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Pollen allergies, also called
hay fever have been known for a long time but in today's stressful
environment it seems that more and more people suffer from allergies.
Often it is difficult to identify the exact source. Specific pollen
allergies may be avoided by changing one's environment.
Desensitization with established Western medical methods (subcutaneous
injections of pollen extracts) are slow and generally have only a
temporary effect, so they need to be repeated. Traditional and
alternative health practitioners have claimed to cure pollen
allergies. It is said that the consumption of locally produced honey
has a desensitizing effect because all honeys contain small quantities
of pollen. However, not all available pollen species are collected by
bees and thus may not occur in the particular honey. There is not even
anecdotal evidence that honey consumption will remedy pollen
allergies, but consuming small quantities of honey regularly has not
harmed anyone yet. The consumption of pressed honey which always has a
very high pollen content, may at times cause small allergic reactions
(personal experience) Feinberg et al., (1940) have shown in numerous
comparisons that pollen consumption only marginally improved allergic
reactions, so marginally in fact that it cannot be recommended, nor
can improvements be distinguished from improvements possibly due to
general improvements in health.
The greatest risk of allergic reactions
exists with the direct consumption of pollen. This, however,
can be avoided by consuming pollen packed in capsules or coated
pills which prevent direct contact with any mucous membranes. Once in
the digestive tract, the body generally does not show any allergic
reaction. Again, careful trials by sensitive individuals are
recommended if consumption is assisted upon.
This preempts any foods in which pollen
has been incorporated, but allows taking pollen for special health
reasons. Some experiments confirmed that by avoiding contact with
eyes, nose, mouth, throat and pharynx, no allergic reactions occurred
with ingested pollen. Intestinal allergies to pollen are rarer than
most food allergies (Schmidt and Buchmann, 1992). Still, careful
trials by sensitive individuals are recommended for all products
containing pollen.
Since there are so many different
substances in the different pollen species to which people react with
allergies, only some extractions or a general denaturalization can
inactivate most of the allergens for commercial production. This
probably ruins some of the beneficial characteristics of the pollen as
well. Getting pollen from areas without the allergy-causing species
may help individuals who want to consume pollen, but such
identification and separation is unlikely to be feasible for
commercial production.
As a precaution,
everybody, even those people who have not known any pollen allergies
before, should first try very small quantities of the pollen or the
product containing the pollen. Allergic reactions normally occur
within a short period of time, from a few minutes to a few hours.
To avoid any problems with customers and
with those who consume foods or use cosmetics and medicine-like
products containing pollen, it would be advisable to include a warning
on the product label, for example "This product contains pollen
which may cause allergic reactions. Try small quantities first".
Pollen should not be collected or
purchased from areas with heavy industrial, urban or agricultural
pollution (pesticide). The geographical origin of the pollen should be
known, and producers as well as buyers and retailers should be using
adequate cold storage. |
