Allergy Free?  Heck no, we still have our allergies, but now we are sure suffering a heck of a lot less. Check it out!

We have been a family of allergy sufferers for many years. Food allergies, chemical allergies, seasonal allergies, pet dander allergies, and I am sure there are quite a few medicines that we are highly allergic to also.  We are on a first name basis with Benadryl, Zyrtec, Claritin, Allegra, Tavist…yep we have been through a variety of prescription and OTC allergy pills over the years, and we have been known to stock pile them during allergy season.

Well, this year in our attempt to reduce the amount of OTC products we use, we decided to create Histamine-Halt, an allergy reaction reducer, in the form of a personal nasal inhaler. We started with a basic recipe of the allergy busting trio: Peppermint, Lemon & Lavender. These are the three essential oils that pop up in every single natural allergy relief recipe out there.  We diffused it in the house, we created personal nasal inhalers, and we even added steam inhalations for good measure; well, it didn’t do the trick for us.  The eyes were still watery, the nose was still runny and or stuffy, and without a daily allergy pill we would have found ourselves saddled with lovely sinus pressure to boot. Something was missing, so we went to work on version 2 and 3, and eventually ended up with what Hannah has named Histamine-Halt. (As you read on, you will see that the name isn’t actually scientifically accurate….but it was catchy, so we kept it)

Here is what we figured out, in basic terminology – Allergies cause sneezing, runny nose, itchy ears, watery eyes and post nasal drip…yeah we are all pretty familiar with that. Lets break it down a little:

• Pollen and dust and dander and other triggers find their way into your airspace.
• Your body mistakes these triggers for invaders, and sets out to destroy them.
• Your body sends out histamines as an attack force.
• The histamines bind to receptors, and then the water works begin…runny nose, watery eyes, sneezing, and the itchy & scratchy show begins.
• Antihistamines attempt to bind to the receptors that the histamines want to bind to.
• If  the antihistamines bind first, then the histamine cannot bind there and in turn cannot cause a flood of snot or another obnoxious symptom.

In my mind I view it as a game of musical chairs, where you have a number of chairs in the center (receptors) and then you have lots of people running around the chairs (these would be histamines and antihistamines) while the music plays (this would be allergens and pollen triggers).  Both the histamines and the antihistamines bind to the same receptor, so the race is on to see which one gets to plop their butt down first.  BTW- I am rooting for the antihistamines. 

Okay that was extremely simplified, but here it is in more scientific terms: CLICK HERE FOR A BASIC SCIENTIFIC OVERVIEW

So with that bit of knowledge out of the way, lets proceed…

Antihistamines are commonly used for allergic rhinitis, allergic conjunctivitis, contact dermatitis, urticaria (hives), angioedema and pruritus (atopic dermatitis, insect bites). We know that antihistamines are necessary, however, we were bothered by the side effects of the OTC medicines: drowsiness, anxiousness, dry mouth, and dehydration to name a few.  We wanted to find a way to introduce antihistamines into our system in a more natural way.

Now, we didn’t head out to start chewing on peppermint leaves, or lavender stems…nor did we decide to go cold-turkey and cut out the daily allergy pill.  We started integrating the Histamine-Halt inhaler into our morning routine, and we would only take an allergy pill if the allergy symptoms snowballed or became too much to handle. After a week of this routine, we realized that we had only taken 2 allergy pills, and the following week we had only taken 1.

You may wonder if we are just sitting inside the house barricaded against the pollen and triggers.  Well, we are out there, out there on the acreage daily. And we are not talking well landscaped, manicured acreage either; we are talking tall grass and oaks and pines and scrub brush.  We are outside walking dogs, feeding chickens, gathering eggs, feeding and tending to the rabbits, feeding and tending to the goats, exploring and gardening.  We are in the pollen, dust and dander…daily!

We still sneeze when the timothy hay dust floats up our nose, and our eyes may water when the wind blows the mold dust around, but a quick blowing of the nose, or washing of the face and a couple inhalations does the trick and we are back to our day.  The major thing we have noticed is that we don’t really have to think about allergies anymore.

The Histamine Halt inhalers are made with organic essential oils, organic herbal oils, and organic herbal extracts; all of which have been chosen in the right combination and quantity, because they contain constituents that have natural antihistamine properties.

We would love to hear how you are naturally reducing your allergy symptoms.

Get the Histamine-Halt inhaler we use by clicking here.

Get a custom blended Histamine-Halt inhaler by clicking here.