If you’re one of the many allergy sufferers who deal with ragweed, each Labor Day this fall is shaping up to be a banner year. A combination of hot temperatures and heavy spring rains are creating a bumper crop of goldenrod soon to be seen in the parks and along the roadsides.

Here are some help ways to get ready now:

• Get your lymphatic system cleaned up and give your immune system a boost before your symptoms arrive. Holistic Medicine has a number of herbal remedies which can help.
• Start early, as it’s much easier to deal with it while your body is not fighting the inflammation, congestion and redness of a stuffy nose.
• Use herbs such as burdock and dandelion are good for both the liver and kidneys.  Often small amounts of 3-6 grams a day of these herbs are enough to help your body start a cleanup.
• Ginger root is also a natural antihistamine and can be useful in breaking up congestion and aids in digestion.
• A small amount of tea several times a day can help shrink the sinuses down.
• Be sure to increase your vitamin C or citrus during allergy season. Among its many uses, vitamin C will thin and dry up excess mucus.
• Turmeric is another option. It’s quite useful in that it helps release histamines from the mast cells. It’s easily purchased at most grocery stores and can go a long way in keeping in supplementing enzyme activity that keeps your body’s inflammation under control.
• Apple cider vinegar can also go a long way in bringing the body back into balance.  1-3 Tablespoons in 8 oz. of water, 3 times a day is usually enough to restore a proper acid / base balance in the body particularly if the person is too alkaline. This will help to stimulate adrenal function, increase your energy and give the immune system a long-term boost.

Holistic medicine offers many treatment strategies, both in chiropractor and acupuncture, to address seasonal allergies. These strategies offer more natural options to the over the counter medications which often can have side effects.

A chiropractic adjustment itself can often help allergies too. This is because it’s an input into the nervous system and can relieve the achy muscles and sinus headaches that go with allergies.