OMG Allergy-Dogma!
I'm sick of it.
Every year, around this time, I suffer horrifically from allergies. I spend an hour each morning hacking up mucus, taking meds and cleaning up afterward. I spend nights struggling to sleep.
But I deal with it. I'm seeing an allergist, and we're working on ways to 'fix' me. I'm going through allergy immunization to a number of things that cause me problems. It's annoying, frustrating when I hit a stumbling block, but ... it's hope. And in the meantime, I keep trying new medicines that might help.
My gripe is with all the people at my job or otherwise in my life who suggest things they think I've somehow NOT heard about in my many years of dealing with allergies. I've had them since I was 14. They've been at this level of severity for the past 9 years. Yes, in the 15-16 odd years that I've been suffering from allergies in total, I've heard ALL of the homeopathic little 'remedies' out there, and even thought for a moment that a few of them might work. But most are bogus. The only ones I still think could work is gargling with vinegar (for the fact that the vinegar is acidic enough that it might chemically change the nature of the pollen still stuck in the throat....), and nasal irrigation - it washes the pollen (and your mucus) out of your nasal and sinus passages, thus reducing your symptoms.
The biggest homeopathic solution that I fell for, but is a huge fallacy, is the idea that raw honey can help with your allergies. Yes, they insist - a teaspoon of raw, local honey a day can help cure you of your allergies.
Yes, this can work for grass and weed allergies - I don't deny that. Bees are often at the flowering buds of different weeds and grasses, gathering pollen, and the idea behind it is similar to immunotherapy - a little of the pollen every day will desensitize your body to the allergen.
But this is spring, folks. And I'm severely allergic to TREE pollen. Tree pollen is NOT carried by bees. IS NOT CARRIED BY BEES. Let me repeat that one last time: Tree pollen IS NOT CARRIED BY BEES. Thus, tree pollen does NOT get into the honey. Thus, your springtime sniffles, sneezes and wheezes *cannot* be cured by any form of honey - raw or otherwise. Because springtime allergies are very, very rarely caused by anything other than the arboreal love-fest the trees engage in every year.
Avoiding milk does nothing but ensure that the mucus produced is thin, not thick. There's still copious amounts of it. Lemon, nice as it is to make mucus curdle, doesn't actually get rid of it, and instead leaves me wishing for sugar. Lots of sugar. Elimination diets have been tried again and again - they only let me know what new fruits and veggies I've become allergic to. They don't get rid of my allergies.
Showering twice a day may help, but it takes a long time to dry my hair (where most of the pollen ends up, so it's pointless to shower without washing the hair, if you're looking at allergies), and I really don't want to waste the time doing that when I could be RPing, cleaning, making clothes for various faires and conventions, cooking, or taking care of my hamsters. It's really a matter of priorities. I shower once a day, and I find that satisfactory. And I wash my hair then. Not any more frequently.
I wash my bedding once a week during allergy season, rather than every other week, and sometimes twice a week if my allergies are really bad. And of course, there's my lengthy morning ritual to get rid of the crap collected inside me. Yum.
And I deal with it all, with few days that I want to curl up in a corner and die. :-D And I know those days will pass and I'll be fine soon enough. And who knows? Maybe all these injections will help.
Every year, around this time, I suffer horrifically from allergies. I spend an hour each morning hacking up mucus, taking meds and cleaning up afterward. I spend nights struggling to sleep.
But I deal with it. I'm seeing an allergist, and we're working on ways to 'fix' me. I'm going through allergy immunization to a number of things that cause me problems. It's annoying, frustrating when I hit a stumbling block, but ... it's hope. And in the meantime, I keep trying new medicines that might help.
My gripe is with all the people at my job or otherwise in my life who suggest things they think I've somehow NOT heard about in my many years of dealing with allergies. I've had them since I was 14. They've been at this level of severity for the past 9 years. Yes, in the 15-16 odd years that I've been suffering from allergies in total, I've heard ALL of the homeopathic little 'remedies' out there, and even thought for a moment that a few of them might work. But most are bogus. The only ones I still think could work is gargling with vinegar (for the fact that the vinegar is acidic enough that it might chemically change the nature of the pollen still stuck in the throat....), and nasal irrigation - it washes the pollen (and your mucus) out of your nasal and sinus passages, thus reducing your symptoms.
The biggest homeopathic solution that I fell for, but is a huge fallacy, is the idea that raw honey can help with your allergies. Yes, they insist - a teaspoon of raw, local honey a day can help cure you of your allergies.
Yes, this can work for grass and weed allergies - I don't deny that. Bees are often at the flowering buds of different weeds and grasses, gathering pollen, and the idea behind it is similar to immunotherapy - a little of the pollen every day will desensitize your body to the allergen.
But this is spring, folks. And I'm severely allergic to TREE pollen. Tree pollen is NOT carried by bees. IS NOT CARRIED BY BEES. Let me repeat that one last time: Tree pollen IS NOT CARRIED BY BEES. Thus, tree pollen does NOT get into the honey. Thus, your springtime sniffles, sneezes and wheezes *cannot* be cured by any form of honey - raw or otherwise. Because springtime allergies are very, very rarely caused by anything other than the arboreal love-fest the trees engage in every year.
Avoiding milk does nothing but ensure that the mucus produced is thin, not thick. There's still copious amounts of it. Lemon, nice as it is to make mucus curdle, doesn't actually get rid of it, and instead leaves me wishing for sugar. Lots of sugar. Elimination diets have been tried again and again - they only let me know what new fruits and veggies I've become allergic to. They don't get rid of my allergies.
Showering twice a day may help, but it takes a long time to dry my hair (where most of the pollen ends up, so it's pointless to shower without washing the hair, if you're looking at allergies), and I really don't want to waste the time doing that when I could be RPing, cleaning, making clothes for various faires and conventions, cooking, or taking care of my hamsters. It's really a matter of priorities. I shower once a day, and I find that satisfactory. And I wash my hair then. Not any more frequently.
I wash my bedding once a week during allergy season, rather than every other week, and sometimes twice a week if my allergies are really bad. And of course, there's my lengthy morning ritual to get rid of the crap collected inside me. Yum.
And I deal with it all, with few days that I want to curl up in a corner and die. :-D And I know those days will pass and I'll be fine soon enough. And who knows? Maybe all these injections will help.