I always find that my symptoms are reduced when I'm sailing.  Not a bad way to spend the summer!

Seriously though - my hayfever was a nightmare last year, so not looking forward to this years season.  I love Piriton (sp?), but it knocks me out in minutes and I can have a lovely snooze all day.  Not good for work or anything useful.  My otehr favourite tablet is Claritin (again sp?) because it works for me and is non-drowsy.  I tried a nasal spray last year, but found mixed results.

I think its a very personal thing.  Speak to your chemist and try different solutions and then stick to it.  Also, check the active ingredient on branded products - the Boots (or other high street chemist) own brand may have the same and can be purchased at low cost.  It can be an expensive habit being a hayfever sufferer over the summer!

Take up ocean racing?

Seriously though, ditto tgruitt.

As an alternative, somebody out ther might have a homeopathic remedy to suggest. You could always try that avenue.....Have you tried asking your local pharmacist for advice?

I suffer badly from "Hayfever" most of the year. I when to a specialist who did some allegic tests and found out that I did not suffer from Hayfever but from house dust mites and grass seed. Not pollen. The effects are the same as is causes hestimine to be produced which is the chemical for runny noses, eyes itching noses etc. and there are numerous anti-hestimine drugs on the market. The only way to find the best one for you is to try them all as there effectiveness depens upon the individual.

I have found the following has reduced my symtems considerably:

1) Hoovering the bed as this is where most house dust mites live and you spend most of your time in doors

2) When doing anything romotely in the garden I where my "Gardening clothes" and as soon as I have finished I take them off and shower and put them in the machine. I never keep them on longer than need be.

3) Cutting the grass when it is a little damp keeps the grass seed down considerly.

Re the medication I do not take any antihestimine tablets any more becuase the above reduces the need although it is impossible to escape grass seed so I do take:

1) Boots own Nasel Spray (Oxymetazoneline Hydrochloride) for congestion. This is smoother and softer on the nose than Vickes and last longer. Vickes just burns.

2) Drink elderflower tea. Elderflower contains an antihestimne drug. However to get enough of the dose you need around 6-8 cups a day. Doctor Stuarts brand has the highest elderflower content and is available form health stores. I find it is easier to drink it when it is cold or like warm. After a while it starts to taste good too!

3) Best of all is a spray called "Sterimar". Is is only salt water but it cleans all the nasel passage and gets rid of an nasties making you sneeze.

Oh yes, if you go for tablets get them on perscription and get them for severeal months otherwise the over the counter prices will be very expensive.

Hope that helps.

So, there you have it.... two TOTALLY different views!

One says local honey is works superbly (eat a substance made from the pollen). While the next post says all homoeopathic remedies are a complete waste of money!

the best thing short of drugs is local honey, the best stuff is the pure unfiltered stuff straight  from the hive.

Dan

no..... you spin the honey out of the frames and then eat it like that, or just eat the honey with the wax and spit the wax out.........or speak nicely to a local bee keeper and try their honey, a teaspoon a day throught the year is enough to stave off the worst of it for most of the year.

Dan

i keep bees so, i get free honey.

Its great for andrew (dumberer) who suffers during the summer.

Dan

I'm not really a "believer" in them, and I'm not sure hayfever is all that receptive to mind games, either, but they worked for me in that case. As for "herbal Remidies", many modern medicines contain the same chemicals that plants used for treating illness have. Doesn't mean I'm going to use them - I like my medicine easy to swallow and more likely to work - but dismissing them out of hand is a very narrow view point.

Really....wow, you expected a response and got one, well I never!

Forget anecdotal evidence, which is clouded by reversion to the norm, and tell me how Homeopathic remedies work when you have diluted any active ingredient out.  And I want proper science no bunkum will be tolerated!

I couldn't give you proper science about how most "proper" medicine works, and I doubt many people on this forum can. I am pretty much in the "mainly nonsense" camp when it comes to homeopathy, but I find the psudo scientific "won't believe it unless you can prove it" attitude just as hard to swallow. If something has worked, it has worked, whether you can replicate it or not. If someone feels better because (in this case) a non "modern" medicine has worked to alliviate hayfever, why should that get people all uppity and saying "it can't have done"?

OK, here is another one - Arnica tablets and cream alliviate bruising. True or false? A useful one for sailing, this, if true...

Won't believe it unless you can prove it is pseudo-science.  Well you'd better have a word with the scientific community.  I didn't say someone who believes in homeopathy won't feel a benefit, but I would suggest you'd get the same response if you gave them a sugar pill to which nothing has been done and told them it was homeopathic (although this in fact would be chemicaly identical to a homeopathic pill anyway).  Oh and reason you haven't actually answered the question is rather telling.

You have to remember that it`s only the western world that deals with "proper" med`s & the rest of the poor world lives with the "old" ways.

Also the med`s that are produced today are usually devied from the natual product that came from somewhere deep in the far off places,covered in early morning mists,growing amoungest the goat droppings & dongey poo just outside some little mud hut in the homeopathic med cabinet called the veg plot.

Get out of your car,clear your nose with what ever works & enjoy the fresh air,go sailing!

Remember deep breaths in - out - in - out & Relax

 Well put Bert.

 I feel in some way responsible for sparking this debate on homeopathy. For my part, I would declare ambivilence.

It is worthwhile remembering that at one time many great minds thought the earth was flat! Whilst there is very little science to back up homeopathy, It would be better to keep an open mind. To paraphrase a couple of views;

Alstorer whilst dismissive, you appear to contradict your advocacy of 'scientific proof' by conceding the power of  'placebo'. If a homopathic remedy 'helps' someone along the way (even if the mechanism is not known) then why knock it? 

Maybe so, my point though is that anything that could work whether by placebo or otherwise ought to be considered, whether on not it can be 'scientifically' backed up.

Let me pose this question then; how many multi billion pound pharmacutical companies are going to fund research (and I'm sure they have the lions share in university sponsorship) into a possible alternative which could be the fraction of the price of their current products? Very much a self perpetuating arrangement I would imagine. Just stop and think what the yearly drug bill for the NHS currently is!

As a person who avoids pills as much as possible I have to say that the power of the mind over the illnesses & injuries of the body is massive.

For instance from my personal experence I suffered from a body / muscle memory problem this took the form of the site of old injuries being the place where new aches & strains "settled" because the muscles remembered an old injury the body stored them all in that one place & as such my lower back became a massive problem.

But then I found out that problem was body memory & what body memory is,So I made a mental decision & decided to move the "stress & strains" to a broken collar bone then to the end of my middle finger & then "flicked" them away ( the truth oddly enough ).

In total this took 6 months & for 25 years of good movement where I never consider the damage to my body when I do ANY sport or actialty that I want,If it looks like fun I`ll normally do it.

For instance I went motorcrossing for the first time in 20 odd years a couple of weeks ago  ( no real racing but 450cc bikes are pretty much on / off ) came about top thrid & most of my fellow riders were not nessiarly in the best of conditions in the morning I however took my 300 out the next day.

Like you I only consider it the next day & usually less then most people.I am not massively fit I would have a hard job running 500 meters without a rest,cup of tea & a sit down.

The problem still exists but to a much more workable degree however everybody is different & because I can do it doe`st mean that it will work for you.

Sounds very odd,unbelievable prehaps,but I believe in the power of the my mind as a healer of myself.

I`ll go stand in the "loony" corner now.