What are the best natural remedies for allergies?

For many people all over the world, airborne allergens like pet dander and pollen are a real nuisance, causing coughing, spluttering, blocked noses, streaming eyes and a series of other uncomfortable – and often disabling – symptoms. While there is a selection of medications available to help with the effects of these allergies, including antihistamines, nasal sprays and immunotherapy shots, many seek to avoid synthetic chemicals and their side effects by staving off their symptoms through more natural allergy relief methods. Here are the best natural remedies available for people struggling with cat, dog and pollen allergies. 

How to get rid of cat allergies naturally?

Cat allergies can be prevented and limited using a variety of natural treatments for allergies, including keeping your cat and your home clean, using natural products like essential oils, herbal teas and foods, paying attention to what you your cat eats and simply washing your hands frequently. The allergic reaction is actually caused by dander, or small particles that all furry and feathered animals naturally release from their skin. 

As with all allergies, the dander is not harmful in general – however, when someone is allergic their immune system falsely senses danger and overreacts, producing antibodies and histamine, which in turn cause uncomfortable symptoms such as itching, sneezing, streaming eyes and a runny nose – and in severe cases, difficulty breathing or anaphylaxis (a serious, rapid allergic reaction that can be life threatening if not treated quickly and appropriately). 

Here is a list of the best natural remedies for allergies to cat dander: 

• • Groom your cat: Washing and brushing your cat on a daily basis will minimize the amount of fur they shed, keeping dander particles at bay by preventing them from being released into the air. 

• • Keep your cat off the furniture and regularly wash bedding and cushion covers: Keeping allergens from your cat’s fur away from the parts of the house where you spend the most time is an effective way to minimize your contact with them. Regularly dusting and vacuuming your house will also help. 

• • Use essential oils: Essential oils like lavender, peppermint, tea tree and eucalyptus can reduce mucus production and soothe your body’s inflammatory response to allergens released by your cat. 

• • Change what you feed your cat: Giving your cat more omega-3 in its diet can reduce the amount of allergens it sheds – there are even some specifically formulated diets, which you can ask your vet about. 

• • Take foods or supplements containing natural anti-inflammatories or antihistamines: Making herbal teas or meals using turmeric, ginger, licorice, nettles and other plants that have an anti-inflammatory effect can help to limit your body’s response to your cat’s dander. Apple cider vinegar can also help, as can various fruits and vegetables including broccoli, apples and grapes. 

• • Wash your hands regularly: People touch their faces much more frequently than most of us realize, and if you’ve been touching your cat since the last time you washed your hands, this can promote the spread of allergens and other harmful or pathogenic particles from your cat into your airways. 

• Avoid inhaling dander – and therefore developing an allergic reaction – by using Wear A+, Respiray’s wearable air purifier that has been clinically tested with cat dander; the results showed an impressive 60% improvement in overall allergy symptoms, with the researchers stating that most allergy medications “do not relieve the symptoms to this extent”. 

What are the natural remedies for dog allergies?

Many of the natural treatments for allergies to dogs are the same as those for cats – for example, regular grooming, vacuuming and changing of soft furnishings, as well as washing your hands and consuming foods that are naturally high in antihistamines and anti-inflammatory compounds. An estimated 10% of people in the US have some sort of pet allergy, and as with cat allergies, people who are allergic to dogs are reacting to the dander released from the animal’s skin. 

Here are the best natural allergy remedies for people who are allergic to dogs:

• • Keep your dog off the furniture or maintain a dog-free zone in the house: Making sure your dog isn’t allowed in the areas where you spend time is the easiest way to prevent their dander from coming into contact with your airways, although of course this isn’t always practical. 

• • Bathe and brush your dog regularly: These measures will keep their dander under control by preventing it from being released into the air – make sure to use a pet-friendly shampoo with natural ingredients. 

• • Consider a hypoallergenic breed: This tip isn’t much help if you already have a dog, but if you’re allergic to dogs and are thinking about getting one then it’s worth looking into breeds that shed less fur. While there’s no such thing as an allergy-free dog, some pets release less dander than others, so being selective about the breed can help to minimize your allergic response down the line. 

• • Try natural foods and oils: As with cat allergies, your unwanted response to your dog’s dander can be limited by taking certain foods, plants, supplements and essential oils. These include peppermint oil, butterbur, honey, spirulina, stinging nettles and foods that naturally contain quercetin, bromelain, vitamin C and probiotics. 

• • Remove soft furnishings from the home: Where possible, consider replacing carpets, curtains and other items that can cling onto your dog’s dander with hard floors and smooth surfaces. 

• Use a wearable air purifier for allergies like Respiray Wear A+. Rigorous filter tests conducted by SGS USA found that the HEPA filter in Wear A+ captures 99.9% of particles and allergens, including dander from dogs. 

Natural remedies for seasonal allergies

Seasonal allergic rhinitis (more commonly known as hay fever) is an allergic reaction to pollen that causes a range of symptoms from sneezing and coughing to a blocked nose and itchy eyes, nose, mouth and throat. 

The most effective natural allergy remedies that can provide relief for people burdened with this condition are listed below: 

• • Acupuncture can help: Numerous studies have suggested that acupuncture can provide effective, natural allergy relief for those experiencing hay fever symptoms. 

• • Take foods and supplements: As with pet allergies, your hay fever symptoms can be alleviated by various essential oils and foods including quercetin, vitamin C, probiotics and spirulina, among others. 

• • Try saline nasal irrigation: Using a neti pot to rinse your nose out with salty water can provide temporary allergy relief by removing allergen particles and clearing mucus from the nasal passage. 

• • Take measures to minimize your contact with pollen: Wherever possible, the best way to avoid an allergic reaction is to stay away from the cause, in this case pollen that’s released by trees and plants during allergy season. You can do this by checking your local pollen count – using pollen.com for example – and staying inside with the windows and doors closed when there’s a lot of it around. 

• • Wash the pollen away when you get home: Whenever you come in from outdoors during hay fever season, changing your clothes and washing your hair will make sure those pesky particles can’t hang around and keep causing issues. Wiping down your pets when they come into the house and hanging laundry inside can also help. 

• A wearable air purifier like Respiray Wear A+ can also help. Clinical trials of the allergy relief device with birch pollen, conducted by the European Centre for Allergy Research Foundation (ECARF), discovered that “not only birch pollen but also grass pollen and herb pollen are effectively filtered through the Respiray device”. 

There’s nothing more natural than breathing clean air!

While all of the methods above can help to limit your allergies, there is no better solution than completely avoiding airborne allergens like pet dander and pollen. Wear A+ is Respiray’s personal wearable air purifier, a drug-free option that works by capturing these harmful particles from the air using a powerful HEPA filter. The operating principle of the device, which works by drawing air from below and filtering out the allergens to deliver a shield of clean air to the user’s airways, is that no allergens means no allergic response. 

Wear A+ has been thoroughly tested by various organizations including ECARF and SGS, with the results showing that it removes 99.9% of allergen particles like pet dander, pollen and dust mites from the air and significantly reduces typical allergy symptoms like sneezing, coughing, runny nose and itchy eyes, making it an effective solution that provides more natural allergy relief than anti-allergy drugs.

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