on the first exposure because our immune system then recognizes it and does exactly what Tanya just said, the releasing of the histamine, the mast cells, all of that react to with the second, third, fourth, fifth exposure. So you could, again, these people who are going, why are my allergies worse this year?
00:16:46
Speaker
Or I've never had allergies before. You could have been experiencing triggers or you could have been experiencing this same allergen or trigger for years before your body reacts in an inflammatory way to it.
00:17:03
Speaker
And Kim, might I say, it's also kind of like the whole cup analogy that we use so often that you use as well. Okay. So exactly. For years, you could be exposed to this allergen and it's a little bucket or a little drip in the glass. And then all of a sudden,
00:17:21
Speaker
You have allergies. Boom. I've never had allergies before. And then, you know, a lot of doctors say, well, sometimes we develop allergies in our adulthood. And me and Kim are like scratching our eyes, like not because we have allergies, like not necessarily. Yes. The allergies come in adulthood, but you haven't just developed them and they're not just allergies. Right.
00:17:43
Speaker
Your cup is full. Exactly. full Exactly. um And I, you know what, even though we're not talking about um medications at this moment, which I really want to talk about in a second, because I was on all of them, but...
00:18:01
Speaker
It's kind of like that exposure therapy. It's really interesting. So for example, I think back in the like 90s, it was really popular and it might be now. I honestly don't know, Kim, um to get allergy shots, right? So I went for allergy injections, legit, every week at the Credit Valley, 2000 Credit Valley building. You know that one, Kim, on Aronel Parkway. Every single week.
00:18:24
Speaker
And the idea is a little bit of exposure every single time should get my body used to the allergen. for me not to respond and get symptoms well i went for probably about four years and they could never get the um dose diluted more to like one 100th and every time i would leave i'd have to sit in the freaking office for 40 minutes after my appointment every time every time i would get a reaction in my arm the size of probably like a grapefruit red and hot it would stay like that for three days kim i'm actually traumatized now now i'm sitting here telling the story thinking Oh my God, had so many shots in my body that were causing reactions. Anyways, the whole idea is to try to sensitize my body, but it wasn't the allergen that was the problem. My immune and lymphatic system were so pooched that I was actually just adding to the toxic load, hence the grapefruit reaction every time.
00:19:19
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Well, and and there's also, you know, ah i think too, when it's someone like you, what you said, I was allergic to all the things at that time. You're right.
00:19:31
Speaker
when your immune system is that reactive it also I know we're not diving into food sensitivities here, but there there is a relationship there. you know if If you're experiencing these seasonal allergies on a larger scale, likely you may also be noticing symptoms of food allergies or food sensitivities. you know we We're going to dig into that subject another time and talk about leaky gut and...
00:19:56
Speaker
And we can talk about what happens when when it comes to food sensitivities, but they are related. For example, you know if you know, if you're allergic to birch pollen, your immune system also might react to foods with that similar protein structure like apples, peaches, like stone fruits, like peaches or cherries or even certain nuts.
00:20:19
Speaker
So there's a relationship there between our seasonal allergies and what we're eating. And it's so funny listening to all of this, like what we didn't know, we didn't know. But in this case, this is a topic that's really close to home.
00:20:30
Speaker
For me, it hits really close. I feel almost sad listening to this, again, knowing all of this now, but no one ever, ever talked about any of this, right? And when you go back to saying, yes, I was allergic to everything, and they just put in this um allergy shot,
00:20:51
Speaker
like the most common allergens that I was having, the ones that reacted higher on my allergy tests. And you're like, yeah, but what about the other 92 that I flared up on? Like, it was just such a circular motion that it was perpetuating the problem. And like, this is our hopes when we do any podcast, but like, again, this podcast, because I know so many of you have seasonal allergies is to hopefully help somebody, even one person get off that train of, you know, being and stuck in that circle because we're not understanding or even know anything about the root cause. And like at the end of the day, we're big on this. We just talked about this before the podcast, actually. when we were talking about another podcast idea earlier.
00:21:34
Speaker
Seasonal allergies, i.e. symptoms, are your body's way of communicating with you. They're like, hey, girl, your immune system needs support. You know, allergies are your body telling you your immune system is missing something.
