Why does my Hayfever Remedy Stop Working?

08:19.18 - Thursday 14th June 2007   (Link to This Entry)

Hayfever time is upon us once again. Roughly 15% of the population suffer from hayfever and pollen-related allergies in some form or other, ranging from itchy eye to stuffy noses. At the low end of the scale, hayfever manifests itself as an occasional sneeze, whereas severe sufferers can barely see or breathe.

Sometimes, as in my case, a hayfever remedy that works at the beginning of summer will cease being effective midway through the hayfever season. Sometimes taking a double dose will help, but more often than not the sufferer has to switch to a different medication. In a worst-case scenario, even the most expensive remedies are rendered useless.

In my case, I simply stopped taking any form of hayfever medication altogether. My reasoning was thus: You suffer from hayfever because your body is producing histamines in response to allergens in pollen, so you take an anti-histamine medication to control them. The problem can occurr if you take too much anti-histamine for your particular problem, prompting your body to produce even more histamines in response.

This can lead to a kind of histamine arms race, where the sufferer takes stronger and stronger medcation but seems to suffer worse symptoms between doses. In this instance, the solution is to take no medication at all during the hayfever season, putting up with a low-grade allergy that doesn't get any worse and eases after 2-4 weeks. In addition to this, the body can adapt to the level of medication, rendering it almost useless. Once a sufferer starts taking medication during hayfever season, however, they must continue to do so.

Over the last couple of years I have gone without hayfever medcation completely and have felt much better for it. Granted, the start of the hayfever season is always uncomfortable, but the low grade fever I experience now is far more preferable to the supreme discomfort I had in previous years, when I had tried Boot's own brand, Piriton, Clarityn and a nasal spray - all in the same hayfever season.

If you think your hayfever remedy is becoming less effective as the season progresses, it may be worth ditching it altogether next year.

Update: Dr. D's Hokey Hayfever Remedy!
Since now is the time to bandy our own natural remedies about, I would suggest fruit and veg in as near-to-natural condition as possible. Tomatoes that are still on the vine is a good one - not the piddling little things you get at Tesco, but the apple-sized ones that come in a crate at your local greengrocer's. They more earthy they smell, the better.