Summer is just wonderful right? All the festivals, picnics and al fresco living. Well, it WOULD be wonderful if two things would stop existing.
While we can't do anything about those stingy, stripy fellas, we have got some very exciting news for anyone who suffers from hayfever.
Scientists have discovered that gin and tonic should be your go to summer beverage (if you're over 18 and drinking it responsibly, that is.)
How comes? Well, here's the science bit. Drinks like beer, cider and wine (NOOOO. NOT WINE!) contain a substance called histamine, which, as you can probs guess, is the opposite of an anti-histamine.
Histamine is the exact thing your body releases when it has an allergic reaction, so necking an ice cold cider in the beer garden could actually be making your hayfever symptoms worse.
Asthma UK says: "As well as ethanol (pure alcohol), alcoholic drinks contain a natural food chemical called histamine, which is found at particularly high levels in red wine and some beers.
"64 per cent of people with asthma say certain types of alcohol triggers their symptoms. Red wine is the main culprit, followed by white wine, beer and then cider."
Purer drinks like gin and vodka contain less histamine and therefore won't aggrevate your symptoms. Happy days.
Unfortunately it won't help keep the pollen count down, so don't bin your Clartin just yet.