Dealing With Hay Fever

Spring in the Southern Hemisphere is about to send hay fever sufferers into bouts of sneezing, runny eyes, blocked sinuses and a whole range of other symptoms.

There are many sprays, tablets and lotions that will help sufferers, and these are generally fairly easy to purchase over the counter. This post will not attempt to inform you of all of those options, but rather concentrate on one simple, cheap and possibly readily available option.

It may not work for you, but it certainly does for me, and several other people that I know.

And what is that, I hear you ask?

Nasturtium flowers. Yes, just chewing on a nasturtium flower relieves any symptom of hay fever that I have.

Nasturtium Flower

Usually my symptoms are quite mild; a runny nose, bouts of sneezing that are hard to control and watery eyes. It is almost instantaneous that these symptoms disappear after chewing on a nasturtium flower. And the taste isn’t too bad either, perhaps just a bit peppery.

As I mentioned above, there are several other people that I know for whom the result is the same. One person who suffers quite severely from hay fever finds that he also gets some relief.

Earlier this year, when I moved to a small country town from the city, one of the first plants that I tried to establish was the nasturtium, from seeds that I had saved from my previous garden. I managed to get most of them germinating, but unfortunately lost most of them to frost.

I have since got some plants established, and they are just starting to come into flower, at just the time when they might be needed.

Other uses for Nasturtium

The plant is also useful in other ways as the leaves and flowers can also be used to add colour and flavour  to salads, and the seeds can also be used like capers.

It is also great addition to the garden, that usually likes a cool or shady to part-sunny spot. They burst into colour in spring, and die down in summer, but self seed very easily, unless of course you pick all of the flowers for your hay fever before the seeds are set.