The weather here has been unusually warm – dry, sunny days where it’s nice enough that your jacket stays at home. As a result, trees are starting to bud – and allergy season is just around the corner.

Trees usually produce the first pollens of the year. That means folks with tree pollen allergies will be already facing their typical symptoms, from allergic rhinitis to asthma exacerbations.

If you are allergic to trees – even if the trees are not yet budding where you are – it’s worth it to get on your preferred antihistamine now. Tree allergy season is just around the corner. While it seems crazy to treat allergies before they show up, all the research shows that antihistamines work best if they are in your body in sufficient concentrations before you are exposed to your allergen! Some antihistamines appear to take time before they really relieve symptoms – but this is more likely to be related to the fact that they get used up quickly as they quell an existing reaction, leaving no additional medication available to handle any new reactions as they start up. Given that we aren’t dealing with allergy season yet, but will be any day now, if you start antihistamines now your body will be ready to handle your allergen – regardless of when the first tree sends out its pollen.

You can also start other kinds of alternative treatments before the pollen is drifting through the air, to give your body a fighting chance to handle your tree allergies better. One alternative treatment that we’ve had good results with in this family – and which is great for your overall health – is taking bee pollen daily. Get pollen from a local bee keeper if possible, because it will best represent your local plant life. Start with a relatively small dose if you are severely allergic – 1/2 teaspoon or even less – and work up to as much as 2-3 teaspoons a day.

In our case, we add this to our family’s morning smoothie. The actual dose to each person is about 1 teaspoon (or slightly less). For my son’s seasonal allergies, this really helped to reduce symptoms. We started last spring before the allergy season started, and were surprised at how much it reduced his symptoms.

After all, current research is showing that sublingual immunotherapy works for such allergies as grass pollen – so why not tree pollen?