

Ask HN: What do you do about your allergies? - palidanx

During the spring season, I usually start dying with my allergies.  I'm one of those where no drugs are effective.<p>I began taking aller-max (a combination of stinging nettle, cayenne, quercetin, and some other stuff), and am wondering whether it actually does anything or not.<p>For the allergy sufferers out there, what do you do about your allergies?
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dalke
What do I do? While the decision wasn't based on the allergies, I moved to
some place with no juniper trees. When I visit NM in spring, the allergies
come back hard. One loratadine used to be enough. No longer. (And a double
dose zonks me out.)

Is 'aller-max' the same as <http://www.drugs.com/mtm/allermax.html> ?
According to the latter, that's diphenhydramine. Ah, no. Perhaps it's
[http://www.swansonvitamins.com/country-life-aller-
max-100-ve...](http://www.swansonvitamins.com/country-life-aller-max-100-veg-
caps) ? Looks like it.

That's vitamins A, C, and B5, plus zinc. The others are:

    
    
      * quercetin - "Studies done in test tubes have shown quercetin may affect immune cells from releasing histamines which might influence symptoms of allergies."
    
      * N-acetylcysteine - "This compound is sold as a dietary supplement commonly claiming antioxidant and liver protecting effects. It is used as a cough medicine because it breaks disulfide bonds in mucus and liquefies it, making it easier to cough up."
    
      * L-Histidine - histamine precursor.
    
      * Bromelain - anti-inflammatory effects
    
      * Stinging Nettle - recommended by some herbalists. But it can also cause problems.
    
      * Cayenne - Why?
    
      * "Grape seed extracts are industrial derivatives from whole grape seeds that have a great concentration of vitamin E, flavonoids, linoleic acid and phenolic OPCs. The typical commercial opportunity of extracting grape seed constituents has been for chemicals known as polyphenols having antioxidant activity in vitro"
    
    

The stinging nettle and cayenne look like they are in there using the
philosophy that like cures like. The grape seed looks like it's there to say
it has antioxidants. The quercetin has no human tests that I can find, and
L-Histidine doesn't make sense. It's basically an amino acid that you already
get from your food.

So this looks like it's some vitamins plus a few compounds which help with the
reaction but which doesn't do as much as an OTC anti-histamine or other
allergy drug might do.

As for what you might try; have you seen an allergist? It's possible to get
shots to help, but it seems that they take time.

Here's what the Mayo Clinic advises:
[http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/allergy-
medications/AA00037...](http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/allergy-
medications/AA00037/METHOD=print)

