Natural allergy remedies: probiotic yogurt

I caught up with a couple of friends recently, and one of the topics that came up in conversation was how excited we were for winter to be over and spring to be on its way. Winter will still be here for a little while longer in Niigata, but we got to talking about all the things we love about spring here, like flower festivals, perfect weather, and seasonal food.

We also got onto the topic of the biggest thing we hate about spring in Japan – allergies. It’s said that over one third of Japan’s population suffers from sugi-pollinosis, and it’s so prolific that this academic journal article refers to it as a national affliction.

Now, back home, if I had any seasonal allergies I’d pop down to my local chemist and grab some over the counter medication to take – and that would usually do the trick pretty quickly when it came to the runny nose, scratchy throat, itchy eyes feeling. However, what if you’re seeking a more natural route? Well, one of my friends here says her Japanese husband swears by yogurt to keep allergies at bay, and initially I thought it sounded like a wacky old wives tale. I did a bit of googling after our conversation, and found out that quite a number of sources actually say that certain types of yogurt can and do help alleviate allergy symptoms.

Looking for a new remedy for those itchy eyes and sniffly noses? Perhaps give yogurt a try!

So, which yogurt helps?

I don’t believe that it’s just any old yogurt that helps – it’s specifically related to yogurts that contain probiotic lactic acid bacteria, also referred to as LAB. This type of bacteria can be found in easily obtainable supermarket yogurts (and yogurt drinks) like Meiji’s R-1 Yogurt line. Again, I thought this was a kooky old wives tale until I did my research, and LAB yogurts helping with allergy symptoms has been backed up in scientific journal articles like this one. 

If you don’t like yogurt, the journal article also mentions that you can get the same kind of result from pharmaceutical probiotics. Maybe stock up on some of those and see if they help!

A yogurt a day keeps the allergies away -- according to scientific research, anyway!

Have you tried lactic acid bacteria yogurt as a method of managing your allergy symptoms? If so, did you find that it helped?