It’s a beautiful summer’s day. The children are all out playing and your daughter is sitting inside, windows closed, curtains drawn, with red watery eyes that make her look like she’s been crying.

Up the road, in another house, they know that Summer has arrived when the children start to count how many sneezes Dad can do in one go. His current record is 18. He finds it embarrassing, especially when it happens at work.

In another part of town, a young man’s constant runny nose is making his life a misery. He carries around a great wad of tissues and keeps having to stop what he’s doing to blow his nose. He knows his work rate is slower since the weather got warmer but he’s hoping his boss hasn’t noticed.

Hay-fever will never kill you, but it can certainly make you uncomfortable, as these snippets from my practice show.

Holistic Approach to Hay-Fever Treatment

First, some good news! It is possible to eradicate hay-fever from your life forever.

Really.

Constitutional homeopathy can gradually reduce, and

ultimately eradicate, your susceptibility to hay fever over time

Here’s how it works:

Instead of just waiting for hay-fever to strike each year and then desperately looking for the quickest fix to stop those troublesome symptoms, I recommend that you begin constitutional homeopathic treatment much earlier, in autumn or winter, and well before your hay-fever starts. The aim at this stage will be to raise your overall level of health. One of the benefits will be to strengthen your resistance to pollens and other irritants.

How is this achieved?

Homeopathic treatment begins with an individualised consultation. My aim is to prescribe a constitutional homeopathic remedy, tailor-made for you and all aspects of your health, not just the hay fever. You take this remedy throughout the autumn and winter.

If you suffer from other immune system complaints such as asthma, psoriasis or eczema, you will be pleased to find that the same remedy that is chosen to prepare you for the next hay fever season will also address your other conditions.

Most people who begin treatment in the winter find that their symptoms are greatly lessened during the following hay fever season. If hay fever is still present to some extent during the first summer, continuing with the constitutional remedy may be enough to keep you quite comfortable.

If not, I prescribe an individually tailored acute homeopathic hay fever remedy, as described in this companion post: effective natural remedies for hay fever.

Come Back Again When Hay Fever Season is Over

Even when homeopathic remedies are very successful for your hay fever symptoms in the summer, unless you progress to constitutional homeopathic treatment over the autumn and winter, you will not be working to raise your overall health.

If you spend the intervening winter taking steroids, inhalers, antibiotics and various suppressive medications for other health complaints, your level of overall health will be lower again next year and so will your resistance to hay fever.

Even if you have no other health complaints, I still recommend that you come back for constitutional homeopathy during the second winter, as a change of remedy may be needed to provide healing at a deeper level. It is really worth committing to the process, if you want to eradicate your hay fever for good.

My clients who have taken this approach have found that, over time, their hay-fever has become less and less each year, until eventually it is gone completely. How long this process takes can vary.

Some have only needed 2 or 3 visits in total

Other clients, having had many years of suppressive medication, and perhaps suffering from other health conditions, could have gradual improvement, but may need to return for occasional visits over a couple of years before they have complete resolution.

Read more here about the process of coming for homeopathy.

Why Hay Fever Needs Treatment Year-Round

You may be so relieved when hay fever season is over that you just want to forget about it for another year. Perhaps it seems like a lot of bother to come for visits and take remedies throughout the winter.

If you're not sure whether it's worthwhile to take the alternative approach, consider this:

Commonly, the people who come to me for homeopathic help with hay fever have been taking full doses of every conventional hay fever medication for years, but they are still suffering.

Typically, people tell me that, each year, their hay-fever is a bit worse than the previous year. This comes as no surprise because these medications are aimed at suppressing symptoms in the short term. They are not aiming to cure the condition. Also, as the body gets used to the suppressive effect, it takes larger doses and stronger medication to achieve the same result.