My family health insurance doesn’t cover some..no make that lots, of the things that my doctor tells me I need. Yes, they cover my medication. Well, my prescription medication. Now that one of the meds I take is over the counter (and I h*have* to have it) my insurance doesn’t cover it. Nor does my family health insurance cover the pillows, filters, special vacuum, and covers that I’m supposed to use. Yowza. Let’s not even talk about alternative therapies that are reported to help allergy and asthma sufferers like yoga. No chance at all that I could get a partial payment on that. I have been told that it is theoretically possible to get a portion of chiropractic care covered, but the amount is very tiny and the amount of hassle is very huge. Kind of depressing. I mean, they are ok with drugging me but not with more natural remedies..odd.

Part of me really hopes all of these health plan reforms that are floating around will help people get better preventative cares (yeah, not a lot of preventing for allergies) and more natural options. If money were less of an object what types of allergy remedies would you want to try?

Photo Credit: Swim Parallel  http://www.flickr.com/photos/swimparallel/3174754333/

I suffer from hay fever, but I’d much rather treat my symptoms naturally than put myself through medication. I’d never realized that there were so many alternative remedies available for my allergies. But are they as effective as traditional medications?

This article had some interesting alternative treatments: http://www.hayfeverremedies.info/articles/alternative-treatments/index.php

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theogeo/3488436184/

I’ve been taking the same medication for my allergy symptoms for the last four or five years. One of the medications is not only for allergies but is also used to help prevent my allergy induced asthma. It’s fairly popular and I was told during my pregnancy that it was fine to take (about two years ago). Well recently it has been getting a lot of bad press and that has me worried. The first story out was that it was causing depression and suicidal thoughts/actions. I wasn’t worried because I hadn’t had a problem with either of these and I’ve been on the medication for ages so I thought ‘pft’ and kept on taking it. Now I’m reading reports that some women are claiming it has caused birth defects but other reports that say the rate of children with birth defects born to women taking this medication is no higher than to women who aren’t taking the medication and the FDA still has it classified as a class B drug.  ::sigh::

I guess what I’m getting at is that I’m depressed about these developments because I am trying to get pregnant again. I can hardly function without the medications but at the same time don’t want to hurt my baby. Does anyone else worry about this kind of thing or am I being totally obsessive?

Photo Credit: Robert Snache

Needle

I mentioned in another post that I’d had the allergy skin test. This was very enlightening but it was also mildly depressing because I realized that the pain and suffering weren’t all in my head (I’m a punny girl) and that I’d have to be on medications for the rest of my life just so I could have a normal life. Trust me when I say remembering to take medications daily and to buy them before I run out is not an easy thing for me to do. We won’t even get into what happens when I don’t get my meds. EEeek! This led me to asking my favorite doctor about the ‘quick fix’ of allergy shots.

He actually laughed at me. Can you believe that? He said that allergy shots were a viable option if regular medications didn’t work and if the allergies were mild. He then indicated my very acute reactions to several allergens and pointed out that my allergies weren’t mild. Then he told me how allergy shots worked. Drum roll please…. The allergy shot is custom made (apparently) and is full of the things you are allergic to. Kind of a mini dose to help you acclimate. Ewwwww. No freaking way. Not this girl. Now granted, I’m not a doctor and he could have been selling me a line so I’d buy the drugs but I don’t think so (I’m trusting like that). He also said it could take years to work. Yuck.

So, if anyone was wondering, that is why I don’t take allergy shots and instead muddle through with my short attention span and deficient memory and make sure that I have my medications every morning. Do you use medications to control your allergies or do you/ have you taken allergy shots? What helped you make your decision and are you satisfied with the results?

Photo Credit: Steven DePolo

]]> http://blog.healthtree.com/allergies/2009/05/11/allergy-shots/feed/ 0 http://blog.healthtree.com/allergies/2009/04/24/honey-a-homeopathic-allergy-remedy/ http://blog.healthtree.com/allergies/2009/04/24/honey-a-homeopathic-allergy-remedy/#comments Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:19:54 +0000 HealthTree http://blog.healthtree.com/allergies/?p=35 View Full Article]]>

Photo Credit: david.nikonvscanon

When I was younger my Granny (that is southern for grandmother) wanted to help reduce my allergy symptoms. She heard from someone that local honey was a good way to do this. As far as medicines go, honey is definitely at the top of my list. She had no trouble getting me to take my medicine every day! Honey is just about the perfect medicine. It is all natural, no nasty chemicals, inexpensive, and supports local farmers. All good things. It even seemed to work a bit when I was younger.

As an adult I’ve looked into the science behind using honey as an all natural allergy remedy. Apparently, it works kind of like an allergy shot does, except allergy shots are a lot more specific. An allergy shot introduces small amounts of a specific allergen (or several) into your system so your body can learn to react properly to them. Honey does the same thing with local pollens. So if your allergies are caused by something like tree, weed, or grass pollen the honey may work for you. The bees take the pollen to make honey and when you eat the honey you get a small exposure to the pollen.

There has to be a down side, right? Right. Nothing is all rainbows and sunshine, unfortunately. Some people may have an allergic reaction to their local honey because of that pollen content. Of course, some people have a reaction to allergy shots for the same reason. Also, honey shouldn’t be given to infants (check with your pediatrician for an exact age).  The last negative is that it doesn’t work for allergies to pets, or mold, or dust mites or any other non-pollen allergen.

Overall is it worth a shot? For me it was. It worked, sort of, for me when I was a child. Unfortunately my allergies became too severe and some of what I’m most allergic to isn’t pollen. Still….honey, mmmmmm.

Have you used honey as an allergy remedy? How did it work for you?