Allergies. Do you have them?
5I didn't when I was a kid. I have them now. They're seasonal. I don't get the stuffy head, sneezy thing, I get the blocked eustachian tube to my right ear and it feels like it needs to pop. You know that build up of pressure? Non-stop.
The only thing I've found that works is Benedryl. Or Costco's way cheaper generic. On the bottle it says "take one to two tablets every four to six hours as needed not to exceed 12 tablets in 24 hours".
Twelve! Really? If it will stop this annoying ear thing....I'll just sleep until the season has passed, I guess.
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I never did until about age 21, then I had severe headaches anytime it was about to rain/temperature swings about to happen.
Around 30 I had severe congestion 9 months of the year and I took tylenol allergy for years which helped a bit. Suddenly at 40 and the past 2 years I've hardly had any. No stopped up /runny noses, no more burning eyes.
Don't know why, didn't change much but it just pretty much stopped one day.
@Outofmymind I'm jealous.
@lisaviolet I do wish I knew what brought it on and why it vanished almost 20 years later. I remember the first year I had allergies, it was a clear snot that just ran and ran and back then I was in excellent skinny shape. It changed to a congestion/stopped up noses, runny eyes many years later, then in 2012 after the winter( which is when I never had allergy issues ) it never came back. I would love to know why. The only thing I do different I could find is I am sleeping around with honey. Honey on my biscuts, honey on my chicken, honey on pretty much everything I can put it on. I love the stuff. Looking back, I miss the headaches the least. Those were severe can't function pinpoint pain headaches I used to get.
@Outofmymind Local honey? There's a lot of evidence that consuming local honey helps with seasonal allergies if you react to pollen. Royal jelly from local bees also helps.
@Outofmymind Clover honey always gives me headaches.
@Mavyn I've heard that but no, just store honey probably more than 50% of the time, although the few months our farmer market is open I get it there.
Thankfully, no. But the drier winter air and huge temperature swings we get this time of year mess with my sinuses. I take one of those pink pills before bed to help sleep better and snore less.
Had them my whole life. Allergy shots have done wonders. Fexofenadine (also a Costco generic) is the best meds for me, no side effects.
And just one a day
Oh goodness, yes. Seasonal allergies, which due to a slight sinus deformity (one of those things that's only visible on the inside), meant my sinuses never fully drained. I went 20 YEARS having a bacterial sinus infection every 1-2 months. As a result, I developed an allergy to all the common antibiotics. I had the sinus issue corrected a few years back and have had maybe 2 sinus infections since.
I'm also allergic to sulfites. That means no grape products, some molasses, some brown sugar (the cheap kind that isn't really brown sugar), and eating at restaurants is basically a nightmare.
Also allergic to pecans and macadamia nuts.
It's possibly fair to say....allergies have me. :/
But, I carry benadryl, and that fixes most things with 1-2 doses.
@Mavyn You have my sympathies. It is good that you don't have near the sinus problems, though.
@lisaviolet I've had 3 surgeries in my life. All of them have accomplished what was needed, but this is the only one that I DEARLY wish I could have had earlier. I first got sinus infections when I was 18...So many years spent sick.
Not allergies really, but I'm lactose intolerant and for some reason I can never eat pork because it makes me puke.
Oh, but I am allergic to Peace Lilies.
I had allergies really bad when I was a kid. A couple times, the whites of my eyes swelled up so much I couldn't see. I must have been horrific to look at. (More than usual, I mean.) I got allergy shots for many years and now my allergies aren't as bad. Of course I have no idea if the shots actually had anything to do with the improvement. My experiment didn't have a control.
I had what I thought was a cold for a couple weeks in December but after it didn't go away for so long I finally realized that it might be allergies. (I had a doctor tell me that the symptoms for the two are indistinguishable.) I started taking Loratadine every day and now I'm fine.
Yeah, no problems when I was a kid.. When I reached about 24, started to have seasonal things. I've found Allegra is the best for me, but if it's a really bad year, I'll take Claritin for a while, then switch to Allegra...
Yes. Allergic to just about anything outside. Also, nuts and shellfish and derivatives of Soy, minus soy lecithin and soybean oil. Also carrots.
Also, the strangest of all, water somewhat. Well, the chemicals in water.
I can't get in water without getting welts on my stomach/back/chest that I can only compare to bee stings but they last about 4 hours. :( Google aquagenic urticaria.
