Can Cannabis Help You With Seasonal Allergies?

It happens every year: Once the ragweed starts to flourish, you’re suddenly suffering: Sneezing constantly, sniffling, dealing with itchy watery eyes and a scratchy throat. Or perhaps it’s goldenrod, or tree and grass pollen, or some other plant that has you miserable. What’s causing the reaction isn’t the issue — it’s the fact that your allergies have you feeling miserable.

About 40 percent of American adults suffer from seasonal allergies. Essentially, symptoms occur when your immune system sees an allergen, like pollen, as an invader and attacks it with antibodies called histamines as a way of protecting you. The histamines are what lead to the sniffling and sneezing, and most allergy medications are designed to block them and alleviate the symptoms they cause. Unfortunately, though, these medications don’t always work for everyone, leaving them to find alternatives for relief.

Short of staying indoors with the windows closed until the pollen subsides, what options do you have? As it turns out, there’s increasing evidence that using cannabis could provide some measure of relief from seasonal allergies.

The Benefits of Cannabis for Allergies

At first glance, it might seem like cannabis would be the last thing you want when you have allergies. After all, smoking marijuana can only worsen allergy symptoms, or create new ones that mimic them, like coughing, dry eye, or scratchy throat.

However, many doctors report that their patients who use cannabis actually report fewer allergy symptoms and less severity than others. There are two potential explanations for this: cannabis’s anti-inflammatory and antihistamine properties.

Cannabis and Inflammation

One of the primary causes of allergic reactions is inflammation. For example, a stuffy nose is often due to inflamed and irritated nasal passages. This inflammation can cause swelling and pressure, which contribute to the discomfort.

Using cannabis can help reduce this inflammation, and in turn, alleviate your allergy symptoms. Doctors often prescribe anti-inflammatory agents for patients dealing with respiratory issues, including asthma and allergic reactions. Although it’s unlikely that using cannabis from your local Arkansas dispensary will have the same anti-inflammatory effect as an allergy medication, it can help. If nothing else, using cannabis in some form can help calm and relax you, and get to sleep. If you’ve ever been kept awake by your allergy symptoms, this alone could be the greatest benefit of using during allergy season.

Cannabis and Antihistamines

In addition to reducing inflammation, there’s evidence that cannabis is actually an effective antihistamine, and can help block the antibodies that cause your allergy symptoms. Multiple studies have uncovered different ways that cannabis might work, including:

• Blocking the mast cells that are responsible for histamine production;
• Impairing T-cell activation, which in turn reduces antibody production, including histamines;
• And providing terpenes, chemicals that helped reduce the vitamin E immunoglobulin in the nose, which reduces histamine production, as well as reducing antibody symptoms.

Researchers have yet to determine which of these outcomes is most beneficial to allergy reduction — or if it’s a combination of all three. It’s also worth noting that histamine production all but stops while you are asleep. As cannabis will help you relax and get more sleep, it only makes sense that it could be a treatment for allergies, at least in the sense that you will get some much-needed rest.

Is CBD a Better Option?

Because there is so little evidence as to whether cannabis helps allergies — although plenty indicating that it doesn’t hurt — some have turned to CBD to help with allergies instead. Studies have shown that CBD is effective for reducing symptoms that lead to asthma or COPD attacks, increasing airway flow and reducing the production of the histamines that cause inflammation. For anyone who doesn’t want to experience a high, using CBD products, in edible or tincture form, could be the answer to allergy relief. For example, mixing a high-quality CBD tincture with a spoonful of local honey taken daily when your allergy symptoms begin is known as a highly effective treatment for allergies.

And even if you do opt for marijuana for allergy relief, edibles may be a better option. Not only can you better control the dosage of THC you get, but you won’t experience any additional irritation that can come from the smoke or vapor. Before you try anything new, talk with your physician or naturopath to ensure that you aren’t allergic to the marijuana itself. After all, it comes from a flowing plant, and an allergy is possible — and using the drug will only make things worse.

Otherwise, there is no harm in trying cannabis as a means to relieve your allergy symptoms. You might find that it’s exactly what you need to get through the worst of the season.