It appears that I am allergic to something in the air. This is a new experience for me, so I’ve never dealt with allergy medications before. And my question is–do they work? Or more precisely, which ones, if any, reduce the symptoms of allergies? Specifically–constant drainage, very productive sinuses, and sore throat.
Not looking for medical advice here, just facts about which medicines demonstrably reduce these symptoms when they are caused by allergies.
YMMV of course.
I’ve found that Claratin and it’s ilk (loratadine) do nothing for me at all, but last year I happily ran into Zyrtec, and it actually seems to work fine for my seasonal allergies.
When the pollen started, I had none, and was miserable and popping Benedryl’s until I got to the store, the past week and a half I’ve been taking one Zyrtec a day, and having no issues.
It clears up the itchy throat, runny nose, and sinus congestion for me.
Thanks, a little googling seems to show Zyrtec can work.
The same googling has started to make me think that what’s going on isn’t allergies, though. There’s no nasal irritation or eye irritation.
Dammit, do I have to go to the doctor? 
Diphenhydramine is more potent than Claritin or Zyrtec, IME, but it has stronger side effects including significant drowsiness. I’ll take it if my allergies are horrific, but if I want to be productive I’ll have keep myself well caffeinated all day.
Perhaps a decongestant might be a good idea? It should clear out your sinuses. You’ll have to ask the pharmacist to get pseudephedrine and provide ID and sign for it, but it’s worth it. Phenylephrine, the easier-to-acquire alternative, is pretty useless IME.
Claritin (loratadine) works really well for me.
Extra strength, 12 hour Claritin works wonders for my seasonal allergies. But I know that antihistamines seem to work differently for different people.
In other words, yes they work, but you might have to go through a few to find what works best for you.
YMMV of course. I tried them all and nothing helped. I’m on 3 prescription allergy medications (Allegra, Astepro and Nasonex) and they barely manage to keep me functional.
Because you might have a cold rather than allergies?
I get seasonal allergies. My nose might feel slightly irritated and my eyes have never really bothered me.
Echoing what other people have said, some allergy meds work better for some people than others. If your nose is running profusely, then a decongestant would probably be helpful as well.
I have no idea what’s wrong. It’s just been a constant relatively minor sore throat (with apparently non-swollen yet still painful lymph nodes involved AFAICT) for the past two weeks together with lots of stuff coming down out of my sinuses. I was starting to get worried, until someone menioned the allergy possibility. Then I was relieved, til I learned allergies come with nasal and eye irritation–which I don’t have. So now I don’t know what it is and I wish it would go away.
But now we’re getting into “diagnose me” territory so don’t respond to the above I guess…
There is no runny nose involved, but I take it that a sinus decongestant is different from a nasal decongestant? Or is it not?
I’m allergic to something that blooms during the first 3 weeks of March every year. It sucks. I’ve tried Zyrtec, Claritin, Allegra, and Benedryl - they help but they made me feel sleepy, weird and light-headed. This March I tried a product called Aller7 from the local health-food store. It’s herbal and didn’t cause any side effects. It got rid of the itchy eyes, constantly running nose, inner-ear itching and most of the sneezing. My nose still ran a little bit and I sneezed a few times but I can handle that much easier than the awful side effects of the medicines.
Of course, YMMV, but that herbal stuff worked for me this year.
I’ve had seasonal allergies my whole life. My symptoms include watering, itchy eyes, nasal and sinus congestion, and constant sneezing. I’m particularly allergic to pollen.
When I was young, my mother gave me Dimetapp, which contained a first-generation antihistamine (brompheniramine) as well as a decongestant (pseudoephedrine at the time).
Later I switched to Actifed, which contained another first-generation antihistamine (triprolidine) as well as pseudoephedrine. However, the pseudoephedrine raised my blood pressure, and the antihistamine made me have to urinate constantly. I used this into my 20s because my allergies were usually worse than the side effects. I even had allergy shots for 5 years, but they never seemed to do much for me.
I tried several of the newer allergy medicines in the mid-1990s (Claritin, Allegra, and Zyrtec), but they didn’t appear to be all that effective for me either.
When my son was born, he had allergies as well, and Zyrtec seemed to be very effective for him. Since we are obviously related, I decided to give this one another try. It turned out that you have to take it for a few days before seeing much of an effect. It has truly turned my life around. Along with Flonase (a prescription nasal spray), it has nearly eliminated all of my seasonal allergies with no apparent side effects.
Nope, they’re the same. Sometimes there are OTC drugs labelled as “sinus medication”, but they’re just a combination of some standard decongestant plus a painkiller for the pressure that comes with sinus congestion.