00:21:50
Speaker
And I never knew that. And like, it's just crazy that that's, you know, out there, but not out there in the conventional Totally. Absolutely. And again, like for those of you listening, we don't know you personally, we don't have your health history. You know, we are also not doctors, right? We are holistic nutritionists. And um so, you know, we're not saying medication is is not the right answer or, you know, your doctor, like, we want you to be armed with all the questions and and information that you can talk to your particular practitioner about.
00:22:27
Speaker
You know, to find out, you know, to support those symptoms that you're experiencing, absolutely. And also work on supporting that immune system so that it's not reacting as strongly or like this in the future.
00:22:41
Speaker
You're right, Kim, because I'm not saying at like 11 years old or 12 years old, if my mom had this information, she would say, okay, let's take her off all the medications and the allergy shots. But I know she would have been like, okay, well, these things aren't obviously, like they're helping a little bit symptomatically so she can sleep at night. But now that we know this and this, okay, let's try this at the same time. So exactly. We're not preaching that you can never take the medication or you should never, but we are definitely...
00:23:10
Speaker
talking about a huge disservice of missing information that is so helpful when we're trying to navigate our health, you know, because we talked about a lot of you might be listening and saying, Oh, well, thank God I don't have seasonal allergies. That sounds terrible. But just because you don't have the classics, like we talked about earlier, wanting to itch everything with a fork and always being congested. I always sound nasaled. My mom would be like, oh, poor you, poor you. You sound so nasaled today. And I'm like, yeah, well, it's my life. But like allergy symptoms can also show up as in seasonal allergy, again, not food intolerance per se. New episode can show up as symptoms that we don't always recognize. And we might lump somewhere else for and think it's something different, right?
00:23:59
Speaker
again
Dietary and Lifestyle Strategies
00:24:00
Speaker
Yes. And again, actually, although we're talking about seasonologies, these can also be related to a whole bunch of other things because at the end of the den day, it drills down to inflammation.
00:24:14
Speaker
so some other symptoms could be weight gain that you're unable to explain or that's kind of stubborn weight gain, you know chronic fatigue, low, low energy, depression, low mood, anxiety, muscles and joint pains, headaches, migraines, insomnia, stomach aches, bloating, you know, digestive issues, brain fog.
00:24:36
Speaker
But again, all of that surrounds inflammation and systemic inflammation, which is what Tanya, you mentioned earlier. right? And that's why sometimes allergies aren't seasonal. So I talked about my outdoor allergies being seasonal when I was waiting for like the 10th frost to kill everything. That gave me relief outside. But my allergies were year round. I'll go to someone's house with a dog.
00:25:00
Speaker
Good luck, Tanya. Oh, make sure you take your Claritin before you come over. So-and-so has a cat. Oh, it's really dusty in here because we're in university and we don't clean and Tanya's just going to sneeze the whole night and feel like a bag of crap. So like I was so inflamed. Exactly. My seasonal allergies were allergies, period.
00:25:20
Speaker
Like it's, you know, that that inflammation is driving everything. And because we talk about allergies as not the disorder or the disease, but as a symptom,
00:25:33
Speaker
we need to really think about supporting our immune system, which is going to is going to be one of the major root causes of inflammation.
00:25:44
Speaker
But we understand at the same time, if you are an allergy sufferer and it is debilitating, we also want while we are working on the root cause, we need symptomatic relief, right? And we need systematic symptomatic relief that isn't just a Band-Aid,
00:26:03
Speaker
situation. Yeah, Tanya, I completely agree with you. You know, because antihistamines have a place, absolutely. It's just that we don't want to rely on them for life, right? Because essentially what we're doing when we're only relying on antihistamines is we're just muting the alarm. We're ignoring what our body is communicating with us, as you just mentioned. Something is going on. Our immune system is overreacting, but we just keep muting it with these antihistamines, which, you know...
00:26:35
Speaker
can support short-term, but it's not a long-term solution. Yeah. And think of the word alone, antihistamine. You're right. We're literally blocking the symptoms. And the real the real healing happens when we can calm and regulate the immune system, not just silencing it. Like my whole life, I was just like popping a pill and it was like...
00:26:57
Speaker
My immune system, like over and over again. So like some of the things I remember, Kim, I remember being on this Chlor-Triple-On, this green aqua liquid. I don't even want to Google what's in it.
