Around 40 percent of allergy sufferers use different alternative and natural treatments to relieve allergies. These treatments are not approved by the FDA, but are sometimes recommended by doctor and allergists. Butterbur, honey, quercetin, stinging nettle, and sodium selenite have different advantageous benefits to relieving allergy symptoms.

I tell everyone my husband is allergic to mosquitoes. Why? Because each bite swells up to about the size of a quarter and makes his health go downhill faster than you can say, well…mosquito. In addition to the normal itching the site of the bite gets painful and if he has more than one or two he’ll get cold like symptoms. We combat it by giving him a topical anti-itch cream and an antihistamine. This works pretty well.

The thing is, I did some research and I’m not sure it’s an actually allergy. Not like a bee sting allergy anyway. I don’t know for sure of course because my husband has a serious allergy to doctors and avoids them like I avoid dust mites. Really, what it is with men and doctors? Anyway, whether it is a legitimate allergy or not, it responds to allergy medication and makes him feel horrible so I suppose it should qualify. Right?  You know what makes it worse though? They love him. I mean the kind of love poets write sonnets about. They flock to him like a bear to honey, it’s the craziest thing I ever saw. We’ll both be out in the same place for the same amount of time and he’ll end up with a half dozen bites or more and I’ll have all of none.

Which brings me to my question, do any of you have allergy symptoms when bitten by a mosquito? If so are you also a mosquito magnet and have you found anyway to combat this magnetism?

Photo Credit: James Jordan

First, some anecdotal evidence. When I was a child I was around cigarette smoke a lot for various reasons. It always bothered me. Made me cough, eyes water, stuffy nose the following day, and a variety of other symptoms. When I was in my late teens I started smoking and I noticed that I didn’t have any of these symptoms when I was in a club…well as long as I smoked while I was there. This convinced me that smoking prevented my smoking allergies. Teen rationalization, right? Not according to this study which says smoking decreases the reactions of immune cells to allergens. Well for mice anyways, but the theory is it would work in humans.

Now the question you’ve got to ask yourself is….is it worth the chance of lung cancer and other cardio pulmonary disease possibilities? As a teen I was like, whatever dude bring on the party. Now I can’t believe how stupid I was. Yes, I quit smoking. Yes, I know it is overall bad for me and my asthma. Still kind of interesting, don’t you think?

Are you a smoker with allergies? Have you noticed that your allergy symptoms are reduced when you are smoking on a regular basis or did your allergy symptoms get worse when you quit smoking?

Photo Credit: Casey J

Did you know many children (and adults for that matter) with asthma and allergies are allergic to mold. Even if there isn’t an actual allergy mold can often still cause breathing difficulties. For those with a mold allergy or sensitivity even mold that you can’t see can cause problems. One of the environments most conducive to growing mold is in the bathroom. Just think about all that moist heat everywhere. When you combine that with a room that goes dark and then stays that way the majority of the time you have a mold super-farm.

There are several things you can do to make it more difficult for the mold to take hold in your bathroom. By reducing the amount of mold in your bathroom you will also reduce allergy symptoms (and asthma) brought on by bath time. Let’s start with children’s toys. My little boy has several plastic dinosaurs he likes to play with in the bathtub. You know the kind that you can squirt people with? Well recently I found out that unless you make sure to rinse them off thoroughly and get the water out of their tummies they can grow mold very easily. Because of this we always make sure to rinse, empty, and towel them off after each bath.

Another thing you can do is run an exhaust fan during and for about a half hour after bath or shower time to help remove the moisture. Leaving the lights on during this time will also help reduce mold growth. The trouble for me is remembering to go back and turn the fan and lights off.

Finally, make sure you clean showers and tubs weekly. Just because you can’t see the mold growing, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. By the time you see it, you will have been suffering from it for weeks. How do you keep mold growth down in your bathroom?

