It is virtually impossible to avoid contact with airborne pollen—even locking yourself up indoors all summer long cannot completely insulate you. Pollen is commonly trampled through the house on shoes, scattered from your track jacket onto sofas and chairs—it is difficult to keep it from finding its way inside your home.

An allergic reaction to pollen is commonly called “Hay fever”, because in the past it was often experienced during the haying season, when hay was harvested. It can be very difficult to determine what pollen source is triggering your allergies, because of the many misconceptions and myths about pollen.

• Myth: The bigger and brighter the flower is, the more allergy irritating the pollen it produces.
• Truth: Allergy inducing pollens are actually made by drab flowers of grasses, weeds and trees.

In spite of the fact that most advertisements for allergy medications picture people suffering from itchy eyes and runny noses in the middle of a field of beautiful flowers, most people aren’t allergic to flowering plants. Bright, colorful or scented flowers create heavier, waxy pollen—and all of the showy blooms are used to attract insect and animal pollinators. The fancier the flower, the more irresistible it is to bees, butterflies, humming birds and other animals.

• Myth: In places where there are many bees collecting pollen, more pollen is disturbed and allergies will be affected.
• Truth: Typically the flowers that are pollinated by honey bees and other sort of insects are not allergen producing plants.

The type of pollen that affects most allergy sufferers comes from very drab, unnoticeable flowers, like those found in certain kinds of grasses, weeds and trees. Insects don’t pollinate them, and this is the reason why they cause allergic reactions. These plants use wind currents to scatter their pollen, which is why they don’t need to have attractive flowers to draw bees, wasps, etc. Also, wind-borne varieties of pollen are produced in enormous quantities, because the chances of pollen actually finding its way to the same variety of plant or tree are slim. This pollen is very light and often ends up in your lungs and nasal passages.

• Myth: Pollen is the only cause of Hay Fever.
• Truth: It is the protein in the pollen that causes a reaction, and the plant also produces this protein in its other parts.

Pollen, like most other allergens, causes allergic reactions because of the proteins created by the particular plant that produced it. This same protein is found in the plant itself, which is why people have increased allergy problems after mowing the grass, or when they are near a freshly mowed lawn or field. The same proteins that make the plant’s pollen unbearable can also be inhaled when tiny pieces of the plants become airborne.

• Myth: Locally produced honey is a natural cure for allergies.
• Truth: Eating honey made from the pollen of local flowers may help only a very few individuals.

I know of many people who use locally produced honey as a treatment for their allergies. It is thought that ingesting the pollen of the plants that cause your allergies will help your body build up immunity—much like the principles behind immunotherapy/allergy shots. This may only be effective if you have been tested for allergies and know that the particular kinds of pollen that affect you were the bee’s food source in creating the honey.

Only “home-made” honey can offer any hope for allergy relief—commercially processed honey has all of the excess pollen filtered out of it. Your best bet for pollen allergy relief is immunotherapy/allergy shots and good air quality inside your home. Allergy shots will eventually keep your body from reacting as severely to allergens, whereas allergy medications simply stifle symptoms. It is also a really good idea to keep your home as one place where you can escape exposure to pollen.

Try installing a HEPA quality air filter like one made by Dynamic Air Cleaner in your heater/air conditioning unit and use free standing Dynamic Air Cleaner CT100 Consoles in bedrooms.