00:27:08
Speaker
From like, my mom would sit in the little measuring cup next to my toothbrush. So I would take that at night before I brush my teeth. And then there was the reactants, the claritins, the Benadryls, the nasal sprays. We've talked about my O-Triple-On. We've talked about that.
00:27:23
Speaker
Yep. And all of that stuff, but you're right. They're not addressing why the immune system is reacting in the first place, whether again, that's all part and parcel for the gut and balance, the chronic inflammation, the stress load, the triggers we talked about earlier, the environmental triggers. So like, how can we then, i think what we need to talk about is how can we While we're digging deeper as to what is the root cause, how can we deal with our symptoms in the meantime? Because they suck, as we've said multiple times. They suck. Yes. and And so for those of you listening, if you're sitting there going, okay, you're talking about root cause, dig deep, dig deep. What we mean by that is work with a practitioner to help support your immune system, to dig deep into why it's overreacting, which as Tanya mentioned, probably has to do with gut health. Right?
00:28:15
Speaker
probably dig into your liver. You know, where they're going to kind of go deep. So while you're working on this and still dealing with these pesky allergy symptoms, what can you do to help support those symptoms? And yeah, let's talk about that now. I mean...
00:28:32
Speaker
One thing that I, you know, when we're talking about congestion and that congestion where you just feel everything, like mucusy and things are sticking, one thing I love to do is the nasal rinses, is the the is the um nasal spray. Not the Otravin, as we talked about in previous episodes. Not Flonase, not the Otravin.
00:28:54
Speaker
No, something without the, you know, without the, what's the word I'm looking for? Without the, like the cortisone? Yes. yeah um Something like I use Exlear nasal spray, um where it kind of just keeps things flowing so that it doesn't get stuck. um Also nasal rinses like the neti pot are super helpful to help just keep things moving. Another one that I love is steams, making your own steam where you basically pour
00:29:27
Speaker
um some boiling water into it into a um a bowl with either some beautiful um essential oils like chamomile, eucalyptus, spearmint, you can make your own blended teas like with peppermint tea, um that sort of thing, and put a towel above your head and just breathe in that steam and open them up those like nasal passageways. I love that as well.
00:29:53
Speaker
Yeah, that does a lot for sure. And when we're talking about nose sprays, there's also a lot of beautiful um homeopathic preparations. And when we're talking about using homeopathy for allergies, for people that we don't know, that it's not going to be, I'm not talking about classic homeopathy, you know, when you're a client and we know everything about you, but we're talking about beautiful blends that are out there. um They work with the body's regulatory systems, again, rather than blocking and suppressing, right? So these blends of homeopathy the aim to like gently modulate the immune system. In this case, turn her down, calm her down a bit so it's not overreacting in the first place. So there are a lot of nasal sprays that I like as well. And then for those itchy eyes,
00:30:44
Speaker
the eye drops that I love, Kim, I don't know how to say this. Do you know how to say the brand? It's like, I'm the worst with phonetics. We'll put it in the show notes. It's the Similesin eye drops and they have anything from allergy to dry eye to pink eye. And they're actually available at like Walmart and shoppers. So like these things are all connected. So as you talk about opening your nasal passages with steam, with sprays, same thing when we lubricate the eyes and whatever, the passages are all connected and keeping that flow going.
00:31:16
Speaker
It's so important, right? Getting that debris out of there that can continue to have the body react to it. Flush her out, get her out of there. Absolutely. And I think as we are holistic nutritionists, let's let's talk quickly about some you know supportive foods that we can have, because there are certainly antihistamine foods like nettle, like garlic, quercetin-rich foods, which is antihistamine, like red onions, capers, apples, berries. Quercetin is also a wonderful mass cell stabilizer that
00:31:54
Speaker
Literally, i mean it tells the mast cells, slow your roll. You don't need to overreact and shoot out all this histamine. It's like, it's like, think about it. Calm down. It really stabilizes those before they can release extra histamine is the goal.
00:32:09
Speaker
Absolutely. And also another great um vitamin for us is vitamin C rich foods. They support our immune system, again, with the calming down of those mast cells with citrus foods, kiwi, bell peppers actually have one of the richest amounts of vitamin c Parsley, um again, vitamin C really helps lower histamine levels.
00:32:36
Speaker
Absolutely. And a lot of these foods to help other things like usually when we're talking about on this podcast and with our clients, omega three rich foods, we're talking about nervous system and brain support. But these omega three foods that wild, cold water, Alaskan sockeye salmon, sardines, if he can get them down. My husband loves them. I still try them. I enjoy them as well. You can, Kim? Yes, I love sardines.
