Allergies

[Arya Raiin]

Over the past three years, I've slowly been getting allergies. I have asthma but it's not affecting that, I just keep getting itchy eyes and hives. So, I'm not really sure what I should do. It seems to be continuing to get worse, so I guess I should go to the doctor. I'm trying to figure out what I'm allergic too, but can't figure it out. Any suggestions?

[Lynna]

awwww, you poor thing! Allergies are eeeeeeeevil!!!!!!
Maybe pollen? It is spring after all
Throughout much of my childhood, I've been allergic to foods. At one point, I was allergic to eggs and rice, a long with many other things. After the years rolled by, I was allergic to only two things :wheat and milk. After that, I slowly became allergic to nothing!!! Praise the Lord!!

[Arya Raiin]

I thought it may be food allergies. However, I don't remember eating anything unusual before it happens.

[Dante]

Allergies aren't fun, and I began to 'develop' them during my teen years as well. As far as solutions go, I think Allegra is good for the itchy eyes and the skin rashes, but talk to your doctor or at least the pharmacist. You used to have to have a prescription for the stuff, but it's now available to the general public without a prescription.

I take the Allegra, but lack itchy eyes or other symptoms it's good for, so frankly I don't know why I do it at all (other then the fact that they tell me to >_>). I mostly have a stuffy nose, which will periodically grant me strept throat, or at it's worst, cut off my ability to breath through my nose at all (really freaky to wake up to having to gasp for air through your mouth - no fun at all).

For stuffy nose, I've found that pseudophedrine works best, although your doctor will probably prescribe some kind of nasal spray. If they don't tell you a proper way to do it that involves bending over and aiming the thing in the right manner and how many days you can take it before having to stop for a short while - ask them. The first time I had those things, my doc told me nothing and so I just kept taking the nasal spray and a week later it did nothing - I figured it was just a placebo effect when in reality my body had simply 'adapted' to it and negated any effect it had in order to return to it's normal schedule of making me miserable. Even now, I leave the stuff alone. Whenever I spray it, it ends up going down the back of my throat and let me say that it doesn't have the most appealing taste in the world.

The other thing they will tell you about are nasal cleaning pots. They look like tea-pots, you fill them with distilled water and a salty mixture then essentially tilt your head to the side as you pour water up your nose... It feels exactly as it sounds - except the water doesn't come out your mouth most of the time. It's actually supposed to come out the other side of your nose (really freaky to watch), but I've had it squirt out of my eye-balls a few times as well (which was... interesting. I can't cry in most cases, but I can apparently squirt water out of my eyes if I drop some down my nose O_o). I refer to this latter technique lovingly when I do it, telling my parents, "I'm off to go water-board myself again". So, as you can imagine, this too I tend to avoid as being post-depression, I kind of avoid doing "bad things" to myself - it's not psychologically healthy.

That's why I use the psuedophed. Sure, they treat me like I'm some kind of drug dealer when I go to the counter at Walgreens and go "Is that the largest size container of the stuff you've got, don't you have like a 96 pack or something?" (because the 12 pack and the 96 pack are about a dollar or two apart out here, you seriously spend the first $10 on packaging or some crazy thing - and popping a few every few hours causes you to run through the things rather fast).

I'm also taking a long-term solution to my allergies as well. I get "shots" or immunotherapy with the hopes that one day I will never have allergies again. After turning you into a human pin-cushion, your doctor sends the data of your exact allergies in to make a serum specifically for you which they will slowly introduce your body to. For the first four-six months, they poke you twice a week and currently I'm at maintenance levels, grabbing one once a week. Don't freak out about the word "shot", it's a lie, it looks like a needle and on occasion it feels a little less then pleasant, but they only poke the top layer of the skin so it doesn't hurt nearly as bad, and they don't have to look for a vein or anything. Just poke and sit (that's the annoying part, you have to sit in the room for twice a week for 30 minutes... bring music and a book, it will be a life-saver).

Unless you have insurance though, this last option can be rather pricey. For that matter, you might just really hate needles or sitting in a room for long periods of time. So if you're looking to go natural, I've heard a lot of positive things about eating local honey. The key word is "local" here, because it has to come from your area so that all of the pollens your body is exposed to are also in the honey as well. In this manner, the honey acts as a kind of poor man's immuno-therapy, but you have to do it on a very regular basis to get any kind of positive impact from it. My father claims to have lost his by regularly drinking lemonade from lemons off our neighbors tree in the backyard as well, so... there can be other ways to handle this.

One other note is that I keep an air-filter with a HEPA filter in my room. I keep that critter reved up on full when my allergies are active and barricade myself in my room for hours on end. That sweet little box does wonders and with my door closed, I can go to sleep and by morning feel like I don't have allergies... walk outside and ten minutes later I'm reminded that that isn't the case. But in my room, it provides a small little sanctuary. The things are little pricey, but in my experience it's been well worth it, and if you're miserable with allergies it can definitely be worth the gamble (that and looking at the dust the thing coats it's carbon filters with at each recharge is remarkable - you suddenly feel like you should be walking around your house in a gas mask or something XD)

Anyways... that's my allergy experience.

[aliveinHim]

I'm so happy I don't have any allergies. A peanut allergy would kill me because I love peanut butter.

[Atria35]

Pascal has some great non-medical things there.

Another option that would kick-start your immune system? Local, organic honey. Honey is made from pollen from trees and flowers. When I moved to my new area, I realized that my allergies were a billiom times worse- because I wasn't used to the area's pollen. A teaspoon of local, organic honey for about two-three weeks cured me right up!