Oddbean new post about login | logout One interesting outcome from the journey to improve my health over the last few years is that I seem to have cured the pretty severe seasonal allergies/hayfever that I had struggled with for as long as I can remember. In the past, during spring (October & November here in Australia), I would be avoiding going outdoors as much at possible to avoid making the symptoms worse. Last year the symptoms weren’t as bad although they were still a problem. This year though I’ve been able to spend a lot of time outdoors every day and apart from occasional slightly itchy eyes, I’ve had no other symptoms. I don’t think I can pinpoint exactly what changes I’ve made that have helped with this. It is probably the combination of many diet and lifestyle changes but I think that cutting out a lot of processed food and improved gut health may be a big part of it.
That’s just awful Phil, I know so many that suffer from this lately and don’t know what’s in the air these days. Glad to hear that it’s much better this year 💜🫂
This is why I wish I could pinpoint exactly what I changed that has helped as it might help others too. The more I’ve gone down this health path though the more I realise that a lot of these types of conditions that we sort of just accept can actually be helped or cured through diet and lifestyle changes.
Well done
Man I went through exact same process, used to have one of the strongest nasal sprays on prescription, then couple years back went down the carnivore path (I ended up settling on like 70/30 animal plant). These days I get pretty much zero sneezing / irritated eyes! From what I can tell a major part of it is linked to the health of your micro biome
That sounds similar to the path I went down. I found that none of the antihistamines helped much, the nasal sprays did help but I had other side effects (bad headaches and nose bleeds) from using them. I could never really stick to a strict carnivore diet but my diet is heavily animal based, I cut out most processed foods, most bread (except sometimes sourdough) and try to consume more probiotic foods for gut health.
Ha ha yep so similar, trying to rarely ever eat the processed food & added in food w/ beneficial bacteria & enzymes. We ended up making sauerkraut regularly, 1 good purple organic cabbage goes a long way, ends up being a really cheap side dish. That & kefir & raw milk, the raw milk is between $11-15 depending on where we get it!
I buy sauerkraut and kimchi at the farmer’s market here sometimes but yeah it would be much cheaper to make it. It seems difficult to get raw milk here in South Australia unless you own cows or know someone who does.. I buy jersey milk from a local small producer here that is pasteurised but not processed in any other way and that doesn’t seem to cause me any issues.
It's funny, seasonal allergies were 1 of the few things that changing my diet hadn't resolved. Last year I started spraying a diluted solution of CDS symptomatically up my nostrils. It seemed to relieve the symptoms & sinus inflammation but it wasn't at the worst time seasonally. This year I've only had 3 or 4 episodes of sneezing. Each time I got relief from the CDS & it hasn't returned the following day. A few of these episodes were after brush cutting long grass. Keep it in mind if it still causes you issues.
Thanks I will keep that in mind. It may partly be that this season hasn’t been as bad with the pollens etc but I’m surprised that I have had basically no symptoms at all. In some ways my diet was actually better a year ago than it has been this year so it is really hard to tell what has made the difference.
Yeah same. I've lost my orthorexia but gained a fair amount of body fat with a more relaxed diet. I'm still surprised to not be sneezing & itching much yet though. There's heaps of grass with seed heads now. Humidity is also high here. 🤷 I didn't suffer from allergies until I turned 20 or so.
I’ve mostly maintained body fat levels but not decreased as I did over the previous couple of years. I’m still pretty happy with where I am at though. I remember my allergies getting worse during my teenage years. Looking back that possibly corresponds partly with my diet getting gradually worse, eating more processed foods rather than the mostly home cooked meals I ate as a child.