Why the Most Beautiful Season Can Feel Wonderful for One Person — and Miserable for Another
There is something very special about spring arriving in Adelaide.
After winter, suddenly there is warmth in the sun again. The blossom appears. Gardens begin to wake up. We open our windows, spend more time outdoors, start gardening, walking and exercising outside again, and everything seems to feel just a little lighter.
For many people, spring makes them feel wonderful.
But for others, September can bring an entirely different feeling:
“Here we go again.”
The neighbour cuts the lawn and the sneezing begins.
The wind picks up and suddenly the eyes are itching.
The nose starts running.
The sinuses block.
There may be coughing, throat irritation, headaches, fatigue or that horrible foggy feeling where you simply don’t feel yourself.
Some people know exactly which gardens, grasses, flowers or environments seem to set them off.
Others tell me:
“Charmaine, I react to everything in spring.”
And that is when I become interested.
Because while pollen may be the obvious trigger, I don’t necessarily want to look at pollen in isolation.
I want to know what else is filling your histamine bucket.
Spring May Be the Trigger — But Is It the Whole Story?
Histamine isn’t something bad that we need to eliminate from the body.
We actually need it.
Histamine is an important chemical messenger involved in immune defence, stomach function, the nervous system and many other normal physiological processes.
The problem can arise when histamine being produced, released or entering the body exceeds our capacity to manage and clear it comfortably.
Think about a bucket.
Your body may be managing its histamine load perfectly well while that bucket is sitting at half full.
Then September arrives.
Grass pollen appears.
The lawns are being mown.
The weather warms.
Windows are open.
We are outside more.
Different plants begin flowering.
And suddenly another significant environmental load has been added.
The bucket that was manageable can begin moving towards the top.
And once it spills over, symptoms may appear.
This is why I don’t just ask, “What pollen are you allergic to?”
I ask:
What else is in your bucket?
Your Histamine Bucket Is Individual
This is one of the most important things I want my clients to understand.
Two people can walk through exactly the same Adelaide park on exactly the same spring day.
One feels wonderful.
The other can be miserable within an hour.
The environment is the same.
The person isn’t.
When I see someone through my Everyday Ailment Consult for spring symptoms, I want to understand what is happening around the environmental exposure — not simply the environmental exposure itself.
I may look at:
- what time of year symptoms begin
- grass and pollen exposure
- mowing and grass clippings
- windy days
- gardening
- particular flowers or fragrances
- home and work environments
- foods contributing additional dietary histamine
- alcohol
- gastrointestinal health
- bowel function
- nutrient status
- medications and supplements
- stress and nervous-system load
- sleep
- hormonal influences
- menstrual-cycle patterns
- how effectively histamine appears to be being cleared
- whether there are other allergic or inflammatory symptoms occurring at the same time.
That gives me a very different clinical picture from simply saying:
“You have hay fever.”
Food Can Matter More During Spring Than It Did During Winter
This is something people often find fascinating.
A food that appeared to cause absolutely no problem in July may seem different when someone’s overall histamine load increases in September.
That doesn’t necessarily mean they have suddenly become “allergic” to that food.
The total load may simply have changed.
Certain foods naturally contain more histamine. Histamine can also increase in foods through ageing, fermentation and storage.
And then we have to consider the body’s ability to deal with dietary histamine.
One important pathway involves diamine oxidase — DAO — particularly within the intestine.
This doesn’t mean everybody with spring hay fever has a DAO problem.
They don’t.
But in the right clinical picture, digestive health, dietary histamine and histamine clearance become very relevant pieces of the puzzle.
So sometimes my spring work isn’t simply about what is floating through the Adelaide air.
We may also need to reduce what is unnecessarily filling the bucket from somewhere else.
And this does not necessarily mean putting somebody on an extremely restrictive diet.
It means understanding their triggers and making sensible decisions.
Women — Does Your Reaction Change During Your Cycle?
This is an area I think deserves far more attention.
If you menstruate, I want to know whether there are particular days of your cycle when your reactions become stronger.
Do your sinuses suddenly worsen?
Does your skin become more reactive?
Do headaches appear?
Does something you normally tolerate suddenly seem to bother you?
Do your spring symptoms feel noticeably worse at particular points of the month?
This isn’t necessarily coincidence.
Oestrogen, progesterone, mast-cell behaviour and histamine have an interesting relationship, and hormonal fluctuations across the menstrual cycle may influence how reactive some women feel.
