What to do about allergies/sore throat?

[Jerico]

I've tried zyrtec already. My bughest allergy is sore throat and some congestion (not runny nose, or watery eyes, or a throat itch plus sneezing like I get around cats. Or used to get as a kid with hay fever.) my sore throat isn't everyday or every morning. Sometimes its worse in the morning and improves during the day. I first noticed it last june and have had it on and off since.

 

I'm miserable. Any suggestions?

[Guest]

Not sure what you think of essential oils, but I have been using a topical mix of lavender, lemon and peppermint and it has worked wonders. I was the biggest skeptic of it before. Also, I make sure to include local honey in my diet, since it pollinates the very plants that affect my allergies.

[Harriet Vane]

A couple ideas.

 

I take 180mg Allegra (which is fenofexadine) daily. At the peak allergy season, I will take two per day for just a week or two. It's the only one that works well for me. It is now available OTC.

 

Also newly available OTC is Nasacort nasal spray. The advantage to the nasal spray is that it stays locally. In other words, it is not a systemic drug--it affects the tissue on which it is sprayed.

 

Whatever you do, also supplement with saline nasal spray or a netipot. This is essential as it sanitizes/cleanses the nasal passages and sinus cavities. It gets the allergens out of there, giving the irritated tissues a break.

 

Also, you can combine Nasalcrom nasal spray with any of these options. It's a very benign, very gentle drug and not very good at quelling a reaction already in process. It's something you have to commit to doing daily in order to realize its full potential.

 

Finally, I have heard Quercetin recommended for allergies. I have never used it myself, though.

[Harriet Vane]

One further note--it is much, much harder to quell an allergic response in process than to prevent one. It takes a LOT more medicine to tame it than it does to maintain. That means that now, while you are miserable, you will need to hit your system with a ton of stuff to get it to calm down. Any of the things I have suggested will take a couple days to truly have effect.

 

When I am in a full-on reaction, I do the following for 3-5 days:

 

Nasalcrom, Nasacort, Allegra--all 2x/day + I also do saline rinses 3-4 times per day.

 

When it's tamed, I would cut back to Nasalcrom + Allegra + 2x/day saline rinse

 

My normal maintenance for the season when I am not quelling a reaction is Allegra 1x/day + saline rinse 2x/day. If it's a particularly bad year I might stay on the Nasalcrom for the duration, but many years I do not use it at all.