Questions on adult-onset allergies (hay fever)?

Finally I get to help you Darth!

There are a lot of allergy sufferers here who apparently don't understand how the body reacts to allergens.

The cells in your body have receptors for histamines. Histamines in the presence of an allergen, inform the body that there is something foreign trying to invade - usually though the nasal, throat, eye or lung mucosa.

The problem is, an allergy attack is essentially an overreaction by your body because your immune system has somehow become hypersensitive. The threat isn't nearly as life threatening as your histamine makes it out to be, and so your body gets all defensive, making you cough and sneeze, causing your eyes to water, itch, and making your nose run. All this is your bodies way of trying to flush out the allergen. In severe cases, your breathing passages will actually constrict in an effort to prevent you from breathing in any more of the allergen, and you can potentially start choking.

There are two ways to treat an allergy attack, and one is FAR better than the other. The first and best way is by taking a histamine blocker before the attack happens. The way this works is that the antihistamine drug fills (blocks) the receptor sites in the cells so that when histamine is released in the presence of an allergen, it can't bind with the cells and cause an immune system response. The downside is that you have to always have the drug in your system because you never know when you might encounter an allergen.

In the case of a drug like Benadryl, this is not so good because Benedryl is a powerful hypnotic, and makes most people drowsy or dizzy. The good news is that the newer generation of antihistamines (Claratin, Allergra, Zyrtec, Benadryl) do not readily pass the blood/brain barrier, so they have very few side effects. Zyrtec is the most rapidly absorbed of the newer drugs, but you still need to take it about an hour before it will have any effect. Claratin and Allegra take 1-2 hours to be absorbed. When allergy season hits (for me it's usually late summer) I get a months worth of Allegra (which seems to work best for me) and take one every morning before I go out. I NEVER get allergy attacks as long as I remember to take the pill. When the allergy season has passed, I stop and everything is normal again. Allegra (I believe) has the longest half-life of the three.)

The less preferred way to deal with an allergy attack is after it has started. At this point, there is nothing you can do to "un-bind" the histamine from the cell receptor sites, so you can't reverse an attack by taking an antihistamine. At best, you can try and keep it from getting worse, and treat the symptoms with corticosteroids like Flonase or Nasonex to reduce the inflammation and mediate production of histamine, however the anti-inflammatory action of these drugs is not immediate.

So you can see, the biggest obstacle to preventing allergy attacks is avoiding exposure to allergens. If this is impossible, like it is during hay fever (a misnomer) season, then the next best thing you can do is prevent the histamines from connecting with your cells by taking an anti-histamine.

Note, too, that some allergens (like cat dander) affect the body in more pronounced ways, and even taking an antihistamine can't always prevent the allergic reaction. Cat dander is so small that it gets inhaled deeply into the lungs, and because it is so sticky, it is pervasive in homes where cats are present. One would have to take antihistamines ALL the time to even be marginally protected, and this is not desirable as there will always be some histamine sites on the cells that will be unbinded by the antihistamine. I am SEVERELY allergic to cats, and have to avoid them at all costs. A few hours in a cat home and I will suffer for days after.

Another (some argue better) way to deal with allergies is by modifying the immune system itself with therapy (sometimes known as allergy shots.) This is where they will inject you with small amounts of an allergen over time in an attempt to reteach your bodies immune system to not overreact to the allergen. It is sometimes quite effective, but other times totally ineffective. As a child, I received allergy shots for years and I am dubious as to their efficacy.

One interesting thing to note is that in the 60's Benadryl was discovered to also be a serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), which led to the search for viable antidepressants, culminating in the discovery of Prozac. It makes me wonder about the correlation between depression, allergies, and SAD (seasonal affective disorder.)

Perhaps, one day, we will understand brain chemistry to such a degree that we will be able to reprogram the chemical balance in people and eliminate immune system and other chemical related problems.

Go get your prescription and be happy you're living in the age of modern medicine :-)

I come from a long line of allergy sufferers and the Nasonex and Flonase work really well. Oh and there is Astelin nose spray (it kinda burns though). They work by putting a kind of band aid if you will inside your nasal mucosa so that when you breathe in the allergen it does not penetrate. Things that are big offenders of allergies are posters in bedrooms, stuffed animals, pet dander and carpet. They make these overlays you get get for your pillowcases and mattresses that do not let the dust mites get into your bed and I have heard that those work wonders. Another thing that the allergists recommend is to use a COOL mist humidifier in your room at night. Not a warm one because the warm ones can be a big breeding ground for molds which will only make it worse. As long as you clean your filter out regularly it should work for a long time. These are just some suggestions that I have found that work for my family if you don't want to take medicines. Tile or laminate flooring (especially in your bedroom) is better because it does not attract the dust mites like carpet does.

