Part One: To be free of allergy symptoms, do the numbers.

To avoid the fall pollen season symptoms, you need Arithmetic.

Allergy to Do number one

Allergy is arithmetic. It is the sum of these factors that causes symptoms:

Pollen

Getting Chilled

Extra Dust

Spices – peppers, sauces

Sneezing hard; blowing the nose hard

Exhaustion. Poor sleep

Cat exposure

Mold

Perfumed lipstick; other perfumes and odors

Room deoderizers

Nine plus one is ten

If pollen count is moderate and you don’t use perfumed lipstick, no symptoms. If you add perfumed lipstick, you sneeze.

If pollen count is very high, avoiding all the above won’t stop the sneezing.

If pollen count is low, adding dust, cat, spices – you get symptoms.

This is because hot spicy food by itself causes histamine to be released. The more the pollen, the more the histamine release. That is why you take antihistamines.

 

Allergy to Do number two:

Carry a jacket or windbreaker,

Keep warm and dry. When you have allergy, your natural body thermostat doesn’t work well. Instead of warming you when you get chilled by increasing circulation, your allergy thermostat warms you by coughing and sneezing. This does warm you up, but it  starts a cascade of all day sneezing.

 

Allergy to Do number three:

Have breakfast in bed. Your body temperature is cooled when you sleep.  Hot tea, chicken soup and food, take before you get out of bed, warms the body; then when you get out of bed you avoid the morning sneeze and hacking.

 

Allergy to Do number four:

Dust proof your bedroom. Remember arithmetic? Your dusty bedroom doesn’t bother you when you don’t have pollen allergy. But when seasonal allergy, for example Hay Fever starts, the dust, odors, sprays, and deodorizers all add to the pollen arithmetic. Therefore, even if your dusty bedroom with wall to wall carpeting, heavy drapes, and feather pillows is fine most of the time, it will add arithmetic when the pollen season starts.

 

Allergy to Do number five:

Allergy itself doesn’t cause sinus infection. But many persons get a sinus infection after weeks of seasonal allergy. Do avoid this.

With allergy the nasal cilia speed up in order to remove the pollen. Your nose drips freely. But after much rapid cilia action, the cilia get tired, the mucus thickens and cilia no longer move bacteria out of the nose and sinuses. Do get the cilia moving:

Hum “oooommm” at a low tone.

Drink lots of hot green or black tea with lemon.  These teas contain products that speed cilia, both nasal and chest. Lemon/lime thin mucus.

Drink lots of fluids, especially lemon or lime, added to your water.

Do saline irrigation with pulsed wave irrigation. The rate of frequency of the Hydro Pulse Nasal/Sinus Irrigator is at the rate designed to restore normal cilia speed and direction. This  pulse wave helps the cilia to slowly come back and then snap forward to propel bacteria out of the nose and sinuses.

 

Allergy to Do number six:

Ask you doctor for samples or discount coupons for one of the  allergy type nasal sprays, such as Astelin, Astepro or Patanase. These are more or less the allergy pill in a nasal spray form; the allergy medicine goes to your nose and not to your toes. In my experience these work better than the corticosteroid products such as Flonase.

Allergy to Do number seven:

Do follow the pollen count figures in your newspaper or on the internet. That way if your symptoms follow a specific plant or weed, you automatically make a diagnosis. For example, when Elm pollen count is highest, you have worse symptoms than when Sagebrush is highest. Then you look to see if there is an Elm tree in your backyard. You may want to plan to be beachside or vacation at Elm time. By making this diagnosis, you can help your doctor’s treatment.

When you plan your vacation, always check the internet for pollen information of your trip areas.  You may not want to vacation in Chicago if their pollen count is higher than where you live.

 

Allergy to Do number eight:

Keep bedroom windows closed. Take off your clothes/change when you come in from gardening or walking outside. Always drive with car windows shut and air conditioning on.

 

Allergy to Do number nine:

Beach areas are better because you get breeze from the ocean. Usually the higher the altitude, the less the pollen count.

 

Allergy to Do number ten:

Consider allergy desensitization – shots. Severe allergy can lead to serious chest problems and asthma. There is also sublingual therapy – where, instead of shots, you take drops by mouth.

 

Please see Part Two of How to be free of seasonal allergy by doing Arithmetic.