How To Treat And Prevent Rhinitis And Pollen Allergy

If you suffer from hay fever you already know all about the uncomfortable symptoms.

The runny nose, itchy watery eyes, the redness and the sneezing; the way it stops you from concentrating and gives you that awful lackluster feeling.

Hay fever can severely affect a person's life, making spring and summer an especially trying time and turning the changing seasons into a real ordeal.

Its proper medical name is allergic rhino conjunctivitis, though it is also known as seasonal allergic rhinitis. It is a condition linked to something called oral allergy syndrome and is the most common allergy that there is.

Occurring mostly in the spring and summer months, hay fever is believed to affect over 50 million people in the USA and more than 16 million people in the UK. Canada is estimated to have around 5 million hay fever sufferers and Australia about 3.5 million.

But clearly, in this case there is no safety - or comfort - in numbers. If you have hay fever then it's your life that is being affected and all you really want is to find a way to end the misery.

The causes of hay fever are widely known. People who suffer from hay fever have an allergic response to pollen and other airborne antigens such as fungal spores or environmental pollutants.

The symptoms are produced because of the body's over-reaction to these irritants. A healthy immune system responds to such antigens by producing histamines in order to protect itself from these foreign bodies. With the person suffering from hay fever, however, the body produces far too much antihistamine and this causes those troublesome symptoms. The blocked nose, sneezing, watery eyes and horrible stuffed-up feeling that can easily lead to headaches and wheezing.

Hay fever treatment traditionally focuses on taking anti-histamine medication designed to alleviate the symptoms. These preparations may come either in tablet form or as a nasal spray. Anti-inflammatory or anti-allergy nasal sprays and eye drops may also be used. Decongestant sprays and tablets are also available which attempt to unblock the sinuses, but these can have the unfortunate affect of actually worsening matters because of rebound blocking.

For sufferers of chronic hay fever, immunotherapy may also be available in certain areas. This consists of desensitizing the system so that it does not over-react to airborne antigens. Such therapy consists in giving tablets or injections which contain very small amounts of pollen and the amount being increased over a period of time. This process is costly and time-consuming, however, and is not available everywhere.

Fortunately, there are other ways of dealing with hay fever, and many people find these methods preferable to medication since they have absolutely no side effects.

The most effective of these are designed to lessen or prevent the pollen or other irritants from entering the body through the nose.

A very good way of reducing the amount of pollen entering the body is through the application of a cream that acts as a barrier. Applied just below the nose, these creams are designed to trap much of the pollen from entering and so reducing it to a bearable amount that does not trigger the same degree of histamine release from the body. HayMax and similar products work on this concept, with many people reporting real relief.

Another excellent way of preventing pollen from entering the body through the nose is through a disposable nasal filter. These small and discrete devices are designed to fit snugly inside the nostrils, where their fine mesh filters out any airborne antigens.

In the beginning, it takes a little getting used to, but this is small price to pay for protection against hay fever. Most people soon forget they are wearing them. These disposable filters are designed to be worn during the daytime, they really are discreet and hardly noticeable, and may also be comfortably used at night, while sleeping. Wearers report real improvement of their symptoms, with many claiming that the nasal filters have freed them to live a normal life during spring and summer. In the UK and Australia this kind of filter is sold under the name 'breathe-ezy' and in North America as 'breathecleanair', though there may be other brands available, so it's always best to check online.

If the pollen season fills you with feelings of dread, then why not try these alternative remedies? You might just be surprised to learn that your hay fever doesn't have the power to spoil things for you anymore.



DISCLAIMER: This article is provided for general information purposes only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other health care professional.


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Peter Field is a top UK hypnotherapist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Health. His self hypnosis downloads are now available. For therapy please visit Peter Field Hypnotherapists Birmingham Hypnotherapy London