I've had hayfever for at least the last 20 years which has steadily grown worse as I aged. About 3 years ago it was unbearable, so I went to an Allergist, who gave me the blood test. When it came back, out of 12 things tested, I only had cat hair/grasses, and some tree molds.

I asked the Dr. for something and he gave me Zyrtec, which is a great medication. Does the job with no side effects (for me anyhow.) Zyrtec is now sold OTC as

Ceterizine.

I stayed on that for a few years whenever I had the symptoms, but last Spring I tried it without any med. and I have been fine.

I use 2 natural products tho that have help I'm sure.

When I felt the stuffed up head, throat, chest, sneezing, etc., I took GSE Plus from NutriBiotic

To open my nose and throat. I did a saline wash.

Snuff up warm sea salt water into your sinuses and let drain out. I also use Xlear by Xytlitol, which is a very bland treatment, but very effective.

All it is is purified water/GSE for preservative/and Xylitol, which is a sweetener. Why does the Xylitol work?

Because it is extremely slippery and it washes out any

viruses/bacteria/and hayfever dust out of your nose/sinuses and throat.

Same thing happened to me after moving to TX where - I saw an allergist and he said "welcome to TX - everyone develops allergies here due to the dusty/dirty climate and pollution".

I tried OTC allergy meds which I started taking during the seasons that made me sneeze and that helped. I also took it if I was going to be around cats. I then tried natural approaches and one which seemed to work was using cayenne pepper, believe it or not. I like this spice anyway, so it was easy for me to start using it more. I basically put it on everything for a couple of weeks and it seemed to help the allergies. I got this info from some huge natural medicine book which I can't remember the name of, but it is a well accepted and respected source.

Nowadays, I hardly ever take allergy meds, but I attribute that to 2 things: 1) I think I just am not as allergic anymore and 2) I don't live in TX.

Good luck.

This year seems to be the worst yet. I have not seen an allergist, and the doctor can do nothing but push Claritin, which does nothing for me, and the steroid nasal sprays, which make me gag and which I refuse to put up my nose anyway. I buy an OTC sinus & allergy pill - both antihistamine (chlorpheniramine maleate) and decongestant (phenylephrine hydrochloride) and it both loosens and drys up the yucky business. It's the Meijer brand, and it works for me. If I'm really congested, running up and down the stairs will clear my sinuses - not kidding.

Pharmaceuticals tend to be a disaster for me, so I have to go other routes.

There's a relatively natural powder in the nose thing called Naseleze that's ok for me. I don't know if it's available in the U.S.

http://www.healthy-house.co.uk/products/nasaleze.p...

What's helped me the most is changing my laundry detergent to brands that don't have 'parfum' or 'fragrances' derived from petroleum. Changing shampoo and soap has helped too, and avoiding other people's perfumes (again, petroleum-derived) as much as possible.

Adult on-set allergies often have to do with the total load of toxins that our bodies carry. Think of it like a cup. All of the chemical junk we breathe, eat, and wear fills up the cup. Then pollen season starts and it overflows. We blame the pollen, but it's really the toxins.

When we lower our toxin levels, then our bodies have sufficient resources and natural things like pollen are no longer such a problem.

i have an inhaler called Proventil that i can use for extreme cases when my chest gets tight from it. My doctor also gave me Clarinex-D 24 hour. I only take the medicine once i begin to show symptoms because like you, i don't like to take medicines. I know they work better if you take them daily as preventative medicine but I just don't and i keep it under control pretty well.

I also wear a doctor's mask when i clean my room and when i go outside in my own yard after it's been mowed that day. I don't care if people see it, if it means my eyes won't swell and i'll breathe better, i'll try it. haha.

At 36 I developed allergies to dust, cats, and scotch broom. February 2006 I didn't have em, March 2006 I felt like I had a brick in my brain. For me its a claritin every day (well, a generic loratidine from Costco cause I'm a cheap bastard). I also have flonase (a nasal coritcolsteroid) that I use. I don't mind the claritin, the flonase bothers me - but when I use it I don't sneeze. I tried the generic zyrtec (in place of the loratidine) but it made me tired and didn't work for me.

I got this about 5 years ago after never having any Symptoms for my whole life...I did go to an Allergist after trying alot of OTC things...there I was given a scratch test...they make little scratches on your back and wait an hour, to see what flares up...I found out I was allergic to corn silk...dandelions, dust mites, and dirt in the air...

I got a spray medication called Nasonex...my runny nose stopped running, sneezing was gone, also watery eyes...I seem to get it from about May-Oct. and then its gone until next year..

nanosex?? you wish!!! lol

I used flonase for a while and am using claritin, the generic form. lots and lots of antihistamines, it took me years to adjust to having allergies after going through childhood with out them