Hayfever

June 16, 2004 11:50 AM

I didn't get it until I was 17. Now I'm 21 and it's driving me mad. I've tried nasal spray, over the counter pills, prescription stuff, but all they offer is a day or two of respite before this goddamn hayfever comes back again, full force. My current pack of Clarityn has also (scarily) caused an unrelenting twitch in my right lower eyelid. Which I don't like. So, does anyone have any surefire, solid gold remedies for hayfever? IS this injection I've heard about any cop? And who do I have to sleep with in the UK to get it?
posted by armoured-ant to Health & Fitness (19 answers total)

I've been getting allergy immunotherapy shots for about three years, and they definitely do help, a lot. It's a serious commitment, though: once a week for two years, once a month thereafter for, like, the rest of your life.
posted by MrMoonPie at 12:12 PM on June 16, 2004

I used to get it very badly but it has not been bad as of late. The only diffrence is I changed my diet.. not for the hayfever, but hayfever improvement has been one of the side effects. Hayfever is an immune inflammation response the same type of things correlated to heart disease and other maladys. Yeah I guess you can take drugs also. Anyway, good health. Check out my sig for some diet links if interested.
posted by stbalbach at 12:42 PM on June 16, 2004

Some folks swear by eating local honey as a hayfever remedy. Can't say how well it actually works, scientifically speaking, but it's cheap and harmless to try.
posted by bradhill at 1:24 PM on June 16, 2004

I used to have pretty nasty allergies and started eating locally collected honey. The bees make the honey from what they collect in the local ecosystem and your body will start to build up an immunity to the irritants. It worked for me. I still have allergies but now they are just a minor bother as opposed to the major problem they once were.

Incidentally, I am not on Claritin but have had a twitching lower eyelid from stress (I'm waiting to hear the results from a job interview that I really really want).
posted by archimago at 1:26 PM on June 16, 2004

Carlitin does nothing for my allergies. I have to use both Allegra and a prescription nasal spray (I use Nasacort).
posted by evening at 1:52 PM on June 16, 2004

I've had good results with stinging nettle capsules. Luckily, it's been mild for me this year.
posted by O9scar at 2:01 PM on June 16, 2004

Which Claritin formulation is doing that to you? The brand name is used for both straight loratadine, and a loratadine+pseudoephedrine combo. The latter ingredient has often played haywire with my system, triggering everything from racing heart to migraine to even manic episodes. Bad juju. So I wouldn't be surprised if it causes eye twitching too. Plain loratadine has been a godsend for me, but if it's not right for you MedlinePlus's drug info database is a good way to research alternatives. One of the pages it found was this overview of options. Good luck!
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 2:03 PM on June 16, 2004

Uh, I'm not a physician, nor do I play one on TV. But it seems to me that if you're eating enough local honey to make a difference (to trigger any sort of immunological response), you're really not doing anything terribly different from desensitization treatments.

Except that there's no nurse handy on the off chance that you drop into anaphylaxis. Which would be bad.

My ex went through a desensitization treatment -- she was, no kidding, allergic to everything they had except dog dander -- and it worked very well.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:47 PM on June 16, 2004

Ant, I get the twitching eyelid from caffeine. It hasn't come back since I quit.
posted by brownpau at 2:52 PM on June 16, 2004

Do you know whether you are allergic to anything in particular? I only get hayfever for a short while each year and it only started when I was about 18 (ie when I went away from my townie home). Eventually I figured it was rape seed crops that were setting me off, and now I'm just careful about getting too close to crops/leaving windows open, etc at the couple of weeks a year when I know it will be a problem.
posted by biffa at 2:57 PM on June 16, 2004

I've had excellent results with the nasal steriods (flonase in the US).
posted by daver at 3:27 PM on June 16, 2004

Response by poster: The house I lived in from 11 to 18 had a massive rape seed field at the edge of our back yard, six metres from the house, so I doubt it's that. I live in a small city (Wakefield, West Yorkshire), so nowhere that I'd really be able to track down, specifically, what's causing it.

And brownpau, I don't take coffee, only tea my dear. And I only have cola once in a while.
posted by armoured-ant at 3:34 PM on June 16, 2004

At the risk of this becoming my standard AskMe answer...

I was chatting with a friend at the weekend & she mentioned how she no longer got hayfever since she switched from cow's milk to sheep's milk.

The Dairy Farmers of Great Britain have a contract out on me nowadays.
posted by i_cola at 4:01 PM on June 16, 2004

I developed allergies about the same time as you and just assumed it was hayfever. I tried just about every over-the-counter remedy available (including some dodgy homeopathic stuff) as well as some prescription sprays. Nothing helped. Finally earlier this year I made an appointment with a specialist to try and pinpoint exactly what the heck I was allergic to. He gave me the "pinprick" test where he pricked me with about twenty different substances. Turns out it isn't hayfever at all! Instead I'm wildly allergic to dust mites. The doctor put me on a regime of Zyrtec before bed and a puff of Nasonex in the morning. I was also told to get mattress covers and wash all the bedding in really hot water. (Our top-loading washer doesn't get hot enough so I have to boil a couple kettles of water and dump those in first.) It's made a world of difference. I don't start sneezing anymore as soon as I wake up.

So basically, yeah... Are you SURE you've got hayfever? Specialists are expensive but they're worth it, especially if you keep paying too much for medicine that isn't going to make a difference.
posted by web-goddess at 4:03 PM on June 16, 2004

I'm on Zyrtec too (it may be called Reactine where you are), and it works markedly better than Claritin for my hay fever/allergies. I supplement it with a decongestant when i need to.
posted by amberglow at 5:03 PM on June 16, 2004

I second the suggestion of stinging nettle in capsules. It's not a long-lasting pharmaceutical so you have to remember to pop two or three every couple of hours. No side effects, though, and it's a relatively cheap herb to buy.
posted by zadcat at 5:55 PM on June 16, 2004

Oh, yeah, and I'm on Zyrtec and Nasorel spray in addition to the shots, though I don't like the Nasorel because it makes my nose hurt. And Zatador eye drops. And I have mattress and pillow covers. With all of that, I don't have to limit my outdoor activities, but I guess I am pretty drugged up.

Does anyone else have that problem with Nasorel? I don't mean the lining of my nose, but the actual fleshy cartilage bulbous tip of my nose.
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:36 AM on June 17, 2004

My hair started falling out when I was about 14, and it stopped when I stopped taking Clarityn...
posted by ascullion at 2:05 PM on June 17, 2004

Living in a city is the choice for me. A couple of days per summer I have to leave for the country side and I always end up with terrible hayfever, whatever the medication. (I've also noticed that drinking a lot of beer doesn't help.)

I was on immunotherapy for three years, and it helped a lot, but then I moved to a another city and just sort of slipped away from the program. You should try it. It isn't very cheap, and it takes time and patience, but it's sure worth a try.

Btw, Zyrtec just makes me mad! I've noticed that I lose my temper much more easily when I take those, than for example Clarityn. Has anyone else had similar experiences?
posted by hoskala at 5:01 PM on June 17, 2004