It happens every year. At first, the excitement of spring gives you a boost in energy and a little extra kick of motivation. But within weeks, the joy you experience from seeing the fresh flowers bloom turns into despair as your runny nose, watery eyes, and itchy throat begins to take over — seasonal allergies got you again.
Why is it that our immune system seems to turn on us every year? And is there anything we can do about it?
In this article, you’ll learn:
- What causes seasonal allergies
- The irritating symptoms associated with allergies
- Why allergies are a cardinal sign of a toxic liver
- The secret to supporting your liver, and fighting allergies naturally
What Are Seasonal Allergies?
Seasonal allergies (also known as hay fever) are incredibly common and can be caused by a range of natural environmental factors depending on the time of year — or “season.”
Regardless of the trigger, most allergies follow a similar biological pathway beginning with your immune system, and it generally looks like this:
You come into contact with a harmless substance like pollen, and your immune system is activated because it senses pollen as a danger. From here, it alerts immune cells called mast cells to jump into action against this “invader,” and they release a chemical called histamine.
Histamine then creates inflammation in the affected area and initiates the production of mucus. For instance, if you were to inhale pollen, you might get a scratchy throat accompanied by mucus which makes you cough[1].
The source of seasonal allergies varies from person to person, but common contributors include[2]:
- Spring: Usually trees (such as oak, elm, alder, birch, beech, poplar, ash, and olive)
- Summer: Grasses (such as Bermuda, timothy, sweet vernal, orchard, and Johnson grass) and weeds (such as Russian thistle and English plantain)
- Fall: Ragweed
- Winter: Depending on where you live or the severity on your allergies you can still have allergy symptoms in the winter.
Common Symptoms Of Seasonal Allergies
The most common symptoms of seasonal allergies include:
- Sneezing
- Running nose
- Stuffy nose
- Itchy ears
- Congestion
- Itchy, watery eyes
- Post-nasal drip
- Itchy throat
- Cough
- Wheezing and shortness of breath
- Headaches
- Fatigue
- Rashes
While histamines play a vital role in protecting your body, the allergic response is often due to an overreaction of your immune system instead of a protective mechanism. It’s your immune system that is producing the symptoms, not the pollen or plants.
Why do some people’s bodies overreact to allergies while others don’t? Some research says that genetics may play a role, but the overall health of your body, immunity and organ systems is also an essential factor.
The Allergy-Liver Connection
One often overlooked cause of seasonal allergies is an overwhelmed liver.
Although your liver may not be directly responsible for seasonal allergies, its connection to your immune system makes it a vital player in overall healthy immune responses. After all, nothing in your body happens in a vacuum. The breakdown of one organ can lead to the breakdown of other organs and systems in the body.
Your liver is one of the hardest working organs in your body, responsible for more than 500 vital functions, including[3]:
- Clearing your body of drugs, heavy metals, and other dangerous compounds
- Removing bacteria from the bloodstream
- Converting poisonous ammonia to urea
- Producing bile
- Producing of proteins for blood plasma
- Producing of cholesterol and specialized proteins for transporting fats throughout the body
- Converting of glucose to its storage form glycogen, and then breaking down glycogen to glucose
- And much, much more
The liver also has a HUGE role in immunity:
- The liver manufactures antigen-presenting cells. These cells hold up pieces (antigens) as if to say “Hey! Do you recognize this guy? Get a good look and don’t let him get through next time!”
- Certain blood supply channels in the liver can take the antigen-presenting cells and present them to the T cells to make copies for recognition through the whole body.
- Liver T cells have the job of taking out targeted cells.
As you can imagine, if you aren’t treating your liver properly, it can easily get overwhelmed and overloaded. The downstream impact of an overloaded liver is an overwhelmed immune system as its right-hand man (your liver) isn’t able to pull its weight.
This can result in inflammation and an inability of your immune system to carry out its normal functions — like protecting you against seasonal allergies[4].
