Safe, Effective Natural Help for Seasonal Allergies

Seasonal allergies drive 10%-30% of adults crazy. Common antihistamines have common side effects, including drowsiness, dry mouth, GI upset, headache and weight gain. But there are very safe natural treatments. Here’s a new one.

This double-blind study gave either a placebo or 250mg of black seed (Nigella sativa) oil that was standardized for 5% thymoquinone to 65 adults with allergic rhinitis, or seasonal allergies, for 15 days.

Improvement in total nasal symptoms score (TNSS) was highly significantly better in the black seed group. TNSS measures the severity of allergy symptoms, including stuffed nose, itching and sneezing and runny nose. Scores improved by 41.5% in the black seed group, but only by 13.4% in the placebo group.

The black seed group experienced significantly greater improvement, not just in nasal symptoms, but also in eye symptoms, as measured by the total ocular symptoms score, which measures itchiness, tearing and swelling. Scores improved by 53.1% with black seed versus 26.3% with placebo.

At the beginning of the study, everyone rated their symptoms as severe or very severe. By the end of the 15 day study, 96.7% of the black seed group now rated their symptoms as moderate (48.4%), mild (33.3%), very mild (9.9%) or gone (6.1%). In the placebo group, 34.4% now said their symptoms were moderate, and 65.8% continued to experience them as severe.

Duration of symptoms also reduced significantly in the black seed group compared to the placebo group.

Overall quality of life scores improved by a significantly greater 84.2% in the black seed group versus 34.5% with placebo.

There were no clinically significant changes in vital signs, liver or kidney function, lipid and blood measures, blood sugar or urinalysis, “strongly supporting the safety” of black seed oil.

This study solidly introduces black seed oil as a safe, effective natural treatment for seasonal allergies.

Medicine (Baltimore). 2024 Aug 9;103(32):e39243.

 

Damage from Radiation Therapy? Curcumin to the Rescue!

Skin damage is a very common side effect of radiation therapy for cancer. It can badly affect quality of life, and there is no approved conventional treatment. A recent systematic review suggests that there just might be a natural one.

Radiodermatitis, or skin damage, from radiation affects up to 95% of people undergoing treatment. Damage to the skin ranges from redness to photosensitivity to excess sweating, abnormal pigmentation, threadlike patterns on the skin, hair loss, ulcers and tissue death. The skin damage can interfere with quality of life and continued treatment.

Preventing and treating skin damage is crucial, and curcumin may offer real help.

This exciting systematic review included five studies of topical and oral curcumin. Four of the five found decreased intensity of skin damage. One demonstrated that curcumin cream delays and reduces skin damage. One topical study and one oral study showed that curcumin reduces the intensity of radiodermatitis. And another showed that oral curcumin supplements reduce the side effects of radiation across a variety of cancers. The research also shows that, by reducing skin damage, curcumin improves quality of life.

This review of the research “provides substantial evidence” that curcumin “has significant beneficial effects on RD [radiodermatitis] severity.”

Avicenna J Phytomed. 2024 May-Jun;14(3):297–304.

 

Vitamins C & E for Endometriosis

Women with endometriosis experience multiple kinds of pain. Emerging research suggests that oxidative stress plays a role in endometriosis. That raises the possibility that antioxidants could help the pain.

That’s the question a new meta-analysis of 5 controlled studies asked. The answer, happily, was that over 7 times as many women reduced their chronic pelvic pain, almost twice as many reduced their painful periods and over 5 times as many reduced painful intercourse on the combination of vitamins C and E versus placebo.

PLoS One. 2024;19(5): e0301867.