I don’t want to be too out of line, and IANAD, but what you describe sounds like the sinus infections I’ve had, which can be treated with antibiotics. But get thee to a doctor for proper diagnosis and treatments!
I’ve got what I assume are some mild allergies, since I get them every year, that sound like yours. Slightly stuffy nose (but no real irritation), sinus drainage (which causes a sore throat), no eye problems.
I’ve never taken anything for them. I don’t like Sudafed, which is the best decongestant I know of. I think you just have to try the different OTC allergy meds and see if one works for you.
I do use a neti pot, which seems to help tremendously. When I start having trouble, I tend to use it more often, which seems to fix the problem.
ETA after review: are you getting headaches or feeling pressure in your face/sinuses? lazybratsche is right, that could be an infection, which would need treatment.
I’ve never had a sinus infection, and only once had a sinus headache, but my roomie gets them all the time.
I’ve done the allergy test, and I was strongly positive for trees and grass pollens - aka hay fever. I don’t use any systemic allergy medication because they all make me incredibly sleepy (I’m susceptible to that). I use Flonase daily or semi-daily when my hay fever flares up, and it does all I need it to do - stops my runny nose and sneezing, and helps with watery, itchy eyes, and doesn’t make me sleepy. Uh, I guess that isn’t OTC, but it’s the right drug for my problem. I worry a little bit about getting dependent on it for breathing through my nose, but without it, I’m a sneezing mess - I do try to take it as seldom as I can get away with.
In my experience, diphenhydramine doesn’t do shit except make me sleepy without actually addressing my allergies.
Loratadine on the other hand knocks the shit out of my allergies. I take a 24-hour pill and it takes a while for the motor to get going, but once it does, life becomes worth living again.
Your question seems to imply that, perhaps, you don’t expect them to work. I wanted to say that where many of them don’t work, is for colds and “flus”.
There’s no reason why antihistamines, for example, should help your virally-induced sniffles. The older ones may make you feel drowsy, and that may be okay when you’re in bed with the flu, but they do squat for the cold/flu symptoms themselves.
OTOH, the ones with decongestants such as pseudophedrine, neosynephrine, xylometazoline, etc., do work for colds (and allergies).
I use a descending hierarchy (I think that’s the right term) of five different treatments for allergic rhinitis. I’ll start with the first one, and if that isn’t sufficient I’ll add the second one. If that still doesn’t work, I’ll pile on the third one, and so on. The five treatments are:
1). Nasal irrigation
2). Pseudoephedrine
3). Cetirizine
4). Oxymetazoline
5). Mometasone
Life is really good when I can get away with just the first two, and even more joyous when just the irrigation does the trick. Cetirizine (Zyrtec, OTC) makes me dopey and inattentive if I take it during the day, and makes me sleep for twelve hours if I take it at night. It can be sometimes be extremely effective though, with one tablet providing almost complete and instantaneous relief. Other times not so much, but it always does something. Oxymetazoline (Afrin, OTC) is also extremely effective, but causes horrible rebound congestion if overused. Mometasone (Nasonex, prescription) is like the Second Coming when my rhinitis gets really bad, but it’s expensive—about $100 for a 30-day supply. If it weren’t so pricey I would actually switch the orders of numbers 4 and 5 and place oxymetazoline last on the list. Schering-Plough’s patents on mometasone will expire 2014, at which time I will be doing a Snoopy-like suppertime happy dance. So bottom line is yes, OTC treatments for allergic rhinitis can be magnificently effective, YMMV, yada yada.
One thing you’ll find very frustrating with allergies is one thing works for one person and the exact same thing doesn’t work for someone else. And even worse, you may find something that works for you but then stops working.
They work, a little. My nose is always stuffy, but using Claritin or Zyrtec helps it not be so stuffed up that I can’t breathe through it. That’s about the extent of their help, though. I recall Flonase being better at it, but I haven’t taken it in a decade.
Nothing OTC or precription I’ve taken so far gets rid of all of the stuffiness, though, or improves my sense of smell. I only found out after getting over a bad cold a while back that there are things I’ve always thought of as having almost no smell that actually have fairly strong ones, like cucumbers. Within a day, though, my nose returned to its usually stuffy state and things began to not smell much, as usual. Since that supports the idea that the deficits in my sense of smell aren’t congenital, I wonder if there will ever be a med OTC or otherwise that clears my sinuses enough to allow me to always smell things properly.
That’s pretty strange. Diphenhydramine is the only one I would actually expect to work well. Are you sure you’re experiencing allergies?