Honey Cappings for hay fever?

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gythagirl	Honey Cappings for hay fever? Who keeps their cappings as an anti-hay fever remedy? I've been told that you can buy cappings for that purpose by a friend who said she gave her 2 highly-hayfevered sons cappings when they were younger and although it did nothing for one, the other has never suffered from hay fever ever since then. She and I have a colleague who suffers greatly and OH is extracting this evening so I've told him to keep some of the cappings...
Mistress Rose	I haven't heard about cappings, but some people claim that local honey is good for hay fever. The theory is that the honey contains small amounts of the pollen that cause the hay fever, so starting by taking a teaspoonful a day from early spring desensitises the hay fever sufferer. We have had some customers who sware by it.
gardening-girl	I must remember this when we extract. My hay fever hasn`t been too bad, but Barrie has suffered dreadfully this year.Can`t take any medication for it either, due to other drugs he is on.
Tavascarow	I struggle to see how wax cappings are going to be more effective than the honey. Sure the wax will also have traces of pollen but IMHO it's a bit of a fad, or some bright sparks idea to maximise profit. I was shocked at how much 'bee pollen' sells for in health food shops. I eat the flowers & avoid the middle men, far cheaper & leaves more pollen for the bees.
gythagirl	Well, I jarred some of the cappings last night along with the honey that drained from them and lumps of pollen and have given them to my colleague. She is more than happy to give it a go - on the basis that if it doesn't help it certainly won't hurt
Mistress Rose	One advantage to sticking to honey only is that the amount of pollen is very low. This will give a low level reaction and is the technique used in desensitising people who have bad reactions to certain things. Larger amounts may bring on an attack of hay fever. Tavascarow, certainly one way to deal with hay fever.
Tavascarow	I wasn't advocating hay fever sufferers should take neat pollen. It might cure them once & for all!! I was merely using it as an example of how people will pay through the nose (pun) for something that they could extract themselves for free. AFAIA pollen gathered by bees is no different than pollen gathered directly from flowers or from eating the flowers as I advocate in a nice salad. Pollen has some fantastic health benefits, some claim even cancer curing. I'm just trying to help people save a little money in these hard pressed times.
Mistress Rose	I realised that Tavascarow, and was really just making the point that for allergy sufferers very low doses, as in this case in local honey, might be better than higher doses of pollen. I know some people do take pollen as they think it keeps them well/cures things, and as it is a good source of protein and micronutrients, it might well have some benefits. I wouldn't pay a lot for it though, I would prefer to get it from the hive, in honey, or as you say, direct from the flower in a salad. What flowers do you have in salad?
Tavascarow	Peas, clovers, Day lily, lobelia, oriental salad that's run to seed, rocket, chives, nasturtium, viola. Primroses early in the season. Some of them just add a bit of colour others are sweet some are spicy. Plants for a future have some great resources for edible flowers.
sean	Wild garlic flowers are good in a salad too.
Tavascarow	Wild garlic flowers are good in a salad too.

I prefer three cornered leek or garlic mustard flowers for salads I find ransom a little strong for my tastes.
Great cooked though.

wellington womble

I've never really understood the theory. I can't see how eating pollen stops it irritating your respiratory system. And I also can't see what prevents it from being digested. I'm assuming it's protein, as it's gametes. I also think that many people are assuming flower pollen causes hayfever, which it doesn't. The whole point of flowers is to attract insects, in order to transfer pollen to another flower of the same species. So flowers hold onto to their pollen pretty tightly. So unless you are sticking your nose in them, flowers don't give you hay fever. Hayfever is caused by WIND pollinated plants, like grass and trees that don't have flowers, and thus produce huge quantities of pollen to float around in the air at nose height. So they don't attract bees, so presumabley bee pollen/honey/cappings contain little or no pollen that is actually causing an metric reaction in the first place. So even if it could survive the digestive process and desensitise your respiratory system via your digestive system, it wouldn't be the right pollen anyway.

People are forever recommending it to me, although no one who has told me how brilliant it is can think of anyone for whom it has worked. I have tried it, and noticed no difference.

Mistress Rose

I think it depends on your hay fever WW. Some people do suffer with rape flower pollen, and it would be ideal for them. Those that suffer from grass pollen may get some help as some grass pollen will get into the honey, not collected, but because there is so much about at certain times of year. It is also possible that bees collect things like yew which are very abundant, even if they do not get nectar. I have no evidence for that, but as it is early, it might be used to get the colony going.

I am not sure if there is any scientific evidence for honey being good for hay fever, but some people say it is. If you have a course of desensitisation, very small amounts of the irritant are injected, and your blood forms antigens (?) which will then mop up the irritant if it appears again, and you won't get the reaction. You would normally ingest the irritant by inhalation or through the digestive system, but that seems to work.

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