I've started getting it really bad for the first time this year. Sneezing fits and painful sinuses mainly.

Found Clarityn and Benadryl both do a good job of stopping the symptoms, but don't seem to last a full 24 hrs.

Does anybody else take the tablets more often than once a day? What time of day do people find it best to take them?

Thanks in advance.

take everything and only leave the house under a wet towel.

I found Beconase spray was an effective way of preventing hayfever symptoms without too many side affects. As I've got older I've found I've needed to use it less.

Touch wood, I've not been too bad so far this year. Loratadin works for me, never taken more than one a day though, take mine first thing in morning. I always wear glasses when riding. I was advised a couple of years ago to make a conscious effort to breath in through my nose when riding in hay-fever season, something to do with better filtration. I found it hard to believe this could do anything but make it worse; guess what, it does actually help!

Vet put me on Singulair last year which was **** brill. It either works totally or not at all by all accounts.

Otherwise, go & live on a beach.
😀

Loratodine again for me. Not drousy and bogof at boots.

This use to plague me, absolutely horrific when out doing anything outside. Streaming red eyes and nose so I feel your pain.

My solution was a 3 drug combo and I start it in early April before hayfever kicks in. You might be a bit late, but if you start now you should be OK.

RIght, basically, it can ruin your summer so:

1) Get to doctor ASAP
2) get a combo of decent stuff, not over the counter tat. If you've really got it, you need something good! FWIW I'm on Xyzal, Rhinocort (steroid nose spray) and Opticrom eye drops. Bascially a combo of those three elements will see you good. It is however very personal what does or does not work.
3) Get in a regime of taking them, and NEVER miss a dose, ever, until the season is out.

It's awful, it can make life extremely uncomfortable, but by doing the above early, I am totally symptom free. Wonderful!!! The not missing a dose thing is critical. I suffered so badly my first year in CH, much more so than at home, and it also affects my 5 year old horrifically (must be the fragile scottish gene's!). Wife doesn't suffer from it at all, so doesn't really 'get it'. Last year would stop giving the remedy to the boy when the symptoms went away, so of course afer a couple of days…. WHAM! We ended up in casualty as his eyes were so swollen and weapy they could not be opened. Poor wee boy!

So, find a combo, and stick with it/don;t miss a dose. I believe none of these things (esp the really effective eye drops and nose sprays) are for symptom relief, but acutally build up your resistance, so it might take a couple of days then you will be sorted.

The newer stuff also should be side effect free.

Kev

Thanks everyone I will go to the GP this week.

Thought I was immune at 37 but now I know what people were complaining about.

I seem to get it worst in the middle of the night – and wake up in fiery itchy pain and sneezing uncontrolably.

The daddy of antihistamines is called fexofenadine – I think marketed as allegra. My experience of GPs is that they won't perscribe this at first because it is expensive, so they will fob you off with bollox like clarityn. I guess you just have to go through this, prove it doesn't work and ask for something better.

I used to suffer with hay fever, but these days I just get a bad couple of weeks each summer then it goes away.

Beconase does the trick for me too

Beconase works for me, but oddly seemed to weaken my nose – I end up with nosebleeds 2-3 times a week when using it. Piriton, 24 hour tables, take them at about 18 hour periods.

If you put vasaline around your nostrils it helps, local honey helps too.

I know an anesthetist who swears that if you take an antihistamine all year round you don't get hayfever, she's been doing it for years and said that it works out about the same financial wise but without the symtoms, try healthspan, we buy our vitamins from them and as they're a Guernsey based company you save the vat, good luck.

I've heard that local honey wroks as does nettle tea got to be worth a try!

Someone here suggested A.vogel LUFFA Complex a while back. I ordered some and been symptom free so far. And I get it real bad!

Don't know you can get Zyrtec there in the UK, but probably so. It was formerly only available by prescription, but now available over the counter here in the US. I have really bad allergies and it is one product that has worked for me. Also have good luck with Astelin nasal spray.

Zirtek or Piriteze both work well for me.

