[sansvk]

I am allergic to dust and dust mites. Had serious bouts of runny nose, sneezing, cough, asthma like symptoms at regular intervals. Winter's worsen the situation.
Over the last few months, I have been practicing yoga and pranayama and have found to have increased tolerance. Yoga postures includes foward, backward bends that opens out the chest and inversions. Have found the inversions to open out the nasal passage. In Pranayama, the alternate nostril breathing and breath retention seemed to help.

[Thanos-VV]

Originally Posted by BRV

Its been a month now and am trying to figure out to what am allergic to. My symptoms are:

Wake up with clogged nostril (one)
Running nose
Continuous sneezing

These symptoms will be there till afternoon and am good till next day morning. The moment I wake up in the morning symptoms start. Even if I gets disturbed in sleep after 3 am the symptoms start immediately.

I too have almost the same condition. Mostly during monsoon season. However if I am sweating it out in the morning, then no problems on that day. Generally on weekdays I start my day with one hour jog. Due to this sweating somehow no issues on weekdays. But on random weekends, like today, I get this irritating sneezing and thereafter headache ( that is obviously due to the violent sneezing style I have ) Maybe body’s own way of trying to push me to jog even on weekends. Most of the times, I avoid taking medicines and try to let it just pass

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by BRV

Its been a month now and am trying to figure out to what am allergic to. My symptoms are:

Wake up with clogged nostril (one)
Running nose
Continuous sneezing

I have the issue very often. Off late I find it is reduced.

I wake up with a blocked nose then continuous sneezing till I take a hot water bath. As soon as I come out of the bath all symptoms vanish like they were never there. The sooner I take a shower with hot water the sooner the sneezing stops.

However it has reduced after I stopped sleeping with the fan on especially during summers and monsoons. I have to check in winter.

Instead of fan I set the AC to 25/26C and sleep. It is not at all cold at this temp and more like comfortable.

I'm attributing it to the fan blowing air straight at my face whole night vs AC which isn't direct and not as strong as fan at speed 2. Speed 1 is too slow for the fan and useless.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

I wake up with a blocked nose then continuous sneezing till I take a hot water bath. As soon as I come out of the bath all symptoms vanish like they were never there. The sooner I take a shower with hot water the sooner the sneezing stops.

Had been in a similar situation for years, typically in winter months. The hot water bath and steam inhalation both seem to help. Touchwood, last couple years it seems to have improved. I was told by the ENT specialist that it's very common in Bangalore and is because of pollen allergy and pollution. Last 2-3 months have been extremely good with low pollution due to the lockdown and I can see/feel/smell generally much healthier air around

[HsekarK]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

I wake up with a blocked nose then continuous sneezing till I take a hot water bath. As soon as I come out of the bath all symptoms vanish like they were never there. The sooner I take a shower with hot water the sooner the sneezing stops. .

Is your condition excerbeted when in cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata?

I had a similar condition and back in 2005 when my family shifted to Kolkata it was so intense that every day I used to rush to take a bath first thing in the morning or else I used to sneeze continuously with a blocked nose and consequent general irritation and ennui.

Consulted quite a few doctors and there was one retired PK Charaborty who( in the usual disdainful demeanour of a man in his 80s ) dismissed sinus as a cause.

He said that quite a few people can have such issues and general humidity amplifies it but again sysmptoms are unique to every individual.
So, someone might find solace in the dry city of Jaipur and some other person might find the cooler climes of Bangalore more salbrious.

I used to feel very self conscious of my 'afflliction' and sneezes ( which was due to the inflammation of the sinus in my case ) were looked as flu by my friends and colleagues. I could not convince anyone arround that this is not a communicable 'disease'.

I had to learn to live with it, which meant a bath within 40 minutes of waking up. No cold drinks or ice cream even in the intense heat of Kolkata, etc.
I stopped using an AC ( and still don't even when the night temp is 30+).
When I moved to London for a short stint i was fearful that my condition would amplify, but it didn't.

