Spring is here and for many (including yours truly), it means the allergy season is on. How do you cope with that? medicine, herbals, VOODOO?

If you are looking for long-term solution, let your body cope with it and in 1-2 years you will be less symptomatic and develop immunity.

What kind of allergies do you have? eye? nose? skin?

I had all three of them when I was in "middle of nowhere" USA.

Actually, my body usually does this in reverse...

The first year or two that I live someplace new, usually my allergies are either pretty low or even non-existent.

So far though (*knock wood*) this year seems to be a bit easier on me actually than last year was.


SoWhat -
I take allergy medicine that has Chlorpheniramine and Pseudoephedrine in it... the chlor stuff is antihistamine, the sudafed is decongestant. Both fairly "old" in terms of allergy treatments and they do make me quite sleepy BUT the newer stuff was not as effective for me AND gave me some really strange and wicked side effects.

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The Joys of Opticianry

This is not true

it is actually exactly the opposite.

The polen alergies, specially the grass and hazel kinds increase year after year.

the polen alergens go inside your body through your nose, mouth and eyes, your immune system feels under an infection attack and then increase the white cell and antibodies production, send them to the areas where the polen entered your body. As that is not an infection but just an alergene, the white cells and antibodies can't fight the infection, so your inmune system sends even more and more.

The result is you feel sick, in a systemic way and as most of your inmune system attention is put to those areas, other oportunistic infections and viruses your body has in latent state, can profit of this immune system disbalance and attack you, and then you get real sick but of other things.

Consult a doctor, he can give you some antihistaminics to reduce this effect or you could start a desensibilisation treatment ( since october ) so your body is prepared to the spring season next year.

That was personal experience and in my case the symptoms reduced over period without taking any medications or allergy shots. Perhaps it is different from person to person (without going into immunology details).

However, as suggested, please consult a doctor and take medications..
Since I work for pharma....helps me too.....

Well, I have had it quite a long time, and I have seen doctors in different countries I have lived in (including US) ... the anti-histamine family does not do anything other than make me sleepy, sprays raise my heart rate and other stuff practically do nothing ... I am doomed, aren't I?

I've tried lots of different antihistamines and the only one that really works for me is zyrtec...

I inhale* water.

*insufflate?

I second, third, and fourth this. Zyrtec is the only thing that works for my sister and her boyfriend who are pretty much allergic to everything. And I have used it too for hayfever and sneezing, and it was great. It is rather expensive, but worth every penny.

In case you are wondering, zyrtec is in the antihistamine family.

Anti-histamines and cortisone nasal spray ever day during pollen season. That usually keeps the allergy under control. The trick is to never let it manifest itself.

I almost forgot:

One of the things that has helped me with my hay fever type allergies actually is cutting down or eliminating eating foods that are somehow chemically linked.

For example, I am very allergic to Ragweed which studies have shown to be somehow linked to sensitivity to eating certain things like cantaloupe (and other melons), cucumber, zucchini and bananas.

Funnily enough, if I eat cooked zucchini and bananas or eat raw bananas before they're perfectly ripe (tips still a tad green) and add a little salt to cucumber or melons, the issues are decreased... avoiding them almost entirely seems to lessen the issues I have with hay fever as well though.


Of course, a trip to an allergist will help you sort things out a lot better but in the meantime, perhaps the information from the link will help lessen your misery a tad.

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The Joys of Opticianry