Allergies: alternative to "the doctor"?

[ryst]

I haven't had bad allergie problems for the past 4 years until a recent trip to the park seemed to have affected me real bad. What I don't understand why anything has changed? I really don't eat much differently than I have previously. I still exercise. I don't get it. Could it be something in my diet? Anyway to fix this without a doctor appointment. I really don't like doctors regardless of the fact that I have health insurance. Any suggestions?

[Lee Flier]

Well sometimes people develop allergies suddenly at different periods of their lives. It could also have been something specific that you got exposed to at the park, either a kind of pollen that you're unused to, or possibly chemical pesticides/fertilizers.

 

I get periodic flare-ups of allergies, which are mostly seasonal and seem to get set off by rapid temperature change. I've had them the past couple of days in fact, due to the weather having cooled off so much after having gotten hot a few days earlier.

 

But anyway. Best thing you can do for allergies is to strengthen your immune system. Take echinacea, lots of vitamin C, eat a lot of garlic and ginger. Some people find (although I'm not one of them) that cutting out eating dairy and/or processed wheat does the trick. Usually you have to try a few different things to find out what works for you.

 

If your problem is mostly nasal congestion there's an allergy preventative called Nasacrom available over the counter. It's a nasal spray and it's REALLY great - no burning nose like the old nose sprays, and you don't have to take any antahistimines (I hate those) - the spray has no side effects.

 

Anyhow through a combination of the above I've really managed to get my allergies to a minimum. I've had fewer flare ups the past couple of years than ever before, even when the pollen is at its worst and everybody else is going nuts.

[offramp]

I've never had allergies in all of my almost 42 years; this past spring, though, I noticed that my left eye was watering a little, and if I held my nose and blew (kinda like popping your ears), my eye would gush tear fluid, and I could literally empty my tear duct until air was coming out of it.

Totally bizarre, and not a little scary, I tell you.

Turns out that, because of our drought conditions and odd weather these past couple of years or so, a certain variety of tree that we have in our neighborhood has flowered in an unusual way, and the pollen from it is causing this kind of reaction in a good number of people. Our doctor knew right away, after hearing the symptoms.

 

Wheat and diary restrictions are a definite plus. I haven't totally cut out either, but I sure don't eat much of either. I don't drink milk, but I eat some cheese every now and then.

[PBBPaul]

I use pseudoephedrine a lot. It is the only non-drowsy allergy medication I have found that works (and I have tried them all). Unfortunately because of asshole meth makers (pseudoephedrine is used as a base apparently), it's being taken off the shelves and becoming available only through pharmacies. Still no prescription necessary but inconvenient and more expensive.

[Chao]

This should be a helpful link of what to avoid.

 

You can also find decent advice here .

[Gabriel E.]

Quercetin is good.

 

If you are allergic to local flora, eat locally produced honey. The bees consume the pollen and create antibodies.

 

Honey from another area won't help.

[Lee Flier]

VERY true, forgot to mention that Gabriel! A few years ago I bought a gallon of raw wildflower honey from a local beekeeper and it has lasted ever since. I think that has a lot to do with why my allergies have really gotten better! It's gotten to be such a habit now that I forgot the original reason why I bought the honey. Thanks for the reminder!

[LiveMusic]

Just yesterday, saw a doc interviewed about allergies and he has a theory that the drastic rise in allergies is due to living too 'clean.' It's nothing new for them to say that tight building techniques have increased indoor allergy symptoms. But his was unique. That we don't work with DIRT anymore. That we used to have stronger immune systems because of microorganisms making our systems stronger. But we've removed that, being clean beings now.

[henryrobinett]

Interesting theory that I think applies to a lot of situations. For myself I use MSM. 2,000 to 4,000 mg of MSM a day keeps the sneeze and drip away.

[Lee Flier]

Yeah Duke, I think it's a whole host of things. Definitely we don't have as many "good" bacteria in our systems anymore so our immunity is weakened. Another thing is over-prescribing of antibiotics, not to mention the fact that nearly all commercially processed meat contains antibiotics that were given to the animals! So most people get antibiotics as part of our diet whether we know it or not... which is kind of scary because we're already seeing the signs of super-resistant bacteria that aren't killed off by antibiotics.

 

People's immune systems are also compromised by poor diet, air and water pollution, basically the introduction of a whole lot of stuff to the environment and diet that didn't exist 100 years ago or less. The rise of asthma and allergies in children in urban areas due to air pollution is frightening, yet nobody really mentions it... they just treat the symptoms and look the other way, even though it is hard statistical fact that the increase has been SEVERE.

[theblue1]

So many factors can play into allergic reactions.

 

You didn't say what the symptoms of the reaction are, respiratory, rash, etc...

