Local Honey and AllergiesWritten by Tom Ogren
Local Honey and Allergies By Tom Ogren As one who makes his living by writing about allergies and asthma I am often asked about potential health benefits of using local honey. Honey contains bits and pieces of pollen and honey, and as an immune system booster, it is quite powerful. I have often in talks and articles, and in my books, advocated using local honey. Frequently I’ll get emails from readers who want to know exactly what I mean by local honey, and how “local” should it be. This is what I usually advise: First, a word of warning: do not give honey to babies one year of age or younger. This therapy is recommended for older children (five and up, and adults). Allergies arise from continuous over-exposure to same allergens. If, for example, you live in an area where there is a great deal of red clover growing, and if in addition you often feed red clover hay to your own horses or cattle, then it likely you are exposed over and over to pollen from this same red clover. Now, red clover pollen is not especially allergenic but still, with time, a serious allergy to it can easily arise. Another example: if you lived in a southern area where bottlebrush trees were frequently used in landscapes or perhaps you had a bottlebrush tree growing in your own yard, your odds of over-exposure to this tree’s tiny, triangular, and potently very allergenic pollen is greatly enhanced. In two examples used above, both species of plants are what we call amphipilous, meaning they are pollinated by both insects and by wind. Honeybees will collect pollen from each of these species and it will be present in small amounts in honey that was gathered by bees that were working areas where these species are growing. When people living in these same areas eat honey that was produced in that environment, honey will often act as an immune booster. The good effects of this local honey are best when honey is taken a little bit (a couple of teaspoons-full) a day for several months prior to pollen season.
| | MCS, Toxic Mold, Sick Building Syndrome, and Chronic Fatigue SyndromeWritten by Thomas Leo Ogren
MCS, Toxic Mold, Sick Building Syndrome, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Thomas Ogren Often people who suffer from undiagnosed illnesses may be experiencing multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), unusual pollen or mold reactions, food allergies, fibromyalgia, or even combinations of one or more of these. Last spring I gave a talk to a group of allergists from San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties (California). I mentioned that I liked to see allergists hire college horticulture students to map exact species of plants growing in a patient’s yard. Sometimes, as I explained, without knowledge of exactly what is growing closest to them, it is next to impossible to figure out problem. One of allergists then told me this true story: They had a patient, a woman in her 60’s, from Santa Barbara, who was extremely sick and getting sicker by day. She was having classic symptoms of both allergy and asthma, was not responding to any type of treatment, and they were afraid that she would die. And so they took unusual step of sending someone from their office out to her house to look it all over. The allergist’s assistant didn’t find any high allergy plants in her yards. He didn’t find any strange houseplants in her house, nor any unreported pets or anything of sort. He saw no walls, windows, bathrooms or anything that appeared to pose a mold problem. The house was an older one, and he doubted that it was off-gassing chemicals. He was about to give up when he noticed a door he hadn’t seen before. “Where does that go?” he asked her. “To my basement,” she told him. Now, because basements are rare in California, he was surprised to discover this. When he opened door, turned on lights and walked down steps he was even more surprised. There, growing all over cement floor of her basement were thousands of unusual looking mushrooms. When he asked her why they were there, she told him, “Well, they just started to grow there and I let them grow since they were so pretty.” I’m sure you can figure out rest of story. He took samples of mushrooms back to office and woman was tested for spores from these same fungi and it turned out that her entire system was swamped with these allergenic, poisonous mushroom spores. The mushrooms were of some rare species native to southeastern US and no one ever did figure out how their spores had arrived in that lady’s basement and started growing. The mushrooms were removed, basement was cleaned up and patient regained her health. Another interesting episode of trigger sleuthing: A woman from Lompoc, California asked me to look over yard of her apartment to see if I could figure out what was making her so sick. She was in her late 30’s, married, had always enjoyed excellent health, but was getting sicker and sicker. She was starting to forget things, had headaches, sore throats, was always tired, often had stuffed up sinuses, and now and then would slur her words while she was talking. More and more she would forget what she was saying right in mid-sentence. It was a nice enough apartment, neat and orderly, and she told me that their rent was very reasonable. Inside I discovered that one wall in her bedroom, next to her bed, looked moldy. I also found another wall, a wall in living room that also looked moldy. Outside in yard I discovered that rainbird sprinklers for lawn would hit wall directly every time they went around. There had also been a leak in roof, directly over bedroom wall. I suggested she hire someone to do an inside and outside mold count for her. This she did and it was found that mold spore count was high in yard, and even higher inside house. It was highest in her bedroom.
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