"There's no evidence that local honey relieves allergy symptoms." from NYTimes

[WLC]

The idea that ingesting a substance containing an antigen helps suppress an immune response
has been around for quite some time.

It supposedly helps to produce suppressor T cells once the antigen is taken up by the lining of the digestive tract.

Here's a link to a study illustrating the above mechanism:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal.../389737a0.html

[Mike Gillmore]

I find it interesting that the NYT article cited a study that was done 9 years ago.
I also find it interesting that if you visit the site of "Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology" ... across the top of every page is a bold ad for the product -
Zaditor
"Help your patients say
GOODBYE TO ITCHY EYES"

I'm sure the folks at Zaditor bought Mr O'Connor a nice steak dinner ... ya think?

[heaflaw]

My doctor tells me that by eating honey that contains small amounts of pollen every day for months, that the body does whatever it was that WLC just said. Or to put it in us uneducated people's terms, our bodies build up resistance to the pollen. That makes sense to me, to my customers and apparently to a lot of people in the medical profession.

[TIMER]

I agree Mike, follow the money and you'll usually find out who's behind the story.
Good observation. I wondered the same thing about the study done 9 years ago just now being tossed out there. THANKS NYT!!

[Acebird]

The effect (if any) may just take longer than that to be measurable.

You probably hit the nail on the head here. In many cases it takes years for the allergy to show up. It makes sense that it would take years to desensitize.

[Ben Brewcat]

As much as we beeks wish for some evidence, it just isn't there. Some speculate that it's because the allergic reaction (seasonal hay-fever type) is specific to inhaled allergens as opposed to eaten (which are altered/destroyed by digestion), which is medically completely plausible. Many point out that the trace amounts of pollen grains in honey would require truly massive levels of ingestion to have a possibility of being effective. To the point that obesity and kidney damage from the several thousands of calories a day of pure sugar would certainly outweigh any allergic relief from a health standpoint. At this point AFAIK no one has been able to demonstrate reduced allergic response from eating pollen. I just tell people I wish it were true, that lots of people still believe it and there's no harm in that, and that honey is a healthy, local, and delicious alternative to processed sugars that supports beekeepers and beekeeping.

[Birdman]

Just get more bees to gather more pollin, less pollin to blow around. there for less pollin to cause allergy. Problem solved get more bees.

[tct1w]

I jumped right to the end of this thread. Didnt need to read all the opinions. Yes,it does help with my allergies. I take a tablespoon everyday. 365 days a year. Yeah,thats alot of honey. I dont have seasonal allergies anything like I did. Actually they really dont affect me at all. It could be in my head on this part,but I feel like I generally healthier now. Dont get colds like I use too. Dont get alot of the bugs that go around. I might drop dead tomorrow,but honey has helped me. By the way,its my own raw,unheated honey that Im referring too. Peace Dave

[dsquared]

The pollen that typically causes allergy sufferers problems is windborn pollen such as grass, some trees (pine, oak, etc), and others. Bees gather sticky pollen off flowers and certain trees. It's no wonder to me that honey containing pollen won't help your allergies.

[Fluxtopia]

In the 30 years I have keep bees and eat the honey it has doesnt done a thing for my allergies at all.When I first heard about this I started eating the honey according to the bloom times and used the honey from the exact year before to be sure I got the same as what was blooming and I cant see any difference.But I will still keep trying!!! Love honey with everything I eat!!!!

Do you take your honey with hot tea etc? Bee pollen must be kept cool, to get health benefits from it. The enzymes in honey, also beneficial, are destroyed by heating it.
I wonder if there are any studies done that account for this in storage and administration.

[Nabber86]

It's a total snakeoil claim to me. But I always agree with my customers when they tell me that it cures their allergies, or arthritis, or warts, or whatever other weird beliefs that they may have.

Also consisder that during high allergy season, you probably injest more pollen grains by breathing in through your mouth than you get from a teaspoon of honey. Not to mention the pollen that goes up your nose and then drains down the back of your throat and into your stomach.

[lazy shooter]

To many people, life is based on faith. There are several religions, and most to each faiths followers think they have the chosen path. Are they correct? "Quien Sabe" I have a friend that thinks hydorgen peroxide cures every thing but cancer. If people believe in local honey, they will feel better for eating it. Let them have their honey, fantasy or reality does not matter.

