Bee pollen and allergies

There is a commercial I have seen on TV where an animated bee has allergies and the conclusion of the commercial is to take some kind of nasal spray.

Then there is a fad in the natural foods movement to eliminate allergies by consuming bee pollen. As the theory goes, consuming lots of pollen based products will gradually reduce your sensitivity to out door breezes. (here’s an example.)

Both of these make me laugh because it points out a very basic misguided idea that bee pollen would cause allergies.

To be able to build an immune reaction to a substance, it first has to get into your blood stream somewhere. Often this happens from a cut or eczema. (A gene was discovered recently that causes dry skin, which then causes eczema and asthma. It’s beyond the scope of this blog post, but the research seems to say ”Don’t let your skin dry out or it will lead to breakages in the skin, allowing allergens in and creating a lifelong immune response.”)

Once your body recognizes pollen as an “invader”, every time that pollen floats by you have a good chance of an immune response. But bee pollens don’t float by—they just sit there. There isn’t any real reason to consume bee pollen in connection to allergies; windblown pollens are the problem.

So if you are going outside to garden, put some lotion on. On second thought, sunscreen would do double-duty.