Time to take a little breather from my soap-box series on hormonal balance with essential oils. It hit me in the lungs when I realized that the timely topic of the spring sneezing season should be addressed before this month’s essential oils’ promotions vaporize into thin air!

So, let’s all pause to inhale a deep whiff of fresh (essential-oils infused) air.

In this post, I’ll continue with reviewing the basics on allergies that I just posted on my Healing, Health, and Wellness blog.

What is an Allergy?

In a previous post I wrote:

According to the Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology (AAAI):

An allergy is a chronic condition involving an abnormal reaction to an ordinarily harmless substance called an allergen.

If you have an allergy, your immune system views the allergen as an invader and a chain reaction is initiated. White blood cells of the immune system produce IgE antibodies. These antibodies attach themselves to special cells called mast cells, causing a release of potent chemicals such as histamine. These chemicals cause symptoms such as:

• Itching in the nose, roof of the mouth, throat, eyes
• Sneezing
• Stuffy nose (congestion)
• Runny nose
• Tearing eyes
• Dark circles under the eyes²

Decreasing the Toxic Load on the Lungs

In my Healing, Health, and Wellness blog, I discussed how climate and temperate shifts, pollution, and everyday chemicals are contributing to these respiratory symptoms. I also discussed how the chemicals in our everyday personal care and household products can trigger the immune system to become imbalanced and overrespond to these various stressors on it. This means that decreasing  the total toxic load with more earth-friendly and sustainable products is one way to provide a calmer immune system. You can access the additional resources to help clean up your home and health in this link. This will alleviate some of the body burden while supporting various organ symptoms with essential oils

For more comprehensive wellness measures, also consider addressing lifestyle factors, digestive and microbiome health, mitochondrial function, circulation, hormones, and body structure alignment to lead to less achoos.

Support for Those Already with Sniffles

One of the most overlooked and important link to allergic, sinus, and lung conditions is the gut-respiratory connection. We can use various essential oils to support digestive health and  specific essential oils to address the respiratory system in order to accomplish more relief from the sniffles. Recently, I also reported that essential oils in general may also help to support the microbiome in our lungs, a new form of defense against problems arising with our inner air tubes and organs.

1. Fennel Oil

This essential oil is well-known for supporting both the gut and respiratory system. It also has many other wellness benefits. In my articles that defend the good name of essential oils for hormonal health, I discussed some of the better-known uses of fennel. (You can read it here). In an upcoming blog, I will discuss more on how it balances our endocrine system, which interacts and has an effect on our immune system responses. This is another mechanism for preventing lung and sinus issues. (source, source, source)

2. Tea Tree Oil

Tea tree oil has been found to be protective for the immune system by inhibiting unwanted microbes. It may also support respiratory health directly. It has many potential DIY, non-toxic, uses including oral care, relief of itchy scalps, and blemish control. (source) Substituting chemicals in personal care products for tea tree oil can prevent their harmful effects on the immune system.

3. Basil Oil

Basil oil is high in phenols, compounds with many health promoting qualities. Basil may help with the mental exhaustion of cloggy heads. It can also inhibit unwanted microbes which cause an upheaval in our immune system defenses. (source).

This essential oil also has additional benefits that may help with the season of sneezes. It was shown in a study to protect rats from ulcers (the gut-lung connection). (source) It was also found to support a healthy oral microbiome, which is connected to systemic wellness, when combined with tea tree oil and clove, in a mouth rinse. (source)

(Note: this oil also contains estragole, which was covered that in the fennel article.)

4. Take an Enzyme!

Finally, I saved one of my favorite items!

I use enzymes in combination with digestion promoting essential oils, including lemongrass, anise, fennel, peppermint, ginger, tarragon, juniper, and patchouli!

Due to the gut-immune-respiratory connection (source, source), it is important to optimize digestion and absorption. Allerzyme contains a variety of digestive enzymes that may help to prevent fermentation in the belly from undigested foods and proteins resulting in a decrease in antigenic load. This is another respiratory win-win situation. (source, source, source, source, source, source)

Further Considerations

Due to the importance of the gut-lung connection to relieve allergy symptoms, you may also want to incorporate a probiotic to your supplement regime.

By combining microbiome support through swallowing this buggy probiotic with sniffing essential oils’ secondary metabolites, your inner terrain will be armed with two major defensive tools!

Using essential oils will not only replace harmful ingredients with helpful ones, we also care for our whole body’s health. We can all breathe a little easier now with cleaner air from our diffusing and inhalation of every drop.

Now, I want to hear from you…

What essential oils help you during the season of the sniffles?

Which one will you try?

Post your comments below…

Many blessings from my heart to yours!

This material is for information purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prescribe for any illness. You should check with your doctor regarding implementing any new strategies into your wellness regime. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. (Affiliation link.)

Disclaimer: This information is applicable ONLY for therapeutic quality essential oils. This information DOES NOT apply to essential oils that have not been tested for purity and standardized constituents. There is no quality control in the United States, and oils labeled as “100% pure” need only to contain 5% of the actual oil. The rest of the bottle can be filled with fillers and sometimes toxic ingredients that can irritate the skin. The studies are not based solely on a specific brand of an essential oil, unless stated. Please read the full study for more information.

Thanks Pixabay and iStock purchases.