Winter allergies are the worse. I don’t remember them growing up.
But these climate change days, they are common for many like myself.
This or every winter, you may feel like you have cotton stuffed up your nose, head, face, or even in your ears. Allergies and winter allergies especially are no fun.
You may even get annoying chest congestion, that starts when you wake up and then once you get going, annoyingly disrupts an otherwise good day.
This article is all about what you can do to have a better winter season, facing winter allergies. Read all 11 tips, as they’re all golden to keep you fit and healthy.
Dryness aggravates allergies, so here are some simple moisture tips:
1. Invest in a small humidifier for every room or place you spend time in.
If you’re a Vata, then dryness is something you face regularly, literally on your face (or scalp), and probably on your cracking hands and sandpaper feet. Winter only aggravates dryness. You need a daily winterizing self-care regimen.
You may find yourself wanting to moisturize your rougher face more often. Or do glycolic exfoliation, and facial mask pampering. I have my favorites, but this article is about allergies, so I’ll try to stay on topic 😊
Keeping your body moist with non-fancy products such as Eucerin lotion and pure aloe (clear or Kermit frog green), will help. Every little tidbit helps to keep you calm and your winter allergies, tame.
When I was growing up, humidifiers were these relatively expensive, bulky, and loud machines that took up floor space. And if you’re a decorator, there was no way to dress up the eyesore.
Nowadays you can buy a sleek, inexpensive humidifier at your favorite variety or everything stores like Marshall’s or Home Goods. Table humidifiers are usually less than $20 and if cleaned regularly, you can use them year after year. Many table humidifiers have glowing neon changing color lights that you can turn on for fun and add cool brightness to your day… we all need that!
You can complement a running humidifier with a Vicks Vapor Rub, that contains camphor, menthol, and eucalyptus. I like that it can open up your nasal passages and wake up a Kapha imbalance if you gently sniff. As the name implies, it’s meant to be rubbed on your skin, and so can help chest congestion
For winter allergies/chest congestion:
2. Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) steaming before you shower. You can do this over a pot on the stove. This is the best thing for chest congestion (coughing up mucus), or if you feel a heaviness to your chest that seems to come on when the weather starts to cool.
Take apple cider vinegar and boil/steam with a water mixture. Inhale and exhale through your mouth so you can deliver directly to your chest. Add more water in the beginning as the vinegar can have a stinging feeling. Then you know that you’re doing something good.
I recommend doing this before you take a shower, as the apple cider vinegar has a strong odor, that can linger on you and your clothes, and be repulsive to a sensitive Vata.
Thankfully it’s easily washed off by taking a shower. If you are highly congested, performing this practice once or twice per day is good. You want to nip it in the bud, so your chest congestion goes away after a few days. It may come back, but then you may only have to perform weekly or bi-weekly. The longer you let it go on, the longer it stays.
I don’t use the good ACV for steaming, as it will be wasted in evaporation. If you only have the expensive or organic ACV, with the mother (the good milky stuff) that’s good for ingestion, just don’t shake up the ACV bottle, and let the mother stay on the bottom.
Keep doing the other ACV tips and neti pot regimens recommended for fall allergies and ragweed allergies. Continue reading “Winter Allergies – 11 Tips + Celestial Seasonings Tea”
