Well, let's just say that Zyrtec and I do not