Coffee Fights Seasonal Allergies

Coffee 'fights allergies'
Coffee 'answers the prayers of hayfever sufferers'
Drinking a strong cup of coffee can relieve the symptoms of hayfever and prevent severe allergic reactions, claim researchers.
They said they had successfully prevented even acute allergic responses such as anaphylactic shock, which can kill.
Caffeine may be effective in chronic allergic disorders

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Why does coffee seem to help with my morning allergies?

It is magic.

When you wake up in the morning sniffling and sneezing what's actually happening is that your body is producing histamines. In people with morning allergies, you're actually responding to pollen and similar stuff that settled on you while you slept. Your body's mast cells release these histamines into your body and you experience that as sniffling, sneezing, etc.

When you drink you coffee, magic happens. Coffee reduces the release of histamine from your mast cells. It's actually the caffeine in the coffee that makes it happen. Caffeine is sometimes used to treat asthma, too, for the same reason. The body's response to caffeine is complicated, but the detail you care about is the detail you've already discovered. Caffeine makes your body slow down its histamine production, and that helps your sniffling and sneezing subside.

Bonus Information: What's a histamine, you're wondering. A histamine is a nitrogen compound your body produces as a part of its immune response. When it feels like its under attack, it sends out these histamines as its first defense. Think of histamines as your body's pawns. They cause your smooth muscles to contract and your capillaries to dilate, which slows down whatever it is that the body thinks is trying to attack it.

Double Bonus Information: What's a mast cell, you're wondering. Mast cells are a specific type of white blood cell that make up the front line soldiers in your immune response system.

Links (if you want to learn more):

Coffee Fights Allergies (from BBC News from 2000)

Immune Response

Mast Cells