Photo Credit: Cyron

One of the interesting things to me about cat allergy symptoms is that they can happen immediately or can take hours to manifest. The other really interesting thing is that cats are one of the few things I’m not allergic to. Probably why I like cats so much. Interestingly more people are allergic to cats than dogs, which in this instance makes me the lucky one. Oh, yeah.

Back to the symptoms. The symptoms are either caused by contact with the animal or by simply breathing in the allergens when in proximity to a cat.

• Coughing – could be cause by merely being in close proximity to a cat
• Hives – this is usually when you come in contact with an animal.
• Inflammation where a cat scratches, bites, or licks you –contact reaction
• Itchy eyes –proximity reaction  
• Itchy nose –proximity reaction
• Rash – usually a contact reaction
• Red eyes – proximity reaction
• Runny nose – proximity reaction
• Sneezing – proximity reaction
• Stuffy nose – proximity reaction
• Wheezing – proximity reaction

As far as allergies go, I think this is one of the worst. Not only are you not able to be around those cute little fluff balls but the variety of reactions are horrid. I’m used to the sniffling and sneezing but breaking out in hives? Yikes!

How do you deal with your cat allergies?        

Photo Credit: Eva 101

Got allergies? You may be depressed at the same time, but one may or may not be causing the other. It’s a, “which came first; the chicken or the egg,” thing. Are my allergies causing my depression because I’m not sleeping? Or am I not sleeping (thereby causing a decrease in my immune system) because I’m depressed?

There are some interesting points on this topic in this article (Click Here).

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/quacktaculous/2758334962/

One of the things I worried about when my husband and I used to talk about having kids was that he or she would develop my allergies. I really didn’t want to put another human being through the headaches (literal and figurative) that I had suffered as a child and as an adult. I know my allergies aren’t a life threatening condition and probably most people wouldn’t have given it a second thought, but what can I say? I’m a worrier.

I’m happy to report that so far my sweet little boy doesn’t seem to have the allergies I do. However, I have noticed an increase in cute little baby sneezes lately. I know compared to babies born with life threatening food allergies his sneezes (which really are just adorable) aren’t even a teensy problem but he is my only baby and I worry. (Yes, I admit when I have other children I’ll probably worry just as much but for now I’m using the ‘I’m a first time mother’ excuse)

I think I’ve done everything I can to reduce his exposure to allergens. I breastfed him exclusively until he was a bit more than four months old, I limit his stuffed animal collection, and I make sure to wash the stuffed animals he does have along with his clothes in an allergen reducing soap.

By everything I guess I mean everything that doesn’t turn me into psycho overprotective mom. Although I have been thinking about buying a specialized vacuum cleaner and air filter…I mean air quality is important, right? And those little allergen reducing masks come in baby size…

I know…I know…I’m overreacting but dang it people, I want to protect him from ever trying to do everything! Do you go overboard trying to protect your little angel(s)…even from things like baby allergies?

Photo Credit: Mape S

During allergy season, better known as any time I am breathing, I often have random and mysterious allergy symptoms. This past weekend, for example, I suddenly had my eyelids swell to about five times their normal size. It hurt to open, close, or in any way move my eyes and it lasted all flipping weekend. It was kind of like when I have a really bad allergic reaction to dust or pollen except I didn’t get sniffly, sneezy, or have itchy/watery eyes. OR like when I’ve cried for hours except the pain was different. ::sigh::

Ultimately I have no clue what caused me to inflate like a pool floaty but it was irksome. I have hypotheses’ that range from my mascara (but I’ve been using the same brand for years) to a bad astral alignment (I really should read my horoscope more carefully). All I know for sure is that whatever allergen set off this allergy symptom need not darken my doorway again or I’ll….I’ll…be miserable again. ::sigh::

So what did I do to alleviate the allergy symptoms? Well I made sure I took my allergy meds on time (my sweet husband thought I must have missed a dose, but nope), I got plenty of sleep, I took several hot showers trying to get rid of whatever was making me crazy, and I avoided like the plague everything I know does set off a reaction (cleaning and being outside for example). Still, as mentioned above the swollen eyes lasted all weekend. I really don’t know what else I could have tried. I don’t know of any eye drops that actually reduce swelling only those that relieve itching or redness. It would be grand though if they (the powers that be) could find a way to reduce insanely swollen eyes as easily as removing the red, don’t you think?

