A‘s pollen counts increase in parts of Australia throughout the spring and summer, as do the number of social media posts touting the benefits of locally sourced honey to ease hay fever symptoms.
On TikTok, influencers claim that raw honey is “super effective” in building immunity to hay fever or even stopping hay fever for good, while some honey sellers claim their products can help people stay “antihistamine-free.”
“This is the ultimate hay fever hack,” claimed one producer in a Facebook post.
Kira Hughes, a research scientist and site manager at Deakin University’s AIRwatch pollen-counting facility, says she has noticed an increase in misinformation about alternative treatments for hay fever, and among those “being pushed hard” is honey.
This prompted the airborne allergen researcher to take a deep dive into the science behind the claims. But first, she says it’s important to understand how hay fever develops.
What actually causes hay fever?
In Australia, the most common hay fever trigger is pollen from grasses. Also called allergic rhinitis, it occurs when particles of the irritant – which can also include dust mites, animal dander or molds – are inhaled.
If the immune system perceives these particles as harmful, it will produce immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies, says Prof Jo Douglass, a specialist physician in respiratory medicine and allergic diseases. This in turn releases chemicals, including histamine, into the blood that normally help protect against invaders such as parasites.
But an overreaction of the immune system to harmless invaders can produce too much histamine, causing sneezing, itching, red and watery eyes and other uncomfortable symptoms, says Douglass, who heads the University of Melbourne’s Medical School.
In parts of southeastern Australia, where a mixture of converging environmental factors is more likely to occur all at onceincluding high ryegrass pollen counts, pollen is swept into the air during windy thunderstorms, and the moisture in the wind combined with high wind force causes the pollen to burst into smaller pieces.
These small particles are then able to penetrate deeper past the eyes, nose and throat and into the lungs, causing more severe symptoms such as asthma, a phenomenon referred to as “thunderstorm asthma”.
Those who advocate that local honey can treat hay fever or prevent thunderstorm asthma believe that because local, unprocessed honey can contain small amounts of pollen collected by bees, consuming this honey can gradually desensitize the immune system, acting as a type of immunotherapy that allows the body to get used to the allergen over time.
But Hughes says bees are quite selective.
“In Australia, all our allergenic pollen comes from trees and grasses, which bees hardly come into contact with,” she says. Douglass adds, “Grasses are wind-pollinated, and that includes ryegrass, which is the big offender when it comes to allergies and also thunderstorm asthma.”
So it’s unlikely that any of the allergens make it into the honey, they say.
What does the evidence say about honey?
Respiratory physician and adviser to Asthma Australia, Dr John Blakey, says desensitization therapy for asthma “isn’t particularly effective”.
“No asthma guidelines say: ‘If you are allergic to grass, desensitize yourself and it will fix your asthma’. There is not the strong evidence that it is more effective than other standard treatments.”
He says such desensitization therapy should also only be done with specialist medical supervision.
Hughes says the evidence from scientific studies claiming that locally sourced honey can treat hay fever is also weak. One of the studies use honey in conjunction with the antihistamine medication loratadine, commonly sold as Claratyne. “The honey has never been tested as effective on its own,” she says.
A systematic review – a type of scientific study that examines all the research on a specific topic – found the existing research on honey and allergic rhinitis has had conflicting resultslimitations in experiment design and poor quality evidence provided.
“Overall, local honey was no better than a placebo and only a weak claim could be made that honey can be used in addition to – and not instead of – allergy medication,” says Hughes.
She does not want to see a situation where “people think that they can replace their normal medication with honey”.
Australia’s worst ever thunderstorm asthma event in 2016 caused 10 deaths, and 87% of the more than 3,500 people who presented with thunderstorm asthma had hay fever. “People can put themselves at very high risk on high pollen days, including from thunderstorm asthma, if they don’t have the right medication to take or have a plan in place because they decided to use honey instead,” she said.
“This is certainly a dangerous rhetoric spread by some of these honey companies who see it as a clever marketing strategy to convince people that antihistamines are just as effective, if not better, than medication.”
What do the experts recommend instead?
Blakey says anyone who believes their treatments are no longer working should ensure they are taking their preventative medications properly; talk to their doctor about other medicines to try; and see if their symptoms are in fact caused by an allergen.
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Melissa Davey is Guardian Australia’s medical editor. She completed a master of public health and moonlights as a fitness instructor
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Antiviral is a bi-weekly column that interrogates the evidence behind the health headlines and checks out popular wellness claims
