Allergies and how are you dealing with them?

Training
1

Allergies are like saddles, highly personal. As mine have been getting worse over the past few months it seems I’d like to know what/how people are dealing with theirs. Here’s a quick rundown of my symptoms:

  • used to be seasonal when living in central Europe. A skin test confirmed various grass and grain pollen as well as dust mites
  • I’ve been living in tropical Singapore for the past 7 years and found it’s shifted from seasonal to “about a day and a half every month”
  • symptoms are running nose, excessive sneezing, watery eyes, a good old hayfever, but then leads into an itchy throat and another few days of secondary symptoms which hinder training

I’ve noticed my kids have gone through similar patterns and with them it seems to be related to dairy. Looking at the rest of my family I concluded it might be coming from my side, I tested the theory and went dairy free a while ago, during which the symptoms kept coming back just as regularly as before. I’ve since gone back into mill and milk products.

I have tracked this and also related it to sleep, amount and quality thereof, as well as drinking. However as I type this I am going through a particularly nasty bout of the sneezes and have had exceptionally good sleep and no drinks to lead into this.

My diet on the whole isn’t bad, a good spread on the macros, and I don’t suffer from any digestive issues that I can tell.

I guess I have to get more disciplined to try to eliminate porential allergens as I feel it might be something from my diet which keeps me teetering close to the edge all the time.

What are your experiences and how are you dealing with it?

2

Whereabouts in Singapore? Could it be pollution related?

I suffer from allergies and what works for me is a prednisolone* (edit: As Kuttermax correctly points out below) fluticasone nasal spray daily and antihistamines when the pollen count is high, both UCI legal if you are worried about that, well at least when used correctly.
The nasal spray needs to be a constant and not used as and when to combat symptoms.

(* I’m asthmatic - prednisolone when I get a back chest infection)

1 Like
3

With the symptoms now only being about a 1.5 days a month, something like fluticasone nasal spray (Flonase) would likely work well.

As with most things, best to consult with your physician.

4

Years ago I started having about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of locally grown honey in my tea or coffee every morning. No more allergy issues.

Has to be local honey though.

5

Live in the west, work in the east. I suspect the office aircon has something to do with it also. I’ve been given the sprays before also but usually forget about them when the symptoms go away.

I’ll pop into the clinic and get myself some today.

6

I did that in Europe. With Singapore being a city state there is no local honey. Honey from Malaysia is typically just relabeled produce from China, and stretched with all sorts of sirups and oils.

I will go for a check up and stick with the sprays for a while to see if that helps.

Thanks for the input all.