Lloyds pharmacy sell a little gadget which is essentially a battery pack and two glass probes. The glass probes are inserted into the nose as far as you can comfortably then you switch it on.

Inside the probes are two special types of led which emit at a specific wavelength which in turn destroys pollen and dust in the nose.

My boy suffers BADLY from hayfever and has tried all sorts of tablets & steroids but finds that this device actually works in relieving the symptoms. I think it costs around £12, and can be re-used over & over again.

BTW, being sceptical I tried it out even though I don't suffer from hayfever. Upon removing the probes my nose literally ran like a tap ! I don't remember being congested at the time so it must do something !!!

Hope this helps

Update: Been to the doctor got prescribed some Fexofenadine, but it makes me feel a bit drowsy compared to Clarityn so I've stuck with that and the Beconnanse recommended here (great stuff!).

Reason for reviving this thread though is an unexpected benefit of being all dosed up on anti-histamines.

Despite doiung a lot of riding and a lot of gardening lately, I'm not itching from insect bites at all! In fact I only find them when I accidentally scratch them off while having a general scratch.

Amazing!

I take fexofanadine and initially found it made me feel drowsey.

As I'd tried loads of antihistamines without success, the Dr suggested taking a lower dose more often, so I'm now taking 30mg 4x a day, rather than the one 120mg tablet I was initially prescribed.

MIght try the lelectronic gizmo for my son, he gets it really bad about this time of year as well although zirtek helps quite a bit.

I get bad hayfever for about two or three weeks and then it goes, bizarre, it must be related to a very specific type of pollen. It's certainly not enough to bother doing anything about for me.

Lloyds pharmacy sell a little gadget which is essentially a battery pack and two glass probes. The glass probes are inserted into the nose as far as you can comfortably then you switch it on.

Inside the probes are two special types of led which emit at a specific wavelength which in turn destroys pollen and dust in the nose.

I assure you no LED-powered light device will destroy dust and pollen up the nose. There's some discussion as to whether the light alters the sensitivity of the cells in the nose but it seems a lot of people agree it's just a very very expensive sugar pill.

Do people really take brand name tablets like Clarityn/Piriton/Zirtek/etc? These all contain loratadine or Cetirizine – it will be much cheaper to go to the pharmacist and get generic versions of these tablets and you will generally get them in packs of 30.

If you're buying one of the over the counter remedies then look at the active ingredient and see if there's a cheaper non branded version of it – see here for more info …

I mentioned this in the other hayfever thread, but I'll say it again here (C&P)…

After over twenty years of snot-head I have finally found a cure (for symptoms): not drinking milk.

I know that my allergy is still there as I can feel a much, much smaller amount of thicker mucus in my sinuses, and my eyes still itch terribly and swell if I touch anywhere near them (so I don't); but the constant (24 hours a day) running of snot from my face has ceased. These symptoms have previously been a blight from May to August. It'll be interesting to see if how I get on when the peak season hits, but so far the signs are very positive.

By now, I would usually have been taking Cetrizine for about three weeks. It's the only thing that ever worked, but the lethergy it induces, combined with the head full of snot, virtually incapacitates me for at least two months per year (in terms of any mildly physical activities).

RE light devices:

Our expert said the study came from a credible source and was published in an internationally recognised peer reviewed journal. However, because the study was carried out outside of the pollen season, it was difficult to extrapolate the results to that scenario. He considered the method used was a limited way of mimicking the real conditions of the hay fever season, in particular because a single dose of pollen was delivered to the nose against a background of no previous pollen exposure, whereas the effect of pollen was likely to build up in a real situation, and because conjunctival exposure that occurred during a real pollen season was not recreated in the study and therefore meant any effect on eye symptoms would be difficult to interpret. He was also concerned that only high doses of pollen were administered. No information was available on the effect of the device on low or medium pollen count days. However, in general, the results of studies on other treatments for allergic rhinitis were often much more marked when disease was at its most severe, with a more limited effect in milder cases. There was also no information available on whether the effect would persist beyond 14 days whereas our expert considered that in a real scenario, for tree and grass pollen season, the device would require regular use over an extended period of four to five months. The results were also confined only to adults.

