Allergy: Are you a quick fix person or would you get to the root of the problem?

When you are actually having an allergy attack you need to take something for it immediately or it will just get worse. I speak from experience. Tracking down the source is something you do in your spare time. I have had "allergy" problems since 1980 and they just kept getting worse. Both in severity and the number of things that were causing the reactions. The doctors just kept saying "you have allergies" and writing prescriptions. I finally heard about salicylate sensitivity and amazingly all of the items that were causing me problems were "high" in salicylates. I removed as many as possible and my problems got better and my attacks were less frequent. However, my doctor had never heard of "salicylate sensitivity"; I had to educate HIM. But, he could not argue with the results. I still take an occasional OTC antihistamine for an actual attack or as a prophylactic if I know I will be in a situation where I cannot avoid them. The real problem is that people here in the US do not even know what salicylates are (including medical profesionals). Even when I specifically ask; I am still prescribed meds (I injured my arm in Dec) that cause reactions and even when I ask the pharmacist; I get told they are safe; because, the pharmacist does not really understand everything that contains them. If I ever have to be admitted to the hospital; they will probably kill me without ever realizing why.

I tend towards both at the same time. I have seasonal and environmental allergies. They have gotten much worse since I started taking medications for my asthma. I need to restart doing my nasal rinse. That helped a great deal last year. But I am taking Cleritin and Benadryl, only in this season of shedding cats, pollinating flowers and dust they aren't helping like they did over the winter. I would like to find a way to keep it from happening but in the mean time I treat the symptoms.

I have been suffering from allergies since early childhood. I had the test and was found to have intense allergic reaction to dust mite. I keep the house clean as best as I can and do not use items that collect dust. It is impossible to be completely dust-free, though. So I just take over the counter antihistamines for relief. I used to be asleep most of the time or walking around like a zombie. I'm so glad most antihistamines are not causing drowsiness.