I discovered that cities like Kolkata( my former and current home ) , Mumbai , Chennai bring out the worst, but Hyderabad is very suitable. Bangalore ( where my family currently lives , and the place I am at every weekend ) gets difficult for me in the monsoons( though not as difficult as Kolkata).

Reading your ordeal I think you too have sinus inflammation which is dependent on humidity. Since you seem to be Bangalore based I would suggest a dehumidifier ( which an Ac is) and keeping temp in the region of 24-25.

Regards,

[ObsessedByFIAT]

Allergies!! Tell me about it!! I am too suffering from an unknown allergy and all I can do is wait for the it to subside!

I get rashes on random places with severe itching out of the blue. If you know the rash caused due to high acidity? It is similar to that, but not due to acidity.

On somedays, if I have brinjal/eggplant, I get the rashes. On other days, as soon as I wake up I get rashes, on some other day, at some random time of the day it just happens. Takes around a couple of hours and it goes back to normal as if nothing had happened.

I have consulted multiple doctors to no avail. No medication has had any positive result so far.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by BRV

Its been a month now and am trying to figure out to what am allergic to. My symptoms are:

Wake up with clogged nostril (one)
Running nose
Continuous sneezing

I have the same symptoms and IMHO, causes are -

# Too humid a weather & getting in & out of A.C.

# Dust,

# Weather change.

My symptoms stay for a week [its terrible week to be honest] and its cure is monteleukast, momeflo nasal spray & maybe an anti-allergy. The most sure shot cure is steam inhalation, about 3 to 5 times a day.

[2000rpm]

Originally Posted by revvharder

It would release mucus as if some tap was on.

This is exactly how my friend describes it. Also the doctor had mentioned about the Polyps and their growth.

Did you get any Root Cause Diagnosis on this?

[BRV]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

I have the issue very often. Off late I find it is reduced.

I wake up with a blocked nose then continuous sneezing till I take a hot water bath. As soon as I come out of the bath all symptoms vanish like they were never there. The sooner I take a shower with hot water the sooner the sneezing stops.

However it has reduced after I stopped sleeping with the fan on especially during summers and monsoons. I have to check in winter.

Instead of fan I set the AC to 25/26C and sleep. It is not at all cold at this temp and more like comfortable.

I'm attributing it to the fan blowing air straight at my face whole night vs AC which isn't direct and not as strong as fan at speed 2. Speed 1 is too slow for the fan and useless.

Severity of running nose reduced when am am sleeping away from the Fan. Still have the issue though. Thanks.

Regarding the hot water bath, it didn't help much.

[dragracer567]

Here's the funny story of my allergy. My allergy seems to act up only in certain places I've lived in and I still haven't figured out a pattern! I have been to the doctor several times and finally one doctor said 'it will get better as I grow older' which has been the case for me as I haven't had the symptoms in over a year now. It started when we were in Abu Dhabi in 2009, I was about 14 then.

My symptoms were primarily continuous (and sometimes almost violent) sneezing, runny nose with some sweating and irritation in my eyes.

Places where I had the allergy -

Kanyakumari (hometown)
Abu Dhabi
Jeddah
Barcelona
Ecuador

Places where I didn't have the allergy -

Delhi
Ireland
Belgium
Dubai (current location)

I don't think its dust because I barely had the allergy in Delhi. One reason could be humidity since the places where I got the allergy were pretty humid. But I still can't figure out why? But atleast I haven't had it for a while now!

[satishv1987]

I have a severe dust allergy. Even dust mites can trigger it . An allergic reaction typically starts with slightly water eyes , a running nose followed by a bout of sneezing which can last from anywhere between 5-30 minutes. By the end of it, I m usually drenched in sweat and completely exhausted.

Distancing myself from the triggering factor usually helps limit the severity of the reaction. If that also does not help, I have to rely on anti-histamines.

[ani_meher]

I used to have horrible colds for unknown reasons. The longest I have gone without any taste in my mouth is 6 months!

