In line with our recent post about Dr. Andrew Weil and hay-fever, there is a lot of discussion about the effects that certain diets can have on your allergies. Some foods are believed to cross-react with pollens, making allergic symptoms worse at certain times of the year. For instance, it is suggested that if you're allergic to birch pollen, your hay fever can be made worse by apples. If so, it would be good to talk to a pharmacist or allergy specialist to discover what pollens you are allergic to, by establishing when your symptoms start and cease and which plants and trees are flowering in your area during that time. After that you can play around to see which foods may cross-react with these pollens and eliminate them from your diet at the appropriate times.

Here are some the pollen and food combinations that might make your symptoms worse:

CULPRIT: Birch - March to May

WATCH OUT FOR: Celery, curry spices, raw

At London’s Chelsea Flower Show this week, Olivia Kirk of KKE Architects has designed a garden with hay fever, general allergy and asthma sufferers in mind. The garden was designed for the University of Worcester to provide a tranquil spot for staff and students to sit and relax. The allergy friendly garden aims to complement the National Pollen and Aerobiology Research Unit at the University, which tries to help allergy and asthma sufferers by conducting research and consultancy on large organic particles both in the indoor and outdoor environments.

Although sharing similar features with many of the other small, modern gardens at the Show, Olivia’s allergy friendly design has been carefully planned to give a balance of shade, sun and shelter. She used natural materials and low-allergen plants with the aim of causing the least irritation to people

The first step in treating a patient suffering from allergies is to educate them about how they can best avoid allergens in the first place. Thomas A.E. Platts-Mills, the former President of the AAAAI (American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology) writes that if patients "understand the role that specific allergens play in causing symptoms,...then they can gain control of their illness, reduce symptoms and in many cases reduce reliance on pharmaceutical products." Dr. Platts-Mills points out that studies in which patients were moved into an allergen free environment have been "uniformly successful" in relieving the sufferer from their symptoms. Two key criteria to keep in mind are 1.) the avoidance measure must be allergen specific, and 2.) the average exposure to the relevant allergen must be decreased by 95% or more. According to Dr. Platts-Mills the benefits of allergy avoidance are quite often obvious and greatly appreciated by the allergy sufferer. The recommended treatment for the different kinds of allergies, however, are different. So the question then is, if you are allergic, what are you allergic