Hi All
 
Ken asked about the mechanism of how eating honey with a bit of
pollen in it, from ones area may reduce hayfever symptoms.
 
Lloyd, Robert, Barbara, Tim, Ted, Stan, all mentioned a bit about
this. I would like to add mine.
 
Pollen mainly causes allergies through it's accidental germination in
the nasal cavities, as well as the lungs if things go wrong, where
it, being a small specialised plant grows out a pollen tubule in
search of a femal egg to fertilize. This it does not find, but it
does often find a blood vessel or some tissue into which is grows and
is eventually popped by certain unspecific immune reponses -
releasing all sorts of foreign particles into the blood stream and
tissue.
 
Your body becomes sensitive and develops a response to this. The
response is due to a range of cells that produce the allergic
response antibodies, IgE's - which are in much lower concentrations
to others like the IgG's which usually get rid of most infections.
 
If one eats a lot of pollen - even a teaspoon full of honey will have
million times more pollen than a room full of air - about what we
filter a day - your body is posed with a huge exposure to pollen
particles that do the hayfever thing all the way down your throat.
 
In some people this makes them throw up - my girlfriend cannot eat
bluegum honey. I have to give her honey from the desert where no
bluegums grow. I cannot use a super that has had eucalyptus honey in
it otherwise she gets nauseus - a strong allergic response.
 
However, for most of us, the exposure to lots of pollen makes us
develop a population of cells producing IgG to that stuff, as well as
special cells which control the cells which release histamine - and
the allergy goes away. Just like exposure to a cold for two weeks
make's it go away, and so does flu and everything else. One just has
to watch out for conmen during this time period.
 
Alternatively, one can go and have 'this or that pollen'
desensitization shots - administered by doctors who are educated in
institutions that would close down if it were not for the 'donations'
they recieved from the pharmaceutical companies - ie doctors are told
- if somebody has hayfever give them celestamine and desensitizing
shots at 1% of their anuual income or whatever. The celestamine will
cause possible permanent psychological problems if taken for too
long, and the expense will as well. Honey on the other hand is cheap
and nobody gets royalties for it except us beekeepers who are not
important as a tax base at all - and we don't donate millions to
universities that train doctors.
 
So my answer - yes sell people honey as an antidote to hayfever. If
it does not work, at least it won't damage their brains like
antihistamines do - even although these don't really work either!!
 
Keep well
 
Garth
Garth Cambray           Camdini Apiaries
15 Park Road
Grahamstown             Apis mellifera capensis
6139
South Africa
 
Time = Honey
 
If you are not living on the edge you are taking up too much space!!