Honey for Seasonal Allergies – Fact or Fiction? 🍯🤧
Spring is in the air—which means warmer days, blooming flowers… and for some, the dreaded hay fever season! If you’re one of the many who suffer from sneezing fits, itchy eyes, and a runny nose as soon as pollen levels rise, you might have heard the popular theory that honey can help ease those symptoms. But is there any truth to it, or is it just a sweet-sounding myth? Let’s take a closer look.
The Theory Behind Honey & Hay Fever
The idea is simple and rather appealing: honey contains small traces of pollen—mainly from the flowers bees visit. By consuming local, raw honey regularly, the theory goes, your body might gradually become less sensitive to airborne pollen, much like how allergy shots work. It’s often likened to a natural form of immunotherapy, where introducing small amounts of an allergen helps build tolerance over time.
What Does the Science Say?
While the logic behind the theory makes sense, the scientific evidence is mixed. Some small studies have hinted at possible benefits—one found that people who consumed higher doses of honey reported slightly milder hay fever symptoms than those who didn’t. But overall, research hasn’t shown strong or consistent proof that honey is a reliable treatment for allergies.
A key issue is the type of pollen involved. The pollen that triggers hay fever typically comes from trees, grasses, and weeds—pollen that’s airborne. But the pollen in honey comes from flowers, which is usually heavier and not airborne. That means the amount of the actual allergy-triggering pollen in honey is often too low—or not the right type—to trigger an immune response or build up a meaningful tolerance.
So, Does It Work?
In truth, there’s no definitive scientific proof that honey can cure or prevent hay fever. However, many people still swear by it—and if you enjoy honey anyway, it certainly doesn’t hurt to try. Even if it doesn’t relieve your allergy symptoms, honey has plenty of other benefits: it’s packed with antioxidants, has natural antibacterial properties, and makes a delicious addition to tea, toast, yoghurt bowls, or porridge. So while it might not be a miracle allergy cure, adding a little honey to your day is still a sweet idea. And if you’re eating Just Bee honey– it is supercharged with even more vitamins and botanicals to suit various health needs. It’s immune-boosting, soothing, and a natural source of energy.
At Just Bee, we specialise in honey with added benefits to support your everyday wellness. Whether you’re battling coughs and colds, soothing aches and pains, or just need an energy boost, we’ve got a honey for you. Supercharged with vitamins and botanicals, our honey is designed to help you feel your best—naturally. 🍯✨
So, what do you think—fact or fiction? Have you tried honey for hay fever relief? We’d love to hear your experiences! 🐝💛
I love your honey, I’ve just ordered my second lot. And your Manchester address makes it twice as good!
Something that helps me with immediate effect:
dissolve one teaspoon of honey in warm water, add one teaspoon apple cider vinegar, top up glass with cold water and drink!
I hope I’m not tempting fate here, but my first drink every morning is two teaspoons of just bee lemon and ginger honey with squeezed lemon juice and at 74 without having any flu jabs etc. I’ve not had a cold in 12 months I’m certain it’s this drink that helps keep my immune system in good working order. I’ve just started taking your bee pollen on my morning porridge it’ll be interesting to see its effects. Thanks Joe and the worker bees. 😊
Hi Joe and bees,
I used to eat lots of honey when I was growing up, and my mum always said it would help to stop me from getting hay-fever. She suffered badly with it, and she grew up in London during the war, so honey, like many other things was strictly rationed, and she was lucky if she got to taste any.
When she reached her teenage years she moved to Suffolk with her mum and they stayed in a big house in the countryside. Her mum helped to look after the elderly owners and kept the house clean and tidy for them. When they eventually passed away the gentleman had left the house and the grounds to my grandmother, this meant she had a meadow to keep chickens and grow fruit trees 🌳, I would help her feed the chickens and collect the eggs 🥚 🪺 😉 it was very exciting and she would teach me many things about the plants and the chickens 🐔, all the fruit on the trees and the bushes of blackberries and wild raspberry bushes too. She had some hives at the end of the garden, but because she had never been able to get there to harvest the honey 🍯 the bees 🐝 eventually either died off or moved on to a different area…
I’ve never really had bad hay-fever, though I did find out its the pollen from silver birch trees that starts 🤧 my nose itching and running, then if I stay in the sun my eyes will sting and water like crazy, someone once asked if I was alright when they saw me, I had to explain that I had hay-fever, and they said it would be better if I went onto the beach ⛱️… luckily we only live a short distance from the coast so I would spend the day by the sea and come home, have a nice shower 🚿 to wash the salt and pollen away and do it all again the next day… I’m caring for my dear old dog who is blind now and in his last few months of his life, he’s 20 years old and has been with me since he was 7 weeks old… he likes to lick the honey off my spoon when I have been putting it in my yoghurt… I’m sure it’s helped him to keep so healthy as he’s only needed to be treated for an ear infection once in his life, never been ill since then…
Hi joe
Just made my first purchase of honey and turmeric to try to help with joint pain.
I love bees and your web site has given me a great source information on bees.
I’ve just put up my bee hotel.
I’ve also started leaving a shallow dish of sugar water to help them along.
I have a pond and I am going to get a floating bee mat so they can stop off for a drink.
Keep up the great work
Patrick