What mystery allergy symptoms have you experienced? Did you ever figure out what set your allergy symptoms off??

Photo Credit: Look into my eyes

As mentioned in the lasts post, I’ve recently had some allergy flare-ups. While usually this is relegated to a few sneezes and some stuffiness, this past weekend included horrible headaches. Not the mildly irritating sort but the find me a vat of pain killers sort. I’m not going to go so far as calling it a migraine, but boy did it hurt.

I took my anti-inflammatory medications as recommended on the bottle but it only barely touched the pain. I finally resorted to steamy showers (repeatedly) and laying down as much as possible with a very active sixteen month old. I suppose I’ve become spoiled with my allergy medications in that I don’t experience severe symptoms as often anymore. I’m certainly not complaining about that. However, it would be nice if I didn’t have to worry about these headaches every time the pollen count reached critical mass. After all, I am in Florida. Do you know how long our growing season is? How many flowering plants we have? I swear, something is growing ten months out of the year. What’s a girl to do? Figure out some homeopathic headache remedies, of course.

· Indulge in a massage that focuses on the neck and scalp.

· Retreat to a room with minimal light.

· Soak in a warm bath or enjoy a steamy shower.

· Take a nap.

· Wet a washcloth and put it in the freezer for ten to fifteen minutes. Apply to eyes. You can add a few drops of peppermint oil to this washcloth to help relieve congestion.

Finding relief from the headache pain is going to be an ongoing search for me, especially for the next few months of intense pollination. If you have any suggestions on how to reduce the headache pain associated with allergies and sinus congestion, please share!

Photo Credit Migraine Chick

]]> http://blog.healthtree.com/allergies/2009/05/15/allergy-headaches/feed/ 0 http://blog.healthtree.com/allergies/2009/05/13/pollen-count/ http://blog.healthtree.com/allergies/2009/05/13/pollen-count/#comments Wed, 13 May 2009 15:00:01 +0000 birdievogel http://blog.healthtree.com/allergies/?p=81

This weekend I started feeling really bad. Sniffles, sneezes, headache, and in general very blah. Kind of like I use to feel before my allergy medications or how I feel right before I get sick. Hubby asked me if I’d remembered to take my medicine that morning or if I’d missed any that week. I should have been all indignant, except that I do sometimes forget and then bad things happen. At any rate, I had taken my meds on time all week so we knew that wasn’t the problem. Of course he had to toss out the Swine Flu possibility (he’s a funny one) or a more plausible cold, but I didn’t have a fever. Then he asked what the pollen count was. The what?!

That’s right, I didn’t know about pollen counts. How in the world is this possible for a girl who has lived with allergies her entire life? I know, I know. What can I say? I can be completely oblivious. I had never thought about pollen counts before. I mean I knew I got more symptomy sometimes but I just figured…well I don’t know what I figured but it wasn’t anything rational like pollen count rates. I mean really, when you feel as bad as I feel with an allergy flare up the last thing you want to do is look at data. Geesh.

Being a good little learner I asked him what that was and how to find it. He told me it was a ranking of how much pollen was in the air and that it could be found at a weather website. So off he went to look and sure enough the pollen count was high. It said something to the effect of expect to suffer because the pollen is thick enough to see. No, not really, but that was how I read it. Apparently the pollen count was very high. Mystery solved. What lesson should you take away from this kids? Always check the pollen count, of course!

Do you use the pollen count to anticipate your symptoms? How well does it work??

Photo Credit Care SMC

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