Sun & Shower

Autumn is a great time of year.  Football games, post-season baseball and open windows.  I love it!  Unfortunately, there’s something in the air this time of year making me miserable.  I haven’t bothered with getting tested to find out exactly what causes it.  I just know that when the weather changes in September, I’m in for itchy eyes and sneezing until that first frost.

Sometimes I take a Claritin-D in the morning and a Benadryl in the evening but they don’t always help.  Not wanting to go on prescription allergy medicine, I turned to natural remedies and discovered rooibos tea.

Rooibos tea, sometimes called red tea, comes from the rooibos plant in South Africa.  It has a red-brown color and a slightly sweet but nutty flavor.  Like other teas, it is high in antioxidants and full of health benefits.  Rooibos is caffeine-free and has been shown to help alleviate nervous tension, allergies and indigestion. 

Having discovered this information, I had to try it for myself.  Last autumn, I drank rooibos tea nearly every day and suffered very little from my allergies.  This year, I had forgotten about it until just recently and gave it another shot.  Sure enough, I had temporary relief from my allergies.

It seems I would need to drink several cups of rooibos tea every day to keep allergies at bay.  Normally I would have no problem with this but with pregnancy, I wasn’t sure how that much tea would affect the baby.  I did some research and discovered it is generally considered safe during pregnancy.  In South Africa, they often use it to treat colic in babies.  Hopefully that means I’m getting a head start and will have some peaceful nights in my future.