[Katharina]

I think you have to look the other way around. Are bees visiting the plants you are allergic to? If not then you will not get any benefit from the honey in a way of anti allergy protection. This usually means self pollinating plants are out of question, because bees don't visit them. Now it is a different story if the bees visit those plants and brink back pollen. Then you have a good chance of getting an allergy relieve. Saying that it doesn't work is just wrong, because I know some people where it does work. Will it work for everyone? No. It's just like those allergy meds you buy, they don't work with everyone either and you may have to buy another medication. It is worse a try. BTW I know a beekeeper that keeps his hives in poison ivy. This honey is being purchased by hunters here in Oregon. The benefit, people who eat the honey turn resistant and poison ivy doesn't give them full reaction or no reaction at all. He himself walk into the ivy without reaction. So it does work in some cases.

[AstroBee]

The pollen that typically causes allergy sufferers problems is windborn pollen such as grass, some trees (pine, oak, etc), and others. Bees gather sticky pollen off flowers and certain trees. It's no wonder to me that honey containing pollen won't help your allergies.

Not entirely true. Honey bees will often visit sources purely for pollen (or close substitutes). Bees will forage pollen from corn without a nectar source, bees will visit grain mills, or animal feed just for the food they need. Probably don't visit ragweed...but if you've kept bees long enough you'll appreciate the resourcefulness of these creatures.

[Corvair68]

The pollen that typically causes allergy sufferers problems is windborn pollen such as grass, some trees (pine, oak, etc), and others. Bees gather sticky pollen off flowers and certain trees. It's no wonder to me that honey containing pollen won't help your allergies.

I have watched my bees on several occasions collect ragweed pollen near the hives. Ragweed pollen is wind born and not sticky at all, air from the bees wing send it flying into the air. It is also one of the biggest causes of seasonal allergies.

[sqkcrk]

Bees collect coal dust, cracked corn chaff and all sorts of things. I don't know what they have to do w/ allergies or bee nutrition.

[Nabber86]

Bees collect coal dust, cracked corn chaff and all sorts of things. I don't know what they have to do w/ allergies or bee nutrition.

Yes and dont forget, bees also collect pesticides.

[sqkcrk]

Which is why people should not eat pollen, unless they know that it came from an area which had no pesticides applied to it. I know a guy who poisoned himself by eating pollen collected from his own colonies.

The human digestive system does not digest pollen anyway.

[Scrapfe]

... life is based on faith... If people believe in local honey, they will feel better for eating it. Let them have their honey...

I agree. The harm comes when people try to force you, I, or the rest of society to accept the faith based beliefs of others regardless of the flimsy scientific evidence these beliefs stand on.

The list of faith based beliefs posing as facts or settled science is to long to list here, but if it makes you happy to believe in them I see no harm or danger in doing so as long as you don’t swill said belief hook, line, and sinker then regurgitate it as an incontrovertible fact or act or attempt to act on the belief.

The danger begins when we mix our petty prejudices (regardless of what they are) with our political beliefs or world view, when that happens all bets are off.

For example: Everyone knows that grinding up corn, exposing it to barley malt and H20 under heat, cooling, modifing the corn with yeast, purifing it by distillation, then allowing it to rest for 6 years in new charred whiteoak barrels, then mixing this "modified corn" with lemon juice, hot water, and local honey will help the modified corn to strip the hull off the pollen grains found in the local honey, thus making the pollen available for use by the human imune system to fight allergic diease.
See, there is no limit to the trouble the human mind will go to in order to rationalize petty prejudices. LoL. This little ditty is just as "scientific" as the local honey one and it may well move a lot more honey especially if we incresae the amount of honey needed to realise health benifits to 4 oz per day instead of a piddling teaspoon.

Just don't fall into the trap the medical industry has set for us by trying to prove that local honey is good for you, just say it and keep on saying it until everyone belives it, that is the American way.

[virginiawolf]

Despite what I've read that the honey and pollen don't help with allergies etc. Something about beekeeping is keeping me healthy. It's been 2 years now no colds, allergies, sickness at all. I used to get sick with at least something once or twice a year and the doctor recommended allergy medicine because I would often get sinus trouble etc. Since the beekeeping and taking pollen off and on I haven't had a sick day. It might be a coincidence but I credit something to do with beekeeping, Pollen, or honey. Being around the hives feels healthy to me. Maybe it has something to do with the bee stings or breathing in pollen that the bees are bringing in. I'm not sure but I'm definitely of better health since beekeeping. VW