00:33:02
Speaker
I try. i do try. He will attest to that. And i I'm not there yet. um But if you're not there yet, like me, It's the flax, it's the chia, it's the hemp. So these help reduce inflammation. So this is also why they're so wonderful for so many other reasons. And fermented foods, you can probably make the connection right now. These are amazing to support the microbiome, which has a huge play in allergies also. So again, the tempeh, the sauerkraut, the kefir, the actual fermented pickles and yogurt, all of these things, um these are two other great foods to help support allergies as well that we might not think of off the bat.
00:33:46
Speaker
Yes, and I just will note with fermented foods that... We are talking about seasonal allergies here. If you have, if you've been, if you are working on lowering histamine in the body um or have any issues with mast cells, fermented foods do contain a level of histamine.
00:34:06
Speaker
So although they are so nourishing for our gut microbiome, If you are noticing that you are reacting to things like sauerkraut, as Tanya mentioned, kombucha, fermented foods, or even if you notice things like you're reacting to bone broth that is also so nourishing and wonderful for our gut, there could be a bit of a histamine issue. So there could be a little bit of another layer to kind of unravel before you add add those foods.
00:34:35
Speaker
For sure. There could also be a yeast issue, candida. So again, these foods, this is what's so amazing about foods. And this is what's also so amazing about, again, customization and individualization.
00:34:47
Speaker
Foods that are healing can also hinder us when we're in certain circumstances. So this is a perfect little overall lesson to put in there, a thousand percent. And something else we're not thinking about allergies necessarily.
00:34:58
Speaker
for foods leafy greens and bitters why well things like arugula dandelion greens um support your liver your drainage your immune regulation and allergies because they are linked to a hyperactive immune system that is directly linked to our toxins in our body.
00:35:21
Speaker
And it is directly linked to the importance of supporting liver, which I think Kim, we're talking about liver next week in the actual podcast. Yeah. Yes. And it's actually it's ah interesting that we our conversation went this way, but we are talking about liver next week. We're going to dive deep into detoxification and we're going announce a ah seminar that Tanya and I are going to be hosting, which leads to that you know supporting individual needs, which I think, as you mentioned, as we talked about just now when we were talking about food, everything is so targeted. So If you are interested, if that piques your interest, do not miss next week's episode where we dive deeper into detoxification and supporting the liver and announce our seminar.
00:36:06
Speaker
For sure. A thousand percent. And going back to also the customization as we kind of close this off, like there are, we talked about briefly, you know, flushing out the system. There are natural remedies that are available alongside to supplement a healthy diet, the food comes first, that exist. For me, I'm a huge fan of, again, these homeopathic blends because they work for me. They work for specific clients. But remember, they don't work for everybody because the customization is so key. So there is Vogel allergy. I love the company Vogel. And there is a brand Bell Allergy Relief. And it's funny, you know what that's marketed as? An immune supportive formula. So there you go. There's also like sinus tabs, like REN Allergy. So working with a practitioner that is well-versed in supplements and homeopathic remedies is so important because...
00:37:10
Speaker
A blend, when we're talking about homeopathy, has to be a correct match for you to see results. There's a blend that works amazing for my husband when he has cold and flu, and it does nothing for me because it's not my match.
00:37:22
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Everything is so personalized. And, you know, Tanya and I always talk about people are always, and you guys are, you know, sending us DMs, which we absolutely love, asking us about supplementation and asking us about what you can take.
00:37:36
Speaker
And we always hesitate because first of all, we don't want to we don't want to negate all that foundation. What we always talk about is food, diet, and lifestyle. There is no easy buttons. Sometimes we want to supplement just like we want a medication to kind of stop the symptom, band-aid the solution.
00:37:55
Speaker
But on the other side, there are wonderful supplements that you can ask your practitioner about and see if it's right for you when it comes to supporting allergies.
Supplements and Final Thoughts
00:38:04
Speaker
So things like quercetin. We talked about the nutrient quercetin in apples, for example, in berries. You can get a supplement with a concentrated dose that can really help with symptoms. Again, not right for everybody, but something you can absolutely ask ask um your practitioner about. Another one that I love for allergies, respiratory health, liver health, so many things, is N-acetylcysteine, NAC.
