Disclaimer: I’m a Patient, not a doctor. This article is for information purpose only. I just share what has worked very well for me. Always consult your doctor before doing any kind of treatment.
It’s incredibly difficult to deal with seasonal allergies. And when left untreated they can seriously decrease the quality of your life and the life of your loved ones. It totally sucks to be diagnosed with it.
They can make you miserable, anxious, and suffer throughout the allergy season.
However, if you are less lucky like me then your allergies are so severe that the season never ends.
There is a rotation system of things you are allergic to throughout the year. Fun times. Or not.
At first my allergies started out as pretty tolerable and mild and throughout the years they developed into this monstrosity that tried to take over my life. And it successfully did just that for many years. 20+ years.
So what can you do to reduce the suffering and make yourself feel better?
Eliminate the Things You Are Allergic to From Your Life
The best solution will always be to avoid whatever it is you are allergic to. It’s the common sense you say.
It’s far far far from common practice.
Learn to avoid it. If you have to adapt and change the route you take to go to school or work, that will take 30 minutes longer to avoid trees, lawns, flowers.
Do it. It’s THAT important.
Who would want to adjust their commute to work and add another half hour to it, when you have to wake up 6 AM and go to work, and you only had 6 hours of sleep the night before? Not many of us.
And it’s a big deal.
There is no amount of medication is gonna help you considerably if you continue to expose yourself.
It can only do so much.
Do you know how serious this is?
I have an allergy to cottonwood and lilac.
One brief exposure(as little as one deep breath) makes me sick for a minimum of 2 days staying home, with runny eyes closed up, swollen, inflamed, with hives all over face and back, runny nose, headache, sneezing, wheezing and coughing, anxiety and some other symptoms.
The cost of 30 minutes added extra to your commute is so worth it.
It Can Be the Difference Between Having a Pleasant Day and a Miserable One
The choice is yours.
I understand that avoiding allergens in many cases is quite impossible to do.
For instance, I am allergic to grass, ragweed, trees, roach, dust, etc.
What can you do to avoid the allergens? You can go to Antarctica! 🙂
Or be the first test-monkey launched to Mars when the day comes.
Learn to plan everything ahead, that’s your life now. You need to control what you get in touch with at all times. Learn to Adapt.
You’ve got to try to reduce your exposure as much as possible.
It plays a crucial role in how you will feel throughout a day.
Severe allergies might stop you from doing the things you’ve always enjoyed to do. That’s why it’s so important to take care of them when you first find out about them.
There are many tips and tricks that you can use to help you with allergies.
But there are 4 sure ways that might help you change the quality of your life for better.
1) Allergy Shots or Immunotherapy (IT.)
If I could only do one thing to help me with the allergies, hands down – that would be the shots.
They confront and deal with the root of the problem in a long haul, rather than just working on reducing symptoms.
From everything I’ve tried, in my opinion – it’s the most effective treatment there is.
And I tried nearly everything. From black magic spells(not joking!) and questionable ol’grandma recipes to modern steroids and pills.
It’s amazing how much they can help. You can get control of your life back.
However you should know, they come with a price. There is an insane level of commitment to it.
The Allergy shots are the most amazing quality of life change that I made in my 30 years of life.
The Results Are Simply Astonishing
If you understand what it takes to commit to the shots and you can do it, without a doubt, do it.
What differentiates the shots from all the other ways to treat allergies is that its effect lasts for years. You may call that a cure for allergies. The real deal.
It significantly diminishes your body reaction to the things you are allergic to after a year and so. And then it gradually gets better and better after that.
That’s why It rightfully deserves to be at the top of the list.
The Allergy shots are most effective when used in addition to other ways of treating allergies. Which brings us to the second point.
2) Take Allergy Pills Every Single Day During Allergy Season
My personal favorite is Allegra.
I am not paid in any way to support or promote it. It’s just something that I’ve used for 8+ years EVERY single day and gives me the best results over any other allergy pills.
Don’t get me wrong! It doesn’t mean you should just go ahead and jump on it.
No.
The best allergy pills are the pills that work best for you.
How do you find out?
Easy.
Take them for 2 weeks at the minimum and see what results you are getting.
You need to build up the meds in your body to see how effective they are.
Most of them will have almost no effect on you unless you take them long enough every single day and as many pills as it’s said in “DIRECTIONS:” on their bottle.
The sweet spot is two weeks of taking them – that’s where the medication is built up in your body sufficient enough so it starts to fully kick in.
Read the directions of use carefully and do not exceed the daily dose!
If you are having an emergency, you have minutes until it’s too late. Don’t pop the pills like crazy hoping it will help.
Use EpiPen and Call 911 immediately!
After 2 weeks see the results and how helpful the pills are with your symptoms. If they work well, stick to them.
If you are not happy with the results, change the brand. And repeat the process for another 2 weeks.
I strongly suggest you stick with the non-drowsy ones. Try them all and see which one has the most profound effect on you.
For instance, for me, Benadryl kicks in really fast.
However, it makes me extremely drowsy.
I even had an accident where I hit a CAR riding a bike, did a front flip and flew a few yards before I hit the ground.
