Goodbye itchy eyes

This article first appeared in our spring ’19 issue of MyGreenPod Magazine, The Organic Revolution, distributed with the Guardian on 31 May 2019. Click here to subscribe to our digital edition and get each issue delivered straight to your inbox

Many see hay fever as a trivial cause of irritation, but it’s a condition with no cure that, for millions of children around the UK, can cause school absence, sleepless nights, mood changes and impossible exam conditions.

Studies show that GCSE students with hay fever are 40% more likely to drop a grade between their mocks and final exams – and the figure rises to 70% if they are taking sedating antihistamines. A poll conducted by HayMax allergen barrier balms asking ‘Has your exam performance (or your child’s) ever been affected by hay fever?’ resulted in 44% replying ‘yes’.

Prevention beats cure

Everyone has a different tolerance level for pollen grains, and when it’s exceeded an allergic reaction occurs. This can result in sneezing, a blocked or runny nose, itchy, watery, streaming or swollen eyes and an itchy nose and throat. One solution is to pump your – or your child’s – body full of antihistamines or steroids; another option is to use an organic wonder balm that works on the premise that prevention is better than cure.

Trapping pollen before it gets into the body will keep the sufferer below their trigger level for longer – and HayMax organic allergen barrier balms do just that. They blend beeswax and seed oils, plus essential oils or aloe vera leaf juice extracts, to create an invisible shield; when rubbed round the rim of both nostrils and the bones of the eyes, the balms catch pollen and stop it from entering the body, helping to prevent the reaction from taking place.

‘IT WORKS!’

Max Wiseberg, MD and creator of HayMax, was a long-term hay fever sufferer who had tried most products with limited or no success. ‘A series of circumstances led me to the idea of putting something on my nose to create a barrier or a trap to stop pollen getting into my body’, he tells us. ‘I made it for myself but then I thought there must be others out there in the same boat.’

When other sufferers said ‘it works’, it gave Max the confidence to trial the product and start marketing it; in late 2004 HayMax was born. ‘It started with a simple trial and I was amazed when all the respondents who tried it in their season told me it worked’, Max remembers. ‘And they said it worked better than the pharmaceutical remedies they had been using. We exhibited at the Natural Trade Show in Brighton and won our first award – Best New (Non Food) Organic Product. I was amazed – my little idea had won an award.’

Despite rave reviews for his award-winning balm, Max was determined to get some ‘real evidence’ to underline the efficacy of his HayMax balms. He now has two successful studies from NPARU at Worcester University, the UK experts on airborne particles, and two surveys by leading allergy charity Allergy UK. In the latest, when asked if, overall, HayMax worked, 80% of respondents said ‘Yes’.