Hayfever drug alternatives?

[Bramble_killer]

Just the drugs then? I was offered a chance last year to do a sensitisation trial but decided against it. wish i had done it now as i'm suffering badly, eyes itching, throat scratchy and nose sniffling.

[janeyo]

OH took local honey (thinnk the radius is slightly bigger than a mile) last year and his heyfever was much reduced. Might have bene due to a terrible summer though. He took a spoonful each morning and within 2 weeks the symptoms has subsided. Local garden centres normally sell local honey. Or ask at the local farm shop.
Also a smear of vaselone up your nose will help to catch the pollen

[Caro]

Some people swear by applying vaseline just under each nostril. think it catches the pollen before you breathe it in

[Pumpy]

Suffered with hayfever since I was a child, had to use some nasal stuff which didn't work.

When I was about 14 I took Allereaze and it did the trick but can't get it anymore, so use some other tablets over the counter from Tesco or Boots.

Heard the honey radius was 10 miles.

I'm a bit dubious about natural remedies and really would rather trust a bloke who has studied this stuff for years under the banner of science than anyone else.
If a cure could be made from, say, honey, the drug companies would have exploited it years ago?

At the end of the day, you still have to dose yourself up, so what's the difference between a tablet and some crushed herbs?
At least the tablet has a chance of working.

It really is horrible thing to suffer from and I spent so long using things that just didn't work, maybe thats why I just choose the tablets and enjoy the summer.

[organic]

Pumpy - "If a cure could be made from, say, honey, the drug companies would have exploited it years ago?"
Tough one that - you can't patent natural remedies so there's basically naff-all incentive for the drug companies to do any research at all. They'd sooner peddle their patented drugs than anything natural.

That said - there's scant evidence to back up the local honey theory - though it does have a sound basis.
The principle is exactly the same as immunotherapy currently practiced by injecting small amounts of allergen under the skin and re-training the immune system not to react to it. Whether using honey for that purpose actually works or not is harder to say, but at least the idea behind it does.


As for remedies - the vast majority of hayfever sufferers react to grass pollen which has a short season and there's been some progress on a remedy to "cure" you of the illness. Grazax is the name that comes to mind.

I'm lucky enough to be allergic to at least one kind of pollen for every part of the season so I react all the way from early to mid spring until late summer and kinda on into early autumn (mold) too. Fun.

When I have the time to commit to it I'll be going in for immunotherapy but until then...

I use neo-clarytin, about the only anti-histamine I have any luck with... but only as a "backup".

Get yourself a bottle of Beconase (get the branded one for the first buy, then buy the big bottles of generic stuff with the same active ingredient - there's a good reason for getting Beconase first)

Most people don't have much luck with nasal spray because they don't use it properly. You need to get your head upside down and THEN spray. The problem is, even the bottles don't work like that.

Take the spray nozzle off the beconase bottle, grip the knurled part of the cap (just below the bit you'll see sticking up) and unscrew it... if too hard use a towel or pliers to get a good grip on it.
Then tuck the open end of the straw into the cap so it makes a sort of U shape rather than being straight.
Slip the bottom of the U back into the body of the bottle, screw the cap down and re-fit the nozzle.
This is why you need the Beconase one first - the straw in all the off-branded ones I've ever tried just folds when you try to bend them, the beconase one holds its circular shape and lets you bend it into place without restricting the flow - once you've got one modified beconase bottle you need never buy the branded one again and just re-fill it from the generic bottles with the same chemical in the same strength

Now the bottle will work when inverted. Sit with your head between your legs, kneel and put your head on the floor or lie on your back with your head dangling backwards to the floor. Anything to get your head upside down and then use the spray.

This gets it all the way up into your nose where it needs to be.

Using the spray upside down turned me from being the kind of chronic sufferer who shuts the windows and prays for winter to thoroughly enjoying the whole of spring, summer and I have every intention of using it the same way this year.

Tomorrow I'll be popping into the pharmacy to pick up my first batch of spray for the year, putting it into my old, empty beconase bottle I've already modified and geting to sniffing.


Anti-histamine is to control a reaction.
Eye drops are to soothe one of the effects of a reaction.
Steroidal nasal spray is really the only truly effective method of prevention (short of locking yourself up indoors and only venturing outside with a HEPA filter mask on) and if you use it properly (upside down as described above) the difference it makes is truly astounding.

I'm really not keen on sticking steroids up my nose, it certainly doesn't fit with my organic approach to things, but quite frankly I couldn't care less when it's the difference between months and months of endless itching and just a few "bad days" that are better than my best in previous years.