Probiotics For The Sneezin' Season
- Annabel Turley
- Sep 1, 2018
- 2 min read
Spring has sprung, here in the garden city, and so has hayfever season.
Allergic rhinitis (hayfever) affects at least one in five New Zealanders, causing itchy eyes, running nose and sneezing. These symptoms occur due to the immune system reacting to pollen, which results in the mast cells in the body releasing histamine. Hence why antihistamines are the main conventional treatment for hayfever.
What if there was a way to prevent hayfever so we do not experience these nasty sneezing symptoms that also take a toll on our mental wellbeing.
The currently mainstay prevention of hayfever is using a steroid nasal spray such as Flixonase, Beconase or Alanase. These nasal sprays are effective but not always the most pleasant to use.
Recently there have been a number of exciting studies to highlight that probiotics help prevent and reduce hayfever symptoms which aligns with a very important health philosophy of Hippocrates “All disease begins in the gut.”
So if we take any old probiotic we will no longer suffer from hayfever?
Unfortunately, not all probiotics are created equal so you can’t just eat some yogurt from the supermarket or drink a bottle kombucha to help prevent and relieve your hayfever symptoms. You need to be having the right species and the right strain of probiotics to help your hayfever.
So which strains have been studied and what are the results?
There have been a number of strains studied but the two that standout are Lactobacillus paracasei LP-33 and Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG.
Lactobacillus paracasei LP-33 the probiotic strain which has showed the greatest results in the clinical studies. It has been shown to reduce the frequency and severity of allergy symptoms allergies including a blocked, itchy, runny nose; sneezing; itchy and watery eyes; puffy and sore eyes and an itchy throat as well as improving quality of life.
Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG has been showed to reduce nasal blockages in hayfever in some studies but the jury is still out on this being the probiotic of choice for hayfever. But this probiotic has a lot of evidence behind it for atopic diseases such as eczema.
So if you are looking for an alternative to a steroid nasal spray as a preventative hayfever treatment you can’t go past my favourite class of medicine, probiotics.
Be kind to your gut microbiota and feed it some good bugs today.
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