@lisaviolet I live the allergy life all day everyday. As far as the pressure goes, it might behoove you to look into an allergy medicine PLUS a decongestant. The antihistamine should stop the allergies; however, the head pop will come from the decongestant. Claritan D or my favorite Allegra-D should work. Also, I had one point where I needed to tripple-threat with Flonase, Zyrtec, and, cold-medicine or a decongestant. TLDR look into an allergy+decongestant ie: allegra-D
@connorbush @lisaviolet OR... Natural answer: I have local Raw honey, I take a spoonful every 2 to 3 days and my allergies are much better. (I haven't taken any allergy pills all summer since I started the honey) Must be local (pollen from your area mine is from 1 hour north of me) and Raw(not heated and killing off the extra stuff in the honey. It does look crystalized and it's a bit crunchy, the crunchy stuff is what you want.) Also not raw honey that they sell in the grocery store unless it's a local company, I've seen "raw" honey that still has been heated and pasteurized.
Cheaper (much!) alternative to the allergy pills with the decongestant is to go to the pharmacy and ask for Generic Sudafed. Not the new crappy kind. Then take the generic Sudafed and an allergy pill separate, much cheaper than getting them in 1 pill. I also prefer the 12 hour generic Sudafed over the smaller pills that last 4-8 hours.
@sohmageek The generic Sudafed you want is pseudoephedrine (behind the pharmacy counter), not phenylephrine.
@connorbush They haven't been to bad this year, I think the major hit our trees took helped (pine trees that had some beetle damage and had drastic trimming done to them this year). In previous years, everything around here would have a fine coat of yellow dust. Not this year.
Thanks for the advice.
Mainly just allergic to cats here, though its on about a 30 minutes delay before it really sets in. I do get random unrelated sinus issues though that come and go. Its only bad when the sinus triggers a tension headache and they meet in the middle which puts me in a world of hurt.
Every year you'll hear on the news, "This is the worst pollen season on record. " Every year! And the truth is, every year is worst than any previous.
My husband is in his 70's and I'm in my 60's. We've never had any allergies. But now, come Spring, we both get the sniffles. Nothing bad so I can't complain.
My poor allergic terrier gets itchier and itchier every year and the shots don't help her any more. Used to be that in the Fall and Winter her allergies would go away. Now they are year round.
No allergies when I was young. Around 25/26 I developed a shellfish allergy. It's bad enough that if my wife eats something I'm allergic, and I kiss her, I get hives. So, sucks for her too.
@Bogie I read that as "selfish" allergy. It's interesting getting old.
@Bogie my fiancée has a kind of similar thing – she's only mildly allergic to peanuts but also HATES the taste of them so if I eat anything peanut related I have to wait a while to kiss her. It kinda sucks because I love peanuts and peanut butter and I just want to share the joy of eating them with her.
@JonT Guess that rules out eatting peanut butter off her. Bummer
The picture depicting the thread is the foot of some poor dog who has demodex mange. Poor pup! That's some serious shit.
Luckily I've never had any kind of allergies in my entire life. I never even really grew up around anyone with allergies so I didn't really understand how they work until I met my fiancée who has pretty bad allergies and has to take Claritin or whatever every day.
I feel soooo bad for her when she has an allergy attack out of nowhere and sneezes 100 times nonstop. I'm so ridiculously thankful now that I've never had to deal with any of that, allergies suck.
Not an allergy per se, but after eating a big meal I sometimes have a sneezing attack...like 10+. It's ridiculous, Google snatiation
Ever since I was about 6 I had an allergy to cut grass, and some other similar plants. However once it was found that actifed did a good job of controlling the symptoms, I never got out of mowing the lawn again :(
Yeah, I've had them forever. Superfood smoothies with a healthy dose of tumeric and a low carb no wheat diet seems to help a lot. I'm thinking of moving to Canada so I can afford my asthma meds.
It may be worth seeing an allergist. I figured it was "my problem" for years, since I wasn't really sick. After I finally got desperate, I did a few tests with one, and identified the things that I'm most allergic to. Ultimately, I got on Flonase and it's wonderful. It's like I DON'T have allergies anymore. Looking back I had suffered a lot and unnecessarily at that.
Seeing a doc is good because he can best match the meds to your condition and individual needs. I just wish I did it 15 years ago.