I am experiencing acute onsets of hay-fever-like symptoms. Very extreme and debilitating–sneezing violently for hours at a time.
Since I have no health insurance, I am treating them with Benadryl and regular bouts of outdoor exercise.
If I take supplements to help with my immune system, will this help with allergies?
I have experimented with this, and determined that whatever sets off the sneezing fits is coming from outdoors, not indoors.
Hi, unfortunately taking supplements will not reduce the symptoms of allergies. An allergic reaction is actually a histamine reaction, in a nutshell a histamine reaction is when your body mistakes a substance for something lethal and goes on an all out multi-system response to rid you system of it, this can be fatal (peanut allergies etc). Your immune system has something to do with allergies, but supplementing it will not reduce the symptoms. What you want is an anti-histamine drug, they are available over the counter and also off-brand! (so don’t buy benadryl buy diphenhydramine HCL (sp?)) There are many to choose from, personally I like Reactine (cetirizine HCL).
Good Luck, and Hope this Helps,
M
Like Max said, Allergies like Hayfever are due to a histamine reaction, produced by basophil white blood cells.
Supplementation can help reduce allergic symptoms, if you find the side-effect of conventional anti-histamines unpleasant, this may be more useful to you:
– 1000mg – 2000mg Vitamin C per day, as Magnesium Ascorbate Powder, this reduces allergic symptoms, and helps break down histamine
– L-Methionine 1000mg per day, this breaks down histamine
Hope this helps.