00:38:30
Speaker
That's another one you can ask about. Tanya, do you have another favorite? I think it goes back to, again, food first. First off, let me just say I love that you said that. Guys, you can't out-supplement a healthy lifestyle. So I love that. So I think what I see also that I like, and actually that helps me, is vitamin C, but with the bioflavonoids. That is so important because, again, you talked about in the food how it stabilizes the mast cells. And sometimes, let's be honest, if we're in allergy season and we're having heightened response, we can't get as much in the medicinal form as we need from the foods because we simply can't eat that much a day. So I like that for in the moment, frequent flare-ups to kind of up that vitamin C with the biofabinoids. Love it. And same can be true, Tanya, for what you talked about, omega-3 foods. Unfortunately, I try and definitely flax, chia, and hemp are part of my daily routine, but I also take- You can't eat 900 sardines a day.
00:39:28
Speaker
Totally, totally. and And even for myself, um an omega-3 supplement is part of my daily routine. And so that can be very helpful with what we talked about before is decreasing that inflammatory response.
00:39:43
Speaker
Yeah, a thousand percent me too. And I think maybe the last one to note, again, for you guys to keep in mind, to book with your healthcare practitioner and talk about, um but this is an important one too, is magnesium. Because again, it's one of those ones where you're like, magnesium, but remember, so much comes back to our nervous system, right? And that's the pillar of everything as well. And then also, magnesium is the stress release hormone sorry stress relief mineral, and it's relaxing. So it really helps with things like relaxing the smooth muscles in our airways, you know, in our nasal passages in our lungs, and that nervous system, it definitely has effects on there as well. So I think that's important for a lot of reasons. But again, guys, there are you probably know, we should do a whole podcast. I've been asked several times actually, about which magnesium is right for me, because there are 9,000 It's true. It's true. And you know what? It is also like we don't necessarily, i mean, we could get into a whole thing about how our food is produced and what we've done to the soil.
00:40:52
Speaker
We're not necessarily getting enough magnesium in our diet. So it can be an important one to, you know, add to our supplementation. um But yes, Tanya, I think you know, we said it best in, in that the foundational part is those anti-inflammatory nutrient dense meals that we are making in our kitchens every day.
00:41:14
Speaker
um and you know, at the end of the day, just to recap, if you are experiencing seasonal allergies, if you are the ones saying to moms in the pickup line, Oh my goodness, my allergies are so much worse this year.
00:41:27
Speaker
It's a sign that your immune system is overwhelmed and needs support. So that's step one, to get that immune system support. And then perhaps take some of our ideas about things that you can do to support your symptoms during this crazy time.
00:41:41
Speaker
I couldn't agree more. And just remind yourself too, common symptoms aren't normal. And if your allergies control your lives the way that mine did, literally, like there is a solution and customization and working with your healthcare care practitioner promise, like this natural mindset and this root cause healing can give you a whole new life. I do not have allergies anymore. I actually don't remember what it's like. Sometimes I'm reminded like on an episode like today and I'm humbled. So Don't suffer through your allergies.
00:42:13
Speaker
There are solutions. Absolutely. And unfortunately, you know, like, as we said, we don't know you personally and these solutions are so customized.
Episode Wrap-up and Next Preview
00:42:22
Speaker
So we may not have given you all the solutions today, but at least we've given you the questions and the ideas to go search out that practitioner and support your immune system. Because as Tanya said, she's living proof of it. There is a solution. You just need to find the custom one that works for you. And we hope you join us next week for the detox episode because that's an exciting one too. Yeah, we're going to be on a phone call with your liver. So stay tuned for that one. It's going to be great.
00:42:50
Speaker
i Have a great day. See you next week. Bye. Bye. hey guys. Thanks so much for hanging out with us today. If this episode resonated with you, we would love it if you would hit like, subscribe to the podcast, and share it with a friend.
00:43:06
Speaker
We love to hear from you because let's be honest, this show is for you. If you have a topic you'd love us to tackle or want to learn more about something we talked about today, send us a message. We got you.
00:43:19
Speaker
Stay connected with us on social media at what's my age again dot podcast for even more knowledge and inspiration between episodes. Kim and I aren't doctors or your healthcare practitioners. Everyone's body is unique, so always consult your own healthcare provider before starting something new.