 

You did mention a trip to the great outdoors. Besides the typical allergens that might cause respiratory problems for some people, there are also insect bites and reactions to them -- as well as the potential lingering effects of diseases like lyme disease, which has been implicated in prolonged immune system problems.

 

Another thing a lot of folks -- including, apparently, many M.D.'s -- allergic reactions often occur at "tipping points" -- allergins/toxins build until the body goes into an exagerated response which then triggers other responses and changes in the body that cause it, in a crude manner of speaking, to go into "hyper-alert" -- provoking more and more extreme reactions to what would have previously been minor, everyday "insults" to the immune system. That's how you can find yourself having what seem to be allergic reactions to foods or cosmetics, soaps, laundry detergents, etc, that you've been exposed to for years without visible reaction.

 

Unfortunately, once the immune system "learns" a response to an environmental or dietary insult, it's very hard to get it to not respond with an overagressive response, aka, an allergic reaction.

 

 

Back about 30-35 years ago I had terrible problems, including red scaly patches of eczema which would ooze protective fluids.

 

I went to doc after doc, but they just gave me various ointments.

 

It never, ever occurred once to any of these highly trained medical professionals to ask me about diet or environmental factors.

 

They didn't even ask me about soaps or detergents I used. But I noticed myself that "supermarket soaps" like Dial, Dove, etc, which are actually more like detergent than soap if you read the label provoked worse reactions from the eczema. (I eventually found that Ivory soap is the only widely available hand bar that is good, old-fashioned soap and I still use it, even though I now know how to avoid systemic reactions.)

 

 

And it took a very, very long time for me to realize that my diet might be having an effect on this rash that lasted about a year and a half. (It started after camping in a heavily wooded area in Switzerland, leading me many years later to wonder if I had picked up lyme disease or some other similar chronic immune-system impacting virus from a tick. Both my girlfriend and I had to remove ticks from our legs.

 

Long story short (oops, too late), it slowly dawned on me that my diet might be having some effect. The very first thing I tried was removing the alfalafa sprouts from the salami and cheese sandwiches I ate every day (sometimes 3 times a day). I knew some folks were allergic to alfalfa.

 

Sadly, it was the salami in my beloved sandwiches -- along with other prepared, cured meat like hot dogs, bacon, etc -- which contained copious quantities of sodium nitrite (and in those days sodium nitrate, as well) that proved to be the proximate provocation that would create these ongoing reactions.

 

When I dropped cured meat from my diet, the eczema slowly -- but surely -- went away.

 

Years later, when I was in the hospital facing reconstructive surgery after a nasty motorcycle wreck, my doctor asked me if I had any allergies.

 

He was, of course, expecting an answer like "penicillin" or "sulfa" -- but when I told him "sodium nitrite and nitrate" he looked at me quizzically. I briefly explained how I'd arrived at that knowledge.

 

This orthopedist -- whose wife was a dermatologist -- said, "I've never heard of something like that."

 

I said, well, look, we've known for many, many years that sufficient exposure to nitrites and nitrates can cause cancer -- doesn't it figure that a lesser exposure might at the very least cause an allergic reaction from the immune system?

 

"I never thought of it like that."

 

 

Ladies and gentlemen -- the medical profession in a nutshell.

 

 

[Okay... nothing I ever say is "in a nutshell." My rambling style of discourse must be an after-effect of the lyme disease -- yeah, that's it... ]

[Lee Flier]

Yeah that was pretty much my experience of the medical profession re: allergies and immunity too.

 

I do think it's gotten better nowadays - the last few times I've been to the doctor (which has been quite awhile now, come to think of it) they have been MUCH more aware of the role of diet, environment and lifestyle in overall health and immunity level. Imagine that. In fact when I told my doc, about 10 years ago, about my allergies she basically said "well you could go through a battery of tests which would be a huge pain in the neck and probably find out you're allergic to a whole bunch of things that you can't possibly avoid (like dust, mold, air pollutants etc.). Or you can get shots all the time and risk going into anaphylactic shock every time you do it. OR we can talk about ways to strengthen your immune system through diet and lifestyle, so you will be more resistant to allergies and disease in general."

 

Gee. Which one do you think I chose?

[Felix_dup1]

I had lots of allergies as a kid, got tested, had allergy shots administered, etc.

 

As an adult, I still had "sneeze fits" and sniffles often. Finally I got allergy tested today - and guess what - I wasn't allergic to anything.

 

The Dr said perhaps I had what she called "non-allergic rhiunitis (sp?)" and prescribed Astelin, a non-addictive prescription nasal spray. I administer it each morning, and voila - no more sneezes & sniffles.

 

So easy!