By Judy Foreman, The Boston Globe (USA), 6/23/2008It's an intriguing idea, but even a staunch advocate of honey for this use acknowledges that there's virtually no published, scientific evidence to support his view.
Tom Ogren, a California horticulturalist and botanist (tloallergyfree@earthlink.net) who advocates local honey (meaning honey harvested within a few miles of where you live), said that bees in any given area "will visit all the flowers that produce pollen" in that area and that this honey will therefore contain pollen from the plants you frequently encounter and may be allergic to.
"If you take small amounts daily, it's like getting allergy shots" because you may become desensitized to the pollens, he said. "I hear from people who are crazy about the results they get" from this, he added.
But as for real data? Zilch. "You can't get a big bee company to do research because it [the honey] has to be local," he said. Ogren acknowledged that any pollen in local honey could also trigger the very allergies a person is hoping to ward off.
Dr. Leonard Bielory, an allergist and immunologist at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, said that while "there are no controlled studies of a clinical effect" of local honey to combat allergies, "I do believe there is something to it."...
1 comment:
We are business owners in Sacramento Ca. and we sell about 80 lbs. per week to our customers for allergies, we have done so for the past 7 years, and 90 % of our customers are repeat customers and are allergy free. Why do they continue taking the Pollen? Because it is loaded with vitamins and minerals, and it makes them feel really good, as well as curing there allergy problems. How does this work? Bee-Pollen is a protein just like food, once the body starts using the pollen as a food sorce, when the air borne pollens are breathed in they are no longer rejected, They are absorbed and used.
As far as the local theory goes, none of our pollen is from this country.
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