Allergies - What Medicine Works?

I recently started using Flonase and so faar so good. No weird side effects other than a nasty taste in the back of your throat if you happen to spray it too far into your nose and it drains down. I was told to take it with my normal Claritin-D (acctually I use the off brand Claritin and take an off brand suddafed, it saves you A LOT of money that way), but I forgot to take it and I was fine. Normally if I forget I am miserable and I start having asthma attacks from the pollen and such. So far I am a big fan of Flonase.


Also if you want a more natural way to handle allergies go to a farmer's market or a local health food store and buy some honey that was made locally. Then buy some bee pollen tablets. This will help build up your ammunity to the allergens in your area. (Thus the importance of buy local honey)

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Updated On: 3/30/06 at 10:30 AM

Last year I had adult-onset allergies so bad that Lynne Cheney looked like a saint next to me.

Allegra.

I now swear by it. If we use it in Iraq, there is a tiny chance that the US will come out ahead. That's how good it it is.

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They say neti-potting helps...

I also love the smell of those sprays, they smell like flowers to me too!

Doctors don't know s*** about allergies.

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It usually goes away within 10 minutes for me, but it can be a bit over powering.

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I take Zyrtec. Works fine for me.

My mom is a staunch supporter of "nasal irrigation," which basically means you use warm, salty water and this weird looking thing to rinse out the excess "junk" in your nasal cavity. It's kind of weird, but effective if you're having a lot of trouble with congestion.

http://www.sinucleanse.com/?ovchn=GGL&ovcpn=Sinus+AdGroup&ovcrn=nasal+irrigation&ovtac=PPC

This is the kind that I have. It's really weird the first time, but it is a good and all-natural relief!

I'm taking shots now, so far so good, except I really don't like needles. I find Benadryl to work very fast once you're having a reaction. I usually use Claritin if I know I'm going somewhere where I'm going to have a problem. My doctor gave me Aerius, I haven't tried it yet, but she says that is what her kids use.

Zaney-right on! I did that last year when I was really congested-that saline solution cleans out the nasal area of pollens which are in there! It helped me greatly.

Cheno-that's right. I'm sure the doctors try but allergies change constantly. what you're allergic to one day, doesn't affect you another. also, our environment and what's in the air changes from day to day. I could be in bed barely breathing because of what's flying around outside one day, and the next day, it could be like I never had an allergy.

I'm afraid that trial and error works best. We all react differently to the medications, shots and all the other remedies.

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