This means a woman may cope reasonably well with a particular environmental load on one week of her cycle and find the same exposure considerably more difficult at another point.
This is exactly why I want to know when something happens, not simply what happened.
Your menstrual cycle can provide valuable clinical information.
Histamine Clearance Is More Than One Pathway
Another reason I don’t believe in giving everyone the same “histamine supplement” is that histamine metabolism isn’t controlled by one single mechanism.
DAO is important particularly in relation to histamine within the intestinal environment.
Another enzyme, histamine-N-methyltransferase — HNMT — participates in intracellular histamine metabolism.
Then I need to think about the gastrointestinal environment itself, nutrients required for normal enzyme and metabolic function, dietary load and other individual influences.
So my clinical question becomes:
Are we dealing predominantly with increased release?
Increased exposure?
Reduced clearance?
Or several things occurring together?
That distinction can change how I approach the person.
And This Is Where Herbal Medicine Becomes Far More Interesting
I have a large herbal dispensary, and this is exactly why I don’t want to reduce herbal medicine to:
“Take this herb for hay fever.”
There are many different ways I can formulate according to the person standing in front of me.
One person’s presentation may be dominated by streaming eyes and sneezing.
Another may have thick sinus congestion.
Someone else may have irritated respiratory mucous membranes and coughing.
Another may have a much broader histamine-reactive picture involving skin, digestion and environmental triggers.
Another woman may notice a very definite relationship between symptoms and her menstrual cycle.
These people do not necessarily need the same formula.
I can work with individual herbs, combinations and practitioner formulations, including tablet preparations where appropriate, depending upon the person, their medications, age, health conditions, pregnancy or breastfeeding status and the particular presentation I am trying to support.
There is research supporting the potential of a number of medicinal plants in allergic rhinitis, including actions involving inflammatory, allergic and leukotriene pathways.
But herbal medicine is not simply about finding an herb labelled “antihistamine.”
It is about choosing the right actions for the right person.
That is the part of herbal medicine I love.
I Don’t Necessarily Want to Block Histamine — I Want to Understand Why You Are Overwhelmed By It
This is an important distinction in how I work.
Histamine has physiological jobs to do.
So my naturopathic thinking isn’t simply:
“Histamine is high — how do we block it?”
I want to understand why your body appears to be struggling with the load.
Can we reduce unnecessary exposure?
Can we identify environmental triggers?
Is dietary histamine contributing?
Is gastrointestinal function relevant?
Are clearance pathways part of the picture?
Is there a hormonal pattern?
Are we dealing with an irritated respiratory system?
Are several things happening simultaneously?
And can I use nutrition, food, herbal medicine and appropriate practitioner formulations to support those areas?
That gives me much more to work with.
You May Not Need a Huge Naturopathic Investigation
This is exactly why I created my Everyday Ailment Consult.
Not every person struggling through spring needs a major naturopathic investigation.
You may simply know:
“Every September this happens to me and I want some help.”
Perfect.
Bring me that problem.
Tell me when it starts.
Tell me what sets it off.
Tell me whether grass clippings are your nightmare.
Tell me which flowers or gardens you think trigger you.
Tell me what happens when the wind comes up.
And women — tell me whether there are particular days of your menstrual cycle when everything becomes noticeably worse.
I’ll look at the whole picture and decide which areas are most relevant to support.
If I see something that tells me we need to investigate further, I’ll explain that too.
Spring Shouldn’t Be a Season You Dread
Adelaide in spring is beautiful.
Blossom.
Gardens.
Longer days.
Warm afternoons.
Freshly cut lawns.
Flowers everywhere.
All the things that make September feel wonderful can unfortunately be the same things that make a histamine-sensitive or pollen-allergic person miserable.
But rather than simply accepting:
“This is what happens to me every spring,”
perhaps this year we ask a better question:
What is filling your bucket?
Because sometimes spring isn’t the whole problem.
It is simply the final drop that makes the bucket overflow.
Spring & Histamine — Everyday Ailment Consult
If spring brings sneezing, streaming or itchy eyes, sinus congestion, grass sensitivity, coughing or a broader pattern of histamine-related symptoms, you can book an Everyday Ailment Consult with me.
I will look at your triggers, your pattern and your individual histamine picture and determine where naturopathic and herbal support may fit.
In-clinic and virtual consultations are available.
Charmaine D
Naturopath BHSc