One doctor prescribed Curcumin tablets and Neti. While I have not used Neti pot yet, the Curcumin tablet works surprisingly well. I even gave it to my associates with known allergic colds and they too got very quick relief.

Curcumin is present in Haldi, but in small quantity. I suggest BCM95 tablet for anyone suffering from chronic colds. It is a better form of curcumin with higher absorption. Buy it from Amazon or Flipkart, as local medical shop versions are sometimes too costly.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor.

[asbshyam]

Types of Allergies

- Sneezing, I sneeze like there's no tomorrow
- Irritated throat, I get a minor itch, probably due to an inflammation on my throat
- Swollen skin if I scratch it with nails or draw with sharper objects like a pen or pencil
- Allergic Conjunctivitis, swollen bumps on eyeballs, White discharge
- Unusually itchy skin
- Super sensitive nose, I can sometimes smell pan being chewed in the apartment below mine. For me this is sensitive, as I usually cannot tell what's cooking in my own kitchen.

The throat symptom triggers the sneezing or the sneezing triggers a unhappy throat, but both come together and has been a marker to the other symptom. The last three symptoms are very recently introduced, maybe due to age (crossed 30) or due to my generally poor upkeep in the last few years

Place

I'm someone who grew up in a coastal city (Chennai), I have been in Singapore for 2 years and I'm currently in Pune for over 2 years. I have had all environments ranging from various levels of Humidity and Dryness. The dust and overall cleanliness has also greatly varied depending on how lazy I have been. It does not make a difference.

Medication

If I start sneezing and if I can tell it is due to an allergy, I pop a Cetirizine tablet immediately. There are two reasons I do this, my allergy if I let it get worse looks like a common cold and is treated as one. The other reason being, if I let it get worse, I feel under the weather for a couple of days. I stop with one tablet and I pop about 5-10 a year depending on how often I get affected. If I still have an irritating feeling in my nose after the table, I rinse my nostrils and try to inhale steam as these generally calm my respiratory system down.

Allergens

I have identified a few markers to which I know I will get an allergic reaction. Dust, Pollen, breathing in Warm/Cold Dry Air or Warm Humid air, Pollution in general are few to start with.

Prevention Routine

Building up a resistance generally works best for my body. I tend to expose myself to common allergens in gradual increments. I don't jump into a dusty room, but I let dust accumulate over my work table, just enough for me to not start sneezing. I ride the motorbike with visor up in climates my body is not supposed to work well in, the adrenaline (and joy) of riding a bike often overrides the to allergic reaction. My body over time gets used to smaller exposures and with some practice, holds well when I really have to be in allergen filled environment. I try to maintain a generally healthy lifestyle and a balanced diet (worsening in the last few years). This selective exposure and staying healthy are the only ways that has been effective for me. COVID related lock-down lead to relatively lower levels of pollution in my neighborhood and later, as soon as the traffic started picking up, I feel like I have put myself on an allergen familiarization course all over again

[KPR]

I had my nose blocked most of my college days and bachelor days. I have taken several allopathy, homeopathy, ayurvedic medicines but nothing helped. Finally after marriage I've got rid of it and happily living free of stuffed nose, sneezes. Reason: Spicy food eaten at college canteen, hostels, outside restaurants had caused this reaction in me. Now I'm all healthy and eat very less spice/mirchi from home food. Very occasional spicy food is not doing any harm too.

Apart from that I've allergy to Milk (only boiled milk) and Jack Fruit. Their smell simply upsets me. So I've avoided them since I remember and never tried and swear that I will not dare to.

[aashishnb]

Not sure how relevant, but still for the benefit of everyone.

There is a Parsi women at Kemps corner in Mumbai who does some experiment with an egg or something and is able to identify allergies. There is no consumption of the egg and a lot of vegetarians have also used her help.

Quite effective I'm told, but have no first hand experience. My erstwhile boss had told me about her.

For those who have tried everything but could not get any relief, might be worth a try. As the hindi quote goes "doobte koh tinke ka sahara" i.e. a drowning man will clutch at a straw.