How To Support Your Liver
If you’ve noticed an uptick in seasonal allergies, supporting your liver is a crucial piece to the puzzle. There are several tactics you can use to enhance liver support, including:
#1 Consume A Liver-Loving Diet
A diet that supports your liver is one of the most basic yet powerful ways to support liver health. Fruits and vegetables are rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that support your liver’s function and downstream processes.
Make sure your plate is loaded with colorful varieties so that you get a broad spectrum of nutrients from plant foods.
My top 5 favorite foods to nourish the liver include:
- Broccoli sprouts
- Garlic
- Onions
- Ginger
- Lemon
In addition, fiber plays a crucial role in liver health, aiding in digestion and bile production, and protecting your liver against diseases like fatty liver and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)[5][6][7].
#2 Avoid Toxins
Avoiding toxins as much as you can takes a huge load off of your liver. Since your liver is the primary site of detoxification in your body when you consume toxins, it directly impacts that workload on your liver.
Toxins can come in all shapes and sizes, so taking care to watch out for these sneaky, harmful compounds is essential.
Toxins from food include chemical additives like preservatives, artificial flavors and artificial sweeteners. Too much sugar or trans fats can also have toxic impacts on your health. In your environment, toxins may come in the form of heavy metals, pesticides, or chemical compounds in your personal care products. Lifestyle toxins include drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol.
While it’s almost impossible to avoid all toxins these days, taking care to live a low-toxin lifestyle will do wonders for your liver.
#3 Watch Your Weight
Overweight and obesity can have a direct impact on liver health due to metabolic influences. Fatty liver, the most common liver disease in the US, is a result of lifestyle habits like a poor diet or lack of exercise and poor blood sugar control.
Therefore, if you want to optimize the health of your liver, maintaining a healthy weight and healthy blood sugar is vital[8].
#4 Take Targeted Nutrients
While diet alone can help to build the foundation of nutrients your liver needs to work optimally, targeted nutrients can directly support liver health and take your liver function to the next level — especially if it’s sluggish.
Foods and herbs that contain specific nutrients for liver health include dandelion root, milk thistle, burdock, broccoli sprouts, and turmeric. Each of these foods plays a special role in keeping the two systems of detox (phase one and phase two) running smoothly so that your liver not only neutralizes toxins but also pulls them out of your body once and for all[9][10][11].
All-In-One Liver Support
Cleaning up your diet, avoiding toxins, and maintaining a healthy weight will all go a long way in supporting your liver health.
However, the targeted nutrients mentioned above play a crucial role in your liver’s ability to detox. Beyond supporting general liver function, in today’s work that’s overrun with toxic insults, we need to be on the defense against harmful compounds every day.
That’s why I created Daily Detox.
Daily Detox is a simple all-in-one formula that supports the health of your liver from all angles. And the best part — you don’t have to take six pills a day to get everything you need. It’s as simple as adding one small scoop of Daily Detox powder to water and drinking it down once a day. You can also add it to your morning smoothie or juice.
In addition to liver-supportive foods like dandelion root, burdock, and milk thistle, Daily Detox includes an organic fiber blend that will assist in combating liver disease and improving liver function[9][10][11].
Furthermore, I’ve also included a blend of antioxidant-rich foods like moringa, pomegranate, and acai berry to fight oxidative stress in the liver, and anti-inflammatory foods like fermented broccoli sprouts and turmeric to support a healthy inflammatory response [12][13][14][15]. This not only lessens the toxic burden of the liver but it gives your immune system a much-needed boost to fight off those seasonal allergies.
Takeaway
If you notice that your seasonal allergies come and go each year, it may be more than the pollen count at hand. Liver health plays a crucial role in the way your immune system works, and when your liver is sluggish, it puts more pressure on your immune system to pick up the slack — and vice versa.
This means that when those watery eyes, itchy nose, and dry and scratchy throat start to show up, it’s time to look at both your immune system and liver to see how you can support them with a little TLC.
Daily Detox is a simple yet powerful tool to support liver health. It not only contains nutrients that support the detoxification process, but its fiber and antioxidant blend can help to combat liver disease and keep things flowing optimally.
In addition to taking targeted nutrients, support your liver and immune system with a healthy diet, and keep an eye out for dietary and environmental toxins as well.
