Chinese Herbal Medicine Chevy Chase MD

Herbal Help for Hay Fever

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When pollen counts skyrocket, the sneezing, stuffy noses and watery eyes of hay fever begin. If you’re one of the afflicted, a new study suggests you may find relief from Chinese herbal medicine, with fewer side effects than you’d typically get from conventional drugs.

Charlie Xue, an associate professor of Chinese medicine at RMIT University in Bundoora, Australia, gave 28 hay fever sufferers a formula containing 18 Chinese herbs. For eight weeks they took four of these herbal capsules three times a day, while 27 other volunteers took a dummy pill. More than half who took the herbs reported moderate or significant improvement. Fewer than a third who took the fake pills said they felt better.

"I wasn’t surprised the herbs worked so well," says Xue. "People have been using these remedies for thousands of years in China." He suspects the mixture worked by slowing the inflammation process. And while most Western hay fever remedies leave users feeling drowsy, the only gripe about the herbal pills was a little bloating.

Unfortunately, the exact product used in the study isn’t available to the public. Xue is currently testing a version of the formula and hopes the remedy will appear on the market soon. In the meantime, he says, a good practitioner of Chinese herbal medicine can prepare a mixture that should work for you. Ask that it include astragalus, codonopsis, licorice, and white atractylodes, the top four herbs in Xue’s preparation.

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