I have considered visiting a naturopath…I just talked to one of my Aunts today, who worked in a health food store for several years, and she gave me the name of another lady in town who has had her own health food store for 30+ years and is very knowledgeable about what she sells. I’m going to go down there before and see what she recommends. Turns out a friend of my mom’s, who has terrible food allergies (wheat, gluten, various fruits/veggies, dairy, corn :eek:), has recently started getting supplements from this lady, and evidently they have helped her enough that if she accidentally eats a reactive food, she doesn’t have to worry about having to get out her epinephrine.
Aargh, that was supposed to be a :eek:, not a 
- looks like the board got confused by the closing bracket.
Aaaaaag, it’s also supposed to be “go down there tomorrow” not “go down there before”. Who even knows where “before” came from. :smack:
Amazon-
I had your life until fairly recently. I suffered horribly and got to rush to the emergency room for adrenaline for my asthma a couple of times every winter just to keep things interesting.
I have a great allergist now and am on Allegra and Nasocort, which I use twice a day (it’s the nose spray) plus Optivar for my eyes and Advair for asthma. It’s a lot of medication but I am finally symptom free.
If you look in the paper, you may find doctors that are holding drug studies - that’s how I found my current allergist. Most of the studies are for marketing and I get meds for free, plus excellent medical care. (and paid for it.)
Good luck!
I have pretty bad allergies myself, especially dust mites. It sounds like you could fight those more aggressively. Are your mattress, pillows and box spring encased, not just hypoallergenic? Because the hypoallergenic doesn’t last, it just means they don’t contain allergens when you buy them. Also, wash sheets at least once a week. The Febreeze spray doesn’t work against dust mite allergen (at least, they don’t make that claim on the label, and if it did you’d think they would). There are sprays that do work against dust mite allergen, though. I get all my dust mite fighting gear at National Allergy Supply (can be found on Google). Avoid doing the dusty or moldy parts of cleaning yourself–finally, a bright side to this!
Also, Google “oral allergy syndrome.” This may be exacerbating your symptoms. Although I am not allergic to any foods, apparently there are cross-reactions with my pollen allergies and now that (sadly) I don’t eat bananas, citrus, strawberries and a few other things my symptoms are much better. Starting the day off with a glass of orange juice and having a banana every day with lunch pretty much guaranteed my misery.
Good luck!
Something that sounds pretty alternative is a neti pot.
I have strong seasonal allergies, and it helps me. I flush out the nasal passages morning and evening and it makes for a clearer head. It isn’t the type of thing that is fun to do in front of others, though.
You can Google and find 100 vendors who will extol the virtues.
I bought mine at Whole Foods, and the markup was less than discount plus shipping.
My sympathies.
I have only tiny tiny allergies and tiny tiny asthma. One thing that I have found helps with symptoms is drinking lots of water. I find that if my nose starts stuffing up, I start sneezing or my lungs begin to tighten, that is a signal to drink more water, usually a cup or more. Usually the nose will clear some, the sneezing will stop, and attack will be arrested.
Like I said, I only have minor problems, and this certainly isn’t a cure, but anything that can provide even some relief is good. Plus, it’s free.
Please be careful with the alternative stuff. A lot of it is plain fraud, most of it is ineffective, and nearly all of it is overpriced. (I have some unfortunate family stories I shan’t go into.)
Yep, my mattress and pillows are all encased. Every time I change the sheets I vacuum it as well.
Harriet, my food scratch tests were all negative. I am aware of the relation of some foods with common allergens; my allergist said to be careful with kiwi, bananas, apples, strawberries and tree nuts. I can so far eat them with no problems, but he said if any tingling in the mouth occurs on contact with these foods, to avoid them completely. My mom has a potentially fatal peanut allergy, so even though I can eat those, I also avoid them since I inherited many of the allergies that she has.
I went to that health food store today. The lady there was a great help - she gave me a tincture that I drop under my tongue when I’m having an bad allergy day. This morning I was very stuffy and wheezy, and after I took the tincture I cleared up considerably. Not perfect, but I could smell things again. Even my prescribed allergy meds couldn’t do that. As of tonight I’m quite a bit better than I was compared to last night.
It’s rather expensive, $16 for 1oz. But as long as it works, that doesn’t matter.