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Date: | Thu, 9 Aug 2007 12:29:00 +1200 |
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> Is eating local honey for allergy relief just an old wives' tale? Or can
> the sweet relief allergy sufferers seek from their nonstop miserable
> "cold" symptoms be as simple as eating two teaspoons of honey a day?...
Ragweed is the single most important plant for hayfever allergies in
the USA. It is widespread across the country and most importantly a
wind pollinated plant.
Very little if any ragweed pollen makes it into honey and due the
plant's widespread nature, what little ragweed pollen may be found in
honey, will be found nationwide.
Honey is rarely produced from wind pollinated plants, (with the
exception of a few plants with extra floral nectaries - sugar cane is
one that springs to mind) and the pollen found in honey is almost
exclusively (greater than 99%) from insect pollinated plants. These
pollens are not a cause of hayfever allergies because they do not
become windborne and therefore cannot be inhaled.
Wind pollinated plants have a different strategy for dispersal to
insect pollinated plants. The first produce vast quantities of of
extremely small light pollen grains with almost no protein or fat
content of any value to insects. Insect pollinated plants produce
[realtively] much fewer, larger pollen grains that have significant
levels of protein and fats that do provide a nutrional source for
insects (and other animals). i.e. their chemical makeup is completely
different.
If local honey is of benefit to alergy sufferers, then the supposed
mechanism of being exposed to small quantities of the target allergen
in the honey, seems to be logically flawed - particularly when
ragweed is the chief cause and so widespread.
Does anyone have another mechanism in mind that could be
explored/promoted, or some evidence that would add weight to the
existing theory?
On that note, comb honey is often put forward as a better candidate
than extracted honey, but from our studies, comb honey usually has
significantly less pollen than [unfiltered] extracted honey - by a
factor of about 10 times. If comb honey is actually providing relief
from allergens, this would indeed suggest there is another mechanism
at play.
Regards,
Peter Bray_________________________________________________________
Airborne Honey Ltd., Pennington St, PO Box 28, Leeston,
New Zealand Fax 64-3-324-3236, Phone 64-3-324-3569
http://www.airborne.co.nz [log in to unmask]
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