There’s no need to be allergic to gardening, and here’s why

Fiann Ó Nualláin shows how allergens work on our bodies and offers suggestions on how to treat upsetting seasonal conditions.

People who don’t suffer from allergies are prone to think that the flare-up season is summer, that its all about the hay ‘fever’ — well long before the threshing particles fly and the grass and plant pollens fill the air, there is the tree pollen of spring.

And yes those catkins are slowly unfurling this weekend and are priming their pollen to unleash upon the sensitive.

I say sensitive, not as a term of vulnerability, but as a marker of the process. Simply put, allergic reactions are an hypersensitivity of the immune system to otherwise non-harmful agents — not just pollen but dust, dander and yes also fragrances, food etc.

The perceived threat or ‘foreign body’ in the system causes the release of normally helpful histamines, which have a role in drawing our attention to damage or viral and bacterial infection in the immune response, by flushing those damaged/invaded areas with blood and thus helping immune cells get to the site quickly.

However, in this hypersensitivity the body also reacts badly to the histamine presence, treating the histamines as a threat too.

The problem is that the histamines sent to help are either perceived as a foreign body too, trigger more reaction or just go ballistic in their levels of flushing and activating.

So instead of a red dot or a thumbnail cluster of nettle sting blisters to make us aware and attentive to the problem, we get a body rash extending well beyond the site.

Or instead of a single sneeze to dislodge an irritant, we get a fit of sneezing, irritated eyes, congested sinus and tension headaches. It’s a total overreaction, but the body thinks it is fighting a serious injury and really needs to go nuclear on it.

In a gardening context, when we get stung by a nettle, the sharp spines actually inject histamine, acetylcholine and serotonin into the site — the latter two are neurotransmitters in the human system but in this plant defence context — they amplify pain perception in the stung victim — while the histamine is an agent of inflammation and thus takes the role of the irritant and pain trigger.

Our chemical selves naturally send histamines as part of the immune response and the double histamine can make the reaction really welt up and so a nettle sting is often more feared than a thorn scrape.

When it comes to those with an allergic reaction to pollen or dust, the particles invading the nasal passages are read as harmful foreign bodies, and not a temporary irritant, so the single clearing sneeze is not seen as sufficient and thus the runny nose tap is turned on to flood the invader out.

Beyond inflammation, histamine is also a trigger of increased mucus production – a normal temporary defence mechanism, but in the hyper reaction, the overproduction of the mucus becomes more of a problem that what triggered it. The more histamine released the stronger the reactions.

It’s important to know your triggers, so spring clean away the common causes of allergies, including animal fur, dust, mould and avoid pollen, insect bites etc, as a way to decrease your histamine production. The dock leaf contains natural antihistamines in its juice and so the topical rub counteracts the sting-histamine and also the histamines we send there — the rubbing also flushes blood in and toxins out. There are foods and herbs that can do that job internally too.

Funnily enough, nettle tea or nettle soup is the traditional spring tonic to help the body better regulate its histamine production.

Cooking or heat kills the sting and inflammatory agents, but the other beneficial nutrients and phytochemicals remain intact. Histamine is released from mast cells and several common herbs inhibit the mast cells from opening and releasing.

Chamomile, thyme and fennel, are among the best at all round stabilisation. In terms of targeted specifics, peppermint is particularly effective with mast cells related to allergic rhinitis, while echinacea has an affinity for upper respiratory tract reactions. Ginger works brilliantly on hive and rash reactions.

If you fancy a gardening and a culinary challenge then Lotus roots (Nelumbo nucifera) exhibit a potent immune-modulating effect and can potentially inhibit histamine release by up to 70%.

Many of the antihistamine herbs have either high quantities of quercetin or help with quercetin absorption. Quercetin is abundant in cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, spinach, kale, cauliflower etc) as well as in garlic/onions/shallots, citrus fruits and also in green tea.

The benefit of including more leafy greens is that the enzymes they contain assist detoxification and also help reduce inflammation.

While this article is about those outdoor triggers and hasn’t thus far ventured near the complex and often controversial topic of food allergies, I would just note that if you are allergic to grass pollen then I would keep an eye on levels of oats, rye, wheat, and grains in the diet — at flare-up times.

If you get mucusy, you can do a food elimination diet to decrease mucus and there is a much research into the connection between probiotic foods and allergy reduction.

There is an increasing interest in apple cider vinegar as a cure-all, I know it can help with gastrointestinal ailments, not so sure on the looking 20 years younger and gaining the vigour of a gardening columnist!

But it does have benefits in reducing mucus production and in supporting the lymphatic system to remove toxins — leaving the body fitter to fight seasonal allergies.

A pollen allergy does not halt your gardening potential, there are many plants that have low or no pollen – all those double flowered and sterile hybrids.

Bell flowers tend to dust the backs of bees rather that fling pollen into the air. You can edit grasses and trees from your space and be cautious with composting and spring cleans.

Next week I will look closely at growing fennel, not just as an antihistamine herb, but an ophthalmic herb beneficial to tired and allergic eyes. A potent healer as well as a culinary delight.