Natural Allergy and Cold Remedies

Anyone who has ever lived in Central Texas for a few years has experienced the misery - or known someone who has - of the dreadful cedar fever. This hideous allergy creeps up in December, and by January, it's going full force, making people believe they have the flu. Some even claim it's literally attacking them in horror film fashion, like The Fog or the Swamp Thing.

Some people hide out at home, or wear face masks, and others leave the area for a month - some move away altogether. Others take cortizone shots, if they have good health insurance, and other overdose on over-the-counter allergy medicine. I've never taken shots (no health insurance since 2006), and I've never had the luxurious option of temporarily living elsewhere. (Although one day, I am hoping to be sustainably self-employed and have my off-grid home built in Terlingua, Texas.) And to be honest, most years, I'm only very lightly affected, with occasional sneezing and sniffles throughout January.

But there have been some years, I've simply had to take something, otherwise, I couldn't sleep at night or properly function at work. I tried all varieties of Allegra, Claritin, and Zyrtec - the plain one and the one with decongestant. The 12-hour kind and the 24-hour kind. The generic variety and the brand name variety. The gel capsules, tablets, liquids, and powder packets. After rotating through all of them, I never quite figured out which worked best. Sometimes, the non-decongestant varieties didn't work at all.

Pharmaceutical cocktail and Sleepytime tea owned by the corporate Hain Celestial Group

I did figure out, however, that the "D" version of any of these allergy medications made me horribly jittery. That's why they make you show your driver's license and sign off when you purchase it - thanks to speed addicts who figured out how to use pseudoephedrine as an ingredient. And then I started thinking, what other unnoticeable side effects are these drugs possibly causing? According to the FDA's own website, "Most drugs that undergo preclinical (animal) testing never even make it to human testing and review by the FDA." No thank you, FDA, I don't really want to be your human guinea pig.

So what then?

I started using homeopathic antihistamine drops and Activated Quercetin, which you must start taking several months before allergy season hits for maximum effectiveness. I developed tasty recipes for Ginger Tea and Chicken Soup (see below) after researching natural immune system boosters. These are also good when you feel a cold coming on. I also started drinking lots of raw kombucha tea and taking vitamin C.

The verdict - I think it worked! This past cedar season, I was starting to have pretty serious allergy reactions. One Saturday night, I felt as if my head were going to explode, and I was ready to don a hatchet and chop down all the cedar trees in Texas. Even though I didn't remember to start taking the drops until halfway through December, after religiously using them and a regular intake of my famous Ginger Tea and Chicken Soup, my symptoms subsided. For several weeks after I was over the cedar, others were still suffering.

Fighting off cedar allergies is definitely not a science. Who knows, maybe next year, my preventives and remedies won't work like they did this year. At any rate, it's a delicious way to get through the cedar season, and I'm at least confident that I'm not poisoning my body. What's your favorite cedar remedy?

Old timey and natural cold and allergy remedies

Ginger Tea

• 10-20 slices of raw ginger
• 2 cups of water

Bring to a boil - simmer for 15 minutes at low-medium heat
Strain into a cup
Add desired amount of raw honey
Add desired amount of fresh lemon juice



Chicken Broth Soup

• Homemade chicken stock (it's really easy - buy a whole broiler chicken for dinner one night, and when all the meat is gone, throw the bones in a pot with onions, thyme, carrots, and anything else you feel like throwing in there; strain the broth into a mason jar and keep in the fridge or freezer for later)
• Organic wild or brown rice
• Garlic (preferably raw)

Throw desired amount of rice, and as much garlic as you can handle, into the broth. Eat. Enjoy. Keep the vampires away.