Honey is heaven for hayfever sufferers

As hayfever strikes with a vengeance this year, sufferers all over the UK are putting up with runny noses, itchy eyes and scratchy throats and if they're on anti-histamines - they're struggling with dryness and fatigue bought on by the symptom reducing medication.

To battle this yearly affliction, many are turning to natural remedies in place of popping pills.

From homeopathy to immunopathy, there are a number of ways to reduce the symptoms of hayfever naturally.

By far the easiest and least invasive therapies is eating honey. But it's not just any old supermarket honey that has the power to affect your allergies. To have any impact on your immune system, you must ingest local raw honey.

Commercial honey is not raw, it has been heated and filtered to remove any aesthetic impurities, but unfortunately this process also removes the health benefits of honey. Raw honey contains bee pollen granules, bee propolis, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and all of those anti bacterial properties that you've read about.

The honey has to be local because it is thought that the allergies hayfever sufferers struggle with, are likely to be caused from plants in the area where they live. Bees can forage up to three miles, so most of the honey from beekeepers in your area is produced from a blend of nectars from many different flowers, mainly garden flowers.

Eating honey helps to de-sensitise the sufferer from allergy-inducing pollens contained in honey. By taking a teaspoon to a tablespoon of honey each day you will get exposed to a very small amount of pollen. The therapeutic approach is that this will gradually de-sensitise you to pollen allergy responses.

However, differences in allergies will determine the effectiveness of honey therapy. Grasses, cereals and some trees (e.g. willow and hazel) are wind-pollinated and do not need bees for pollination, their pollens are only sometimes present by accident in honey. Flowering plants have pollen that is always present in honey. Which means that if you're allergic to grass pollens, then honey therapy may have a limited effect; generally, sensitivity to flowering plant pollens is more likely to be reduced by eating honey.

Honey therapy takes time, and for this year, it's too late. But if you'd like to try this strategy for next summer, start taking honey three-six months prior to the start of pollen season.

Michael Sheasby from the Slough, Windsor & Maidenhead Beekeepers Society explains that annual honey crops are very dependent on the weather because honey bees will not fly in rain and rain can also damage the blossom from which bees collect nectar, for conversion to honey. This year has not been a good year weather-wise which can drive up the price of local honey. Beekeepers are currently charging around £6 per 1lb jar and scarcity could see higher prices when this year's crop is taken.

To get your hands on some local honey, get in touch with your local Beekeepers Society or ask around your local shops, farms and markets. Visit www.bbka.org.uk for information on local honey in the area.