The expert said the study did show a reduction in sneezing, runny nose and eyes and itchy palate but was flawed to the extent that there was no baseline assessment, instead it was only subjective reporting of the effect of pollen on symptoms, which made it difficult to interpret whether light therapy had really altered the immune response. He was concerned that it was not clear what subjects responses to pollen were prior to intervention with the device and therefore it was difficult to compare any later change in response to pollen. He said that the study had shown that the device did not have an effect on other symptoms of hay fever, including itchy eyes, nose and throat, therefore, the claim in the ad which related to itchy eyes was not supported. He also pointed out that the study made clear that compliance with the treatment was not ideal as it was measured by diary card and interview only, relying on the honesty of the participants. Our expert said the study, like previous research, suggested that light therapy was worth further investigation but the conclusion was limited by some flaws in the methodology and by it being conducted outside of hay fever season, thereby not reflecting real-life circumstances.

We noted that our expert had raised considerable doubt in relation to the claims, raising questions about the study, such as the lack of an objective measure on which to base its findings and that its replication of real-life circumstances was limited for several reasons. These included the fact that there was no information on the effect of the device on symptoms on low or medium pollen count days or on its effect beyond 14 days. In particular, we noted the study did not show the device to be effective on "itchy eyes", as claimed in the ad. We concluded that the ad was misleading.

cranberry – surely not, asdas own in same doses etc for about 50p a pack.

Boots own-label nasal spray works for me. Find nasal sprays much more effective than tablets.

Get all my year round needs from here:

http://www.pharmacyfirst.co.uk/medicines/hayfever-allergy/cat_115.html?ccUser=cd26b79fab82fe7ac19b47506cef4b8a

Which means I don't get problems with chemists running out when all you part-timers start flooding in! 😉

Loratadine (generic) for me, every day, whatever the pollen count/forecast. Take it first thing in the morning. Keep some Benedryl to hand if it gets really bad. Plus eye drops to deal with the itchiness. (Have to try a different brand every year, can't ever remember what I used last time!).

Clarityn is £1 for 7 tablets at Tesco at the moment, is Loratadine cheaper than that unbranded?

I buy cetirizine from my local pharmacy – 30 tablets for € 5 – 6 per pack. I walk in early March and buy enough tablets to get me to the end of September, then put emergency supplies in my work bag, car, desk, and my wash bag for when I am off on my travels.

If you put vasaline around your nostrils it helps, local honey helps too.

How does honey round your nostrils help?

I've just bought 4×30 tab packs of cetirizine for £12 from boots.
Loratadide was similar price I think.
Bit cheaper than your tesco loratadine.

When I was younger I had to resort to an annual steroid injection to control my hayfever.

Now use cetirizine, taken religiously every morning and an extra dose in the evening if I'm going riding.

Living in Hampshire is significantly better than Worcester or Nottingham though. Different types of pollen or closer to the sea…

Never been offered fexofanadine. can't do eyedrops with contact lenses either…

fexofenadine, cheap beaconase copy, and eye drops. Works for me up till evening time when it cools and all the pollen comes back down again!

Zirtek transformed my summers.

As a kid I tried all sorts; literaly every hayfever/allergy thing that was available and none of it worked. Several years ago, my GP put me on Zirtek – a new offering at the time. It took a few weeks to start making a difference, but when it did, it meant I could actually GO OUTSIDE from spring through to late summer while simultaneously being able to see and breathe!!

Now, I just buy a job lot of generic Cetrizine and start taking it in late March/early April. I look forward to summer instead of dreading it.

Annoyingly I only seem to have Hayfever when I'm in the UK – go away for a few weeks in foreign climes and nothing…come back and within a couple of hours I'm blocked nose/streaming eyes and sneezing constantly.

When I can be bothered I take Piriton – one a day first thing in the morning…