It's that time of year again... (Hayfever)

Member Name: leighsady

Product:	Hayfever
Date:	08/06/08 (107 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Unless anyone thinks it looks attractive...

Disadvantages: Inflammation of nasal airways, constant sneezing, runny nose, watery itchy eyes and throat.

Hayfever
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Being affected by hay fever myself, I fully empathise with what many other sufferers will be going through year after year. June has arrived and many will have already been going through some of the torture that as many as two to three million people in Britain will be enduring when the hay fever season strikes.


What is hay fever?
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Hay fever is in essence an allergy to pollen, though this can also extend to mould spores and dust mites. In the presence of these elements, the body sees this as some kind of a threat, like a toxin, and therefore over reacts to it. I personally suffer mainly from dust mites and mould spores, though I used to be allergic to both grass and flower pollen. However, over the years, I have noticed that I started to develop some immunity to the flowers, as long as I have been exposed to them for a sufficient amount of time for my body to respond to it. I accidentally found this out when I noticed I wasn't sneezing in the presence of flowers. However, I will usually have a reaction if I go to a new place where I've never been near those flowers before. I have also had this at work where I have started a new job where they had some flowers, but after a month, I seemed fine. With the mould spores and dust mites, this is different - if I don't make sure that the area is clean it triggers asthma in me.

There are many different types of pollen, and it is important to be able to identify which types the sufferer responds to so that quick effective treatment can be found. Symptoms vary from each individual, for some it could just look as if you had a cold, to the more embarrasing severe where it could look you were going through some semi-permanent bereavement of some kind.


Symptoms
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Symptoms will usually vary with each individual, usually very similar to cold-like symptoms: sneezing, runny blocked nose, red watery itchy eyes, and throat. The general reaction is that of irritation and inflammation. With the slight degree of symptoms that I have, I would probably be classed as have mild hay fever. In addition, I think over the last few years, I have tried to adopt healthier habits and as a result, my immune system is stronger and therefore have been develop some immunity to the some of the pollens around.


Causes:
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For some reason, the body sees the pollen as some kind of toxin or threat, and therefore over reacts - the result being irritation and inflammation. Hay fever is also genetically associated, so it is also common to see several members having it in the family. With mine, only my mum, sister and I have it.


Treatment:
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Most commonly with the use of antihistamine tablets. These usually help to inhibit one of the main chemicals released during the allergic response, which in turn helps to limit the symptoms. This are so common and popular, that they are made available as an over the counter remedy, even chemist stores are making these tablets into their own brands. It used to be cheaper to go to your GP for them, but now they are so accessible that every year even Boots seem to offer them on a 'Buy One, Get One Free' basis. Some types of the anti-histamines will cause drowsiness. I used to just not take them to avoid this, but of course, I would start sneezing , so if you get affected like I do, they do now have separate non-drowsiness ones, though I'm not sure why they don't just make all of them non-drowsy. I find the cetirizine hydrochloride works best for me, I've used loratadine once before and haven't really found it effective. However, It is perhaps better to check with your GP first, and then follow from his prescription before going out to buy them yourself.

Though I do not use these myself, there are also steroid nasal sprays, usually to treat those with more severe nasal specific inflammations.

Eye drops are also very helpful, as your eyes get very dry and inflamed from the sneezing and runny nose. I always find that drinking more water helps too.


Prevention:
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I try to do as much as I can so that not only does it help the symptoms, it also means that I can try to avoid taking the tablets - though I am more of a mild sufferer so I can just about get away from it. For those who get severe symptoms, it is even more important that you try to adopt prevention measures.

If you're allergic to flower, tree/grass pollen - I'm afraid, the best advice, though not very popular, is to stay indoors. Annoying, especially with the gorgeous summer sunshine but it does help a lot, because you are actually away from your enemy. When you're indoors, it also useful to have your windows and doors shut - I hate this even more, so what is really useful is having fine close-knit net curtains. It doesn't block them completely, but at least most of it. Another thing to be aware of is when people come indoors from outside, especially those who have been down the park or somewhere woody. I have personally experienced this myself where I have been indoors and having had a whole day of calm, my brother comes in from playing football with all that pollen stuck on his clothes.... - my brother never knew he had so much power.

The weather forecasts often include pollen counts and accounts of the air quality, so if you do need to be out, at least it will help you to keep prepared. Usually, the pollen count is at it's highest around 5-7pm.

With dust mites, there's not much escape from them. I find that if I'm exposed for too long it makes my asthma worse. In some people, hay fever actually causes the start of asthma in the first place. Unless, you want to risk more damage to your lungs and airways from the sneezing, coughing and runny nose, you must try to remove as much dust from your home as possible. It is not actually the dust that people are allergic too - but the droppings from the dust mites that crawl around.
It is best to damp dust surfaces and vacuum regularly. Wash bed linen and covers at least once a week in at least 50oC. I don't try this, but apparently airing your bedclothes in the sunlight seems to have some benefit.

Mould spores - these usually appear in damp, moist and warm areas and look really scary. However, they can be easily removed by spraying mildew/mould remover - Dettol do a very good one and it dissolves them effectively, though there is a very strong smell of bleach.

However, a very good long-term solution is to build up immunity to it. With me, I find it only works with pollen, though I'm not sure with dust mites and spores.
If you can't hand around the flowers long enough, apparently eating the local honey for a few months will help, as this will of course contain some of the pollen from the local bees.


I'm hoping it's not too bad for us this year.



Thanks for reading xx





©Leighsady 2008

Summary: A manageable condition in most cases.