Natural Remedy for Allergies

Essential oils can serve as an excellent natural remedy for allergies. That's been our experience on numerous occasions, making essential oils our natural allergy remedy of choice.


There are various kinds of allergies, ranging from allergies to food, pollen, and animal hair. Because the cause of allergies can be complicated, the best line of defense is often to avoid the offending agent. Doing what you can to boost your immune system is usually helpful, too, and this commonly involves an intestinal cleanse and watching one's diet.

Our experience has been primarily with using essential oils as a natural remedy for hay fever, so that's what I'll mainly write about here.

Hay Fever

Hay fever is a general term referring to an allergic reaction to certain airborne allergens – like pollen, animal hair, chemicals, feathers, or dust mites. In people with sensitivities, these allergens trigger the release of histamines which lead to inflammation of the nasal passages – and this causes sneezing, runny nose, watery, red, itchy eyes, and difficulty breathing.

The essential oil we turn to most for hay fever is Lavender Oil. We've had great success by applying lavender topically, inhaling it, and even ingesting it orally.

For example, our teen-aged son, Jordan, has long had bad seasonal allergies. In the past, every spring he would go through a number of weeks when he could hardly function he was so miserable. But not anymore, thanks to the support he received from therapeutic grade lavender oil in capsules.

This approach has been terrific, and has greatly diminished his symptoms.  It's gone so well that last spring he hardly needed any lavender capsules at all.  I couldn't figure out why at first, until I realized that he was regularly applying lavender to his face topically each night to help his complexion. That practice has made it so his allergies are hardly an issue anymore.

NOTE: Regarding capsules, I have only used them for the teenagers and adults in our family. And I always take into account the body size of the person ingesting the oils, and adjust accordingly.  An alternative to ingesting the oils is to apply them topically to the feet, where the absorption is very strong. 


Allergies to Cats

We have found that lavender oil can also very effective when it comes to allergic reactions to cats.

One of our sons, Paul, is allergic to cats. Typically, if he steps into a house where there is a cat, he will immediately be bothered by symptoms like sneezing, watery eyes, itchy throat, etc...

A while ago, Paul and I were at a friend's home who has a cat. The cat was very friendly toward Paul, rubbing up against him like cats can do. The amazing thing is that Paul was not going into his usual allergic reaction. Why not? It turns out our friend was diffusing pure essential oils and this served to neutralize the cat allergens.

Since then, Paul has had some occasions when he was exposed to a cat and his allergic reaction did set in as usual. What did we do in those cases? I made him a capsule with ten drops of lavender and filled the rest with a quality vegetable oil (like olive oil). After one capsule, he always gets immediate relief. Sometimes he will take a second capsule a few hours later, just to knock any remaining symptoms off for good.

Other Essential Oils

There are other essential oils that people have also found to help when contending with allergies. These include German chamomile, peppermint, and a couple of oil blends called R.C. and Raven.

When an allergy seems to be connected to an emotional issue, some have benefited from an oil blend called harmony, which contains geranium, rosewood, and lavender.

For rashes related to allergic reactions, elemi, Roman chamomile, or peppermint may help as a natural support to the skin.

Allergies are common, and can be a real nuisance, draining your energy and zeal for life. But I can tell you from our own use, that essential oils have been a very reliable and safe natural remedy for allergies.

Since we are on the topic of allergies, this would be a good place to mention that people do not have allergies to pure, therapeutic grade essential oils. If people seem to have a reaction to a quality oil (such as a skin irritation), it may be a sign of the body releasing toxins as a result of the purifying effect of the oils.

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