I learned the hard way that riding a bike being drowsy is a NO-GO. Thank god I had a helmet on, that time. It definitely saved me.
Always Go With No-drowsy Pills
The best effect is reached when I use them in addition to the Allergy shots. I take it every day and especially in the morning right before I get my shots. It helps a lot to relieve the symptoms that you get from the shots.
Like I mentioned before, I’ve been on Allegra for 8 years, every day. The biggest reason why I chose Allegra over anything else, is that they don’t seem to have any side effects.
8 years, daily – is a very long time. Not a single side effect! Pretty cool, huh!
The pills work.
Don’t be afraid! Like any other oral Antihistamines, they don’t get you addicted to them.
You don’t build up a tolerance to the pills.
However, their effectiveness DOES diminish drastically if you decide to skip a dose or two.
To get the best results, the meds have to be in your system at all times.
Make sure to take them every single day as prescribed.
3) Use a Nasal Spray
My favorite one is Flonase. Again, no affiliation. Just something that I use and found working.
It’s a steroid.
This is the medication that recently my doctor suggested I give a try to help with nasal congestion.
I notice that it works better than my pills do. At least, it’s “noticeable”. It helps to relieve the most “NASTY” symptoms.
A runny nose, sneezing, coughing, watery eyes, nose inflammation, and congestion.
The spray helps me with breathing better and feeling less miserable.
That’s a proactive medication meaning that you need to build it up in your system just like the pills for about 2 weeks to have a good effect on your symptoms.
I use Flonase 2 times per day, at 11 am and at 11 pm. I’ve been using it for about a year or so.
It’s great, it works more than any other medication I’ve tried not including the ALLERGY SHOTS(Those are simply the best!).
There is a big BUT thou!
If the Steroid Spray works even better than the allergy pills, why didn’t I rank them higher on this list, before the pills?
SIDE EFFECTS
Flonase has potential side effects.
Read the Drug description thoroughly.
I do use Flonase daily, but I reserve the use only when Allergies are in season. I don’t take it when allergies are not that severe.
So if my allergies begin to bother me in early April, that’s when I start using it. Then as soon as ragweed season ends late September, I stop using it.
In addition to that, If I get sick for any reason, I stop using this medication until I fully recover. Be that a Flu, common cold, or anything else. There is a bad interaction with infections and this drug.
DO not neglect the Side effects! It’s a big deal. In my case, the side effects were a severe headache, runny nose, dizziness, diarrhea. My friend was getting nose bleeds from it.
If your allergies are not that severe. Don’t use it. It’s not worth the risk. Go safe, go with the pills and see other options.
4) Use Antihistamine Eyedrops Daily
My absolute favorite is Zaditor (Ketotifen).
It’s just simply amazing.
It helps me a lot with eye redness, swollenness, watery eyes, irritation.
I have used over-the-counter eye drops like Visine my entire life. And I never liked them. They did relieve the redness, which is great. But in my case, the side effects were simply horrible. Dry-eye syndrome.
Extreme itching, and skin rash. No fun.
Don’t Use Cosmetic Eye Drops When You Have Severe Allergies. Always Go With Antihistamine Ones Instead.
The ones I use – Zaditor (Ketotifen) is an over-the-counter medication that you can buy anywhere without needing a prescription for it.
I get mine on Amazon.
I use the eye drops twice a day, every 12 hours. Every single day.
I am so lucky, I have no side effects from using them as well. I really hope you won’t either.
It works so well.
It takes about 10 minutes for the drug to kick in.
The main reason why I love this specific eye drops – Zaditor, is because they deal well with the most annoying symptom I have – white ropey discharge in both eyes, that looks like worms and they “float” in your eyes extremely itchy and irritating. They make everything look foggy, cloudy and out of focus.
The drops collect all that mucus in the corners of your eyes, making it easy to just use a napkin and wipe it off without further irritating your eyes.
And voila, just like that your vision is clear again!
Conclusion:
Allergies are something no one should take lightly. They directly affect the quality of your life, your mood and how well you feel every day. Not to mention a negative effect on your performance.
There are different ways to treat them.
Some have side effects, some require a high level of commitment, some take a very long time to see the results. All of them make a huge difference. Some more than others.
- AVOID allergens – the things you are allergic to. At the very least, minimize the exposure as much as possible.
- Allergy Shots(IT) – the most effective long-haul treatment. Requires a year+ to kick in, +high level of commitment.
- Take allergy pills such as Allegra every single day as directed.
- Take Nasal Spray such as Flonase during the allergy season. (Side effects: read the description carefully)
- Use Antihistamine Eye-Drops such as Zaditor(Ketotifen) every day.
Important to note.
You are having a severe allergic reaction and experiencing difficulty breathing?!
Call 911 immediately.
Don’t try to wait it out.
If you have an EpiPen(Adrenaline shot) use it.
You can have as little as 3 minutes before you have an anaphylactic shock. Make it count.
In my own experience, it took me about 15 minutes from the first symptom to appear to me passing out.
Don’t play with fire. Have an emergency strategy in place just for cases like this.
Do you have severe allergies? Let me know in the comment section down below how you deal with them and in what way do they affect your life?
