Allergies and pollen

[Ian F]

Ride faster and more often! Adrenaline is the cure for allergies, no joke. Epipens are nothing but a shot of adrenaline. Just get your heart rate up on the trail, works just the same.

I honestly think there's something to that. How bad my allergies are seem to have a direct correlation to how much time I spend riding during the Spring. They started during my 30's when I was spending more time playing with cars than riding bikes. Now that I'm riding more, my allergies have been greatly reduced.

 

[Norm]

Fortunately, Clariton D 24hr (the stuff you have to sign for at the drug counter) has always worked when I need it. The straight OTC stuff is useless for me. I have boxes of it scattered all over since I never seem to know when I'm going to need it and invariably don't have any with me.

The D is pseudoephedrine, plus Claritin.

The base of Claritin is loratadine. This is like your base miles. You need to be taking this well in advance of allergy season. They say 5 days but honestly, if you get allergies on & off all year, you should just take it in the morning every day. If you wait until the car is yellow-ish green, just move for a month. You need to have that built up in your system for it to have any chance to work. And having said that, some years it works better than others for me (and others). Buy it at Costco, it drops the price considerably.

The D is what I take only sporadically. I also buy this at Costco and buy the 4 hour version. Right now, I take it every morning. I also take it when I get home from an outdoor anything. At this time of year, I think it makes sense to take the loratadine plus pseudoephedrine (4 hour) in the morning. Then if you go out, shower plus another 4 hour pseudoephedrine. If it's really bad for you, take more. But the pseudoephedrine is really going to just alleviate a symptom, which is that is helps dry up the congestion. It does nothing to protect you from the pollen itself.

I prefer to split the drug up like this and take what I need when I think I need it. Also drink a lot of water, it helps the thickness of the mucus.

 

[Ian F]

Yeah... I have trouble remembering to take prescription meds daily when I need to... something like that... well... I'm just lucky my allergies aren't that bad.

 

[rick81721]

Knock on wood my allergies were much worse 2 weeks ago. Last 3 days riding in the middle of the pollen tsunami and just a little dry throat and watery eyes. Flonase holding up so far

 

[RobW]

Knock on wood my allergies were much worse 2 weeks ago. Last 3 days riding in the middle of the pollen tsunami and just a little dry throat and watery eyes. Flonase holding up so far

thanks for the reminder, pick up flonase