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The best essential oils for allergies depend on your specific allergy and your individual response. Two of the most commonly recommended oils are German chamomile and lavender. Here are three ways to use either oil for nasal allergy relief:
Allergy-Proof Your Life recommends the following essential oils for allergies:
You can diffuse a few drops of the following blend for 10 to 20 minutes three times a day:
The Healing Intelligence of Essential Oils suggests the following aromatherapy blend for relief of allergy symptoms:
Dilute 1 to 2 drops of the blend in a carrier oil. Apply to your face. (If possible, rinse your face with cold water first and apply blend to moist skin.)
You can also make a personal aromatherapy inhaler using one of the following blends. Drop the essential oils onto the cotton wick in the inhaler. Keep the inhaler capped. Remove the cap and inhale as needed.
or
Source: Aromahead
For information specific to kids, see Aromatherapy for Seasonal Allergies in Children.
Many sources recommend a neti pot to help clean pollen, dust, dander, and other pollutants out of your nasal passages. A neti pot resembles a small teapot-shaped kettle. You fill the neti pot with warm distilled water and a little salt that doesn't contain iodine to create a saline solution.
To use, stand over a sink and tilt your head to one side. Pour the salt water into the nostril that's tilted up and let the water drain out of the other nostril.
Important: Use only distilled or purified water. Some news reports a few years ago indicated several people contracted parasites using tap water in a neti pot. This cannot happen if you use distilled water.
Can you add essential oil to the water in the neti pot? It's generally not recommended because essential oils can irritate the mucous membranes of your nasal passages. Instead, some sources recommend using hydrosols, with one part hydrosol to two parts warm distilled water.
Photo Credit: mcfarlandmo [CC-BY-2.0]