If you’re one of those people who has been plagued with sensitivity to wine, there is a reasonable chance that you have some curiosities about allergies in general. While people have suffered for centuries with allergies, the word “allergy” is only as recent as the 20^th century. It originates from the Greed words “allos” and “ergon” that mean “other” and “work” respectively. In other words, allergies are reactions that are different from those of most people.

Here’s something else you may not have known. Hippocrates, an ancient Greek of renown, was the first to introduce the process of giving small doses of those substances to which people showed reactions. The idea was that doing so would result in desensitization to those substances.

The Egyptians had some of their own allergy treatments. They often ingested onions and raw garlic for such conditions as asthma and pulmonary conditions. Interestingly enough, they often steeped the herbs in wine before taking them. Evidence also exists that they used fennel, thyme, juniper, aloe, frankincense and myrrh for various ailments.

If you had a grandma who thought that everything could be cured with hot tea and honey, her methodologies were very popular with these ancient Egyptians. Some of the hieroglyphics that have been found indicate that honey was jarred, sealed and kept for many years to use as a natural antibiotic.

Other interesting uses for herbs were also identified from ancient papyrus scrolls.

Aloe vera, a plant used currently for numerous products, was used for allergies, skin diseases and burns. Bayberry was used for ulcers and diarrhea. Garlic was fed to the Hebrew slaves in order to enhance their strength for building pyramids.

Dill was used as a laxative, caraway was used for digestion, onion was taken for cardiovascular problems, caraway was a breath freshener, parsley was used as diuretic and Persian henna (sound familiar?) was used to prevent hair loss.

These days we have much more sophisticated antihistamines for allergy treatments. And don’t forget that our Wine Sensitive is the remarkable innovation for allowing you to return to the red wine you have always loved!