Allergies : (

I'm filing a complaint with nature:
Why, oh WHY do ragweed allergies have to muddle my harvesting every year? verreaction:

Pick a cucumber, sneeze, pick another, sneeze, pick a tomato, sneeze, and another sneeze. I don't DARE go out to do the harvesting without hitting the outhouse first (I've had 5 children ).

I'm taking a break and sitting with a cup of tea. Of course I had a sneezing fit while trying to hold the full cup. I really need a bib to go with this apron. :shock:

I know a lot of people are suffering right now from the ragweed, Miss M included. You all have my sympathy.

When I have sinus congestion, I put a couple of drops of oil of peppermint on a tissue and inhale it. It does wonders for me. It's usually the spring pollen from trees that bothers me, but perhaps the oil of peppermint will work for ragweed allergies too.

I've got some. I'll try it! <br /><br /> __________ Mon Aug 31, 2015 4:15 pm __________ <br /><br /> I just want to add that there are HUNDREDS of tomatoes out there begging to be picked and canned. ....and cucumbers and peppers... And, I just firmly sent my children out to pick 100 feet of raspberry rows and I'm pretty sure they hate me. I remember having to harvest endless rows when I was little. I (temporarily) "hated" my parents for it. Maybe I need to get some ice cream to go with those raspberries so they'll forgive me. :icecream: WOW, there's an ICE CREAM smiley!

MaggieJ":3pz7fsvf said:

I know a lot of people are suffering right now from the ragweed, Miss M included. You all have my sympathy.

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Yes, I am better today, but just miserably ill the last several days. My antihistamine wouldn't even touch it. I wonder if stinging nettle would work against it. Thankfully, I was able to run some errands today.

MaggieJ":3pz7fsvf said:

When I have sinus congestion, I put a couple of drops of oil of peppermint on a tissue and inhale it. It does wonders for me. It's usually the spring pollen from trees that bothers me, but perhaps the oil of peppermint will work for ragweed allergies too.

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I have a tub of pure menthol crystals, and sometimes I just open it and take a long, slow sniff. Or two. I've been experimenting with it and camphor, trying to make my own version of Vicks ointment, basically. I dissolved some in olive oil and then mixed it with some lotion (loosely following a recipe I found online)... it's very strong, but doesn't seem to fume as well as the stuff in petrolatum/paraffin. So I have some petrolatum, and I'll try that next.

Unfortunately, nothing really helped for long, if at all. Ragweed is as bad for me as red tide.

Zinnia":3pz7fsvf said:

Maybe I need to get some ice cream to go with those raspberries so they'll forgive me. :icecream:

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That oughtta work.

I never had the ragweed allergy until 4 (or 5?) years ago. At first I was able to cope by taking bee pollen--getting it as locally as I could. But it seems to get worse each year. (and my daughter who used to have it really bad has much milder reaction in recent years) I tried stinging nettle tea and it gave me hives--only time I've ever had them and I won't do that again. The echinacea tincture I make and that we use for all sorts of sniffles helps some but at the height of the season, I have to resort to loratadine from the drug store. And that doesn't fully control it. And since ragweed bloom coincides with canning and drying tomatoes, making pesto, etc it seems like the worst time for streaming eyes and nose.

Herbs that treat inflammation will help with general aches and pains from allergies plus sinusitis. Turmeric and basil are good ones. Milk thistle and Nettle are good for itchy eyes and runny noses. Might want to try eating some purslane as well. I've had good experiences with it and it's good for you anyway.

If you're really congested you could try some wireweed. In studies it is shown to reduce inflammation and it also contains Ephedrine. It's currently one of my go to herbs.

Here are some interesting articles on Wireweed.


http://www.eattheweeds.com/sida-wireweed/
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10. ... 2#abstract

alforddm":v2xcgmwk said:

Herbs that treat inflammation will help with general aches and pains from allergies plus sinusitis. Turmeric and basil are good ones. Milk thistle and Nettle are good for itchy eyes and runny noses. Might want to try eating some purslane as well. I've had good experiences with it and it's good for you anyway.

If you're really congested you could try some wireweed. In studies it is shown to reduce inflammation and it also contains Ephedrine. It's currently one of my go to herbs.

Here are some interesting articles on Wireweed.


http://www.eattheweeds.com/sida-wireweed/
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10. ... 2#abstract

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I grow Milk Thistle just for that purpose and it does help. It's more of a long term healing choice I need to follow through with, though. Nettles grow themselves of course and I do drink lots of tea. I, too was allergic to even nettles before I went to Milk Thistle to help me. Never heard of the Wireweed, though. Turmeric, I am allergic too. I don't like Basil, but we grow it to freeze pesto because everyone else likes it.

I get Fall allergies, but they haven't bothered me (much) in years. I attribute it to the Fall Honey I usually start taking around this time. I take a small spoonfull in the morning (we keep bees, so it's available to me) and I've had not much more than a sniffle for a few years now.

Until now. This year, starting a couple of days ago, I seem have been hit with a combination of Fall allergies AND a headcold. At the same time. Yeah, honey isn't going to help much with this. Ugh.

It's now moved into my chest and I've got deep congestion. It was an excuse to hit up the honey whiskey last night, but I had to take mucinex this morning. I'm hoping I get this out of my system quickly. Yuck.

Probably about 5 years ago, I started getting rashes on my forearms twice a year at season changes. Just about drove me nuts, and I thought my connecting it to the season change was crazy until I started poking around on the internet about it. It has been really minor the last couple of years, thankfully. Very itchy.

