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Honey is sweet remedy from allergies
Posted: 04.19.2011 at 9:17 PM
Updated: 04.20.2011 at 6:15 AM
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Some health experets suggest local honey as a way to help with allergies.  / FOX21: Adam Jukkola
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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- It's high season for hay fever, so if you're tired of rubbing your eyes and ready to stick it to your allergies, you might want to try an alternative method that's getting a lot of buzz: honey.

The theory is honey contains the same pollen that gives allergy sufferers irritation and inflammation. Non-traditionalists take a tablespoon of raw, unfiltered honey a day and believe by eating it, your body can become accustomed to pollen.

"Honey does a lot, it does keep the sneezing down especially at this time of year when the wind starts," Donna Hartley with Black Forest Honey said.

Hartley and her husband John have run Black Forest Honey in Black Forest, Colo. for 29 years and are big believers in the power of the sticky stuff.

But not everybody is a believer in the health benefits of honey. Allergist Dr. William Storms doesn't recommend honey as an allergy fighter because he said the effectiveness is much less than that your standard over-the-counter pill.

"The data in scientific show that if you do a 100 people with honey and without, it really doesn't make any difference, but there are a few people who may respond," Storms said.

Over the past 30 years the number of allergy sufferers has sky-rocketed. More people are suffering from nasal, eye and sinus allergies. But before you give up your prescription and go with 'plan bee' know your health limits.

"If you're very allergic to pollen and you take bee pollen, a very concentrated tablet, you can have a severe allergic reaction which is called anaphylaxis," Storms said

It's a serious reaction that causes your face to swell, closes your throat, lowers your blood pressure and gives you hives.

Would you take honey to fight allergies?  Leave a comment below to share your thoughts on the new remedy.

ALLERGY TREATMENT
Which would you rather do to fight allergies?

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