Treating Hay Fever with Black Seed Oil on HWN RESEARCH

Hay fever or seasonal allergic rhinitis is the most common manifestation of atopic reactions to pollen allergens leading to uncomfortable symptoms such as itchy and watery red eyes, a stuffy nose, itchy throat and lots of sneezing. Unfortunately, these symptoms can become so extreme that it blights the summer for many of us.

There is no confirmed cure for hay fever so most sufferers use medication for symptom relief. Some of these medications have negative side effects such as drowsiness and can cause withdrawal symptoms.

Black seed oil has been utilized for its healing properties around the world for thousands of years. Today modern scientific studies have shed light on the way this powerful natural remedy affects our bodies. We know from many studies that black seed oil has modulatory effects on our immune systems up-regulating and down-regulating components.

A study looked at therapeutic efficacy of the black seed (Nigella sativa) oil as treatment approach for allergic rhinitis.

A total of 68 patients with allergic rhinitis were included in the study. 19 patients with mild symptoms, 28 patients with moderate symptoms and 21 patients were with severe symptoms of allergy. All patients were confirmed to have allergy through skin prick testing. Any individual with a negative skin test was excluded.

Patients were randomized into treatment and control groups. The treatment group received black seed oil and the control group vegetable oil. Participants were told to use the oil as nasal drops. Each individual applied 2 drops nasally (one in each nostril) 3 times a day for 6 weeks.

After the 6 weeks treatment course, 100% of the patients in the mild active group became symptom free; while in moderate active group 68.7% became symptom free and 25% were improved; while in severe active group 58.3% became symptoms free and 25% were improved. In addition, 92.1% of total patients in the active group demonstrated improvement in their symptoms or were symptoms free, while the corresponding value was 30.1% in the control group. This was a highly statistically significant result.

At the end of 6 weeks of treatment with topical use, the improvement in tolerability to allergen exposure in treatment group was 55.2% of participants, which was significant as compared with control group, which was 20% of participants.

The most improvement in symptom by treatment black seed oil was nasal drip, followed by nasal itching, sneezing, nasal congestion and improvement of sleep. The only side effect of systemic black seed oil topical treatment was reported as nasal dryness (17.8%) in the treatment group.

The authors concluded that topical application of black seed oil as nose drops are effective in the treatment of allergic rhinitis, with only minimal side effects.

Source: Ali Alhassan, HWN Africa.