I was sort of like that boy in the bubble....

I had big time heavy metal poisoning when I was young, then chemical exposure from building materials and was in the hospital often. There was a point in my life when the only thing I didn't have a reaction to was rice. So, I ate rice for nearly a year. Not just little reactions, mind you. Head to toe gross huge hives, the whites of my eyes would blow up (once I couldn't bear the pressure anymore and popped it with a pin :x ), throat closing up, passing out... But the worst reaction has been (still happens on occasion) where my organs swell inside and I feel like someone's ripping me apart from the inside. I've have 5 babies naturally, so worse than labor and childbirth, I tell you. Horrible.

When I was a kid I was allergic to anything with fur as well as all kinds of pollen. If I just walked into a room where a cat had been in the past week my eyes would start itching and swelling until the eyelids turned wrong-side out.

The worst plant for me was, and still is, corn... Symptoms always start as it begins to release its pollen. Can't even be around it while it's still in the shuck. But I LOVE fresh sweet corn.

My wife and I were married in September, 1974. She had always had cats at home. So, for Christmas that year I got her a little black and white tuxedo female kitten. I couldn't see or breathe for three months!!! But, after three months my symptoms just disappeared. I've had no allergies to animals since. Probably couldn't be raising rabbits if it weren't for that kitten.

I'm guessing the prolonged exposure caused my immune system to develop some sort of antibodies to the animal dander. Don't know but sure glad it worked out the way it did.

Still have Fall allergies but nothing as serious as it used to be.

My sympathies to you who are suffering.

Randy

rtower":3kpy93n3 said:

But, after three months my symptoms just disappeared. I've had no allergies to animals since. Probably couldn't be raising rabbits if it weren't for that kitten.

I'm guessing the prolonged exposure caused my immune system to develop some sort of antibodies to the animal dander. Don't know but sure glad it worked out the way it did.

Randy

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It was like this for me too with cats. However I am still allergic to some other people's cats. I think what the cat eats matters in how allergic to their dander I am.

Wow, my allergy problems pale in comparison! :shock:

:laugh2:

:lol: Yeah, that sums it up nicely, Galadriel! :lol:

Thankfully, my teeth have mostly stopped hurting now. That's one of the most annoying aspects of my allergy problems. Sinuses get inflamed, and my teeth start hurting. Sometimes on one side, sometimes all of them. :?

Miss M":2p45y628 said:

:lol: Yeah, that sums it up nicely, Galadriel! :lol:

Thankfully, my teeth have mostly stopped hurting now. That's one of the most annoying aspects of my allergy problems. Sinuses get inflamed, and my teeth start hurting. Sometimes on one side, sometimes all of them. :?

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That is the one and only thing I no longer experience with my allergies after I got a (nightmare of a) root canal removed! Apparently I had a chronic infection in my jaw from it that would flare up with my allergies.

Zinnia":sc3ng1j1 said:

Miss M":sc3ng1j1 said:

:lol: Yeah, that sums it up nicely, Galadriel! :lol:

Thankfully, my teeth have mostly stopped hurting now. That's one of the most annoying aspects of my allergy problems. Sinuses get inflamed, and my teeth start hurting. Sometimes on one side, sometimes all of them. :?

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That is the one and only thing I no longer experience with my allergies after I got a (nightmare of a) root canal removed! Apparently I had a chronic infection in my jaw from it that would flare up with my allergies.

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Oh, dear. I sure hope I don't have a jaw infection.

No money to go find out right now.

Most of my allergy-tooth pain started when my old dental work started falling out a few years ago. My dentist had told me it would be a good idea to start replacing these 30-year-old fillings before they started to loosen and fall out themselves. I didn't have the money to start working on that, though it did sound like a reasonable thing to do.

A while later, a large filling fell out. Over the next couple of years, more of them fell out. One of my molars cracked, sending me to the dentist. I had the molar dealt with (root canal), but he wouldn't fill the gaping holes left by the fillings. He said the teeth were structurally unstable, and needed to be crowned instead. So I've been eating for several years now on these teeth, unrepaired, and the tooth-shaped build-up from the root canal which I am still paying on.

My mom has started having her teeth worked on by a different dentist who offers discounts to low-income patients. I'm going to go to him after I pay off the root canal and save some money up, because anyone can go to him, regardless of income, and even his non-discounted prices are way better than my dentist's. Mom has no complaints about his work, and I've been there for her appointments.

So hopefully once I start getting my teeth fixed, the allergy pain will go away.

I hope that works for you Miss M. I'll say the root canal was not a good idea for me. Nor was it my choice, my consent or necessary. Weird story.... I was 18 yo. I'd never had gas before. The dentist was to fill a small cavity. The tech handed me a mask and walked out of the room. She came back to see the mask still in my lap (I had no idea what it was). She said, "Oh, your done with it?". I shrugged. No clue what she was talking about. Dentist proceeded to drill my cavity w/o any gas or numbing. It hurt, so I winced. He was impatient with me. He drilled more and I winced more. He because upset and said it must be deeper. He was like a madman. I winced more and he finally said, "If it still hurts like that with gas, I'll need to do a root canal" and proceeded to do one right then and there with me screaming under his hands. The tech looked shocked at him and sorry for me. But, no one knew I had not had the gas. When he was done, I had a lot of nerve trouble for a long time. Not many weeks later, this middle aged doctor passed away. I had heard he went crazy. Mercury? Who knows. But, it was the source of a lot of pain and distrust for me.