Mine are pretty bad this "spring", (spring evidently no longer exists in New England, for the past number of years we have jumped from winter straight to summer). Three days ago the itchy and runny eyes hit me like bus.
I went through the allergy shot regimen about 5 years ago after developing severe birch and oak allergies 3-4 years prior. They were so bad I'd ended up with allergy induced asthma and pneumonia thee years in a row. At one point a doctor literally recommended I temporally move to a place with less allergens. While my spring allergies are way better than it used to be thanks to the immunotherapy (shots), my eyes and nose continue to bother me.
I've started my morning cocktail of eyes drops and nasal sprays. I'm hoping my breathing doesn't become affected otherwise I'll have to start an oral antihistamine (and I'm prone to severe adverse reactions with many oral/systemic medications). I haven't had much luck with inhaled steroids and I'm not a fan of using them (steroids, especially inhaled), unless absolutely necessary.
I keep hearing people recommend acupuncture, including medical professionals. I'm a pharmacist myself and typically don't buy into such forms of medicine. When I was in high school I injured my back and have been in pain ever since. I used all sorts of treatments including surgery, an extensive list of medicine, physical therapy, chiropractors, etc, etc. After years I ultimately landed on yoga and acupuncture which literally turned my life around. There's some high level studies out there, a prominent one shows acupuncture can help reduce nasal allergies with high levels of success and the placebo acupuncture (needs randomly placed) was less successful at significantly lower level, but still abnormally successful. The study design also included antihistamines, which as you might imagine still worked best.
Interestingly, Claritin/Loratidine, has pretty high placebo effects too (~30% off the top of my head in their own clinical study). You wouldn't think itchy eyes and runny noses would be so prone to the placebo effect.
I went through the allergy shot regimen about 5 years ago after developing severe birch and oak allergies 3-4 years prior. They were so bad I'd ended up with allergy induced asthma and pneumonia thee years in a row. At one point a doctor literally recommended I temporally move to a place with less allergens. While my spring allergies are way better than it used to be thanks to the immunotherapy (shots), my eyes and nose continue to bother me.
I've started my morning cocktail of eyes drops and nasal sprays. I'm hoping my breathing doesn't become affected otherwise I'll have to start an oral antihistamine (and I'm prone to severe adverse reactions with many oral/systemic medications). I haven't had much luck with inhaled steroids and I'm not a fan of using them (steroids, especially inhaled), unless absolutely necessary.
I keep hearing people recommend acupuncture, including medical professionals. I'm a pharmacist myself and typically don't buy into such forms of medicine. When I was in high school I injured my back and have been in pain ever since. I used all sorts of treatments including surgery, an extensive list of medicine, physical therapy, chiropractors, etc, etc. After years I ultimately landed on yoga and acupuncture which literally turned my life around. There's some high level studies out there, a prominent one shows acupuncture can help reduce nasal allergies with high levels of success and the placebo acupuncture (needs randomly placed) was less successful at significantly lower level, but still abnormally successful. The study design also included antihistamines, which as you might imagine still worked best.
Interestingly, Claritin/Loratidine, has pretty high placebo effects too (~30% off the top of my head in their own clinical study). You wouldn't think itchy eyes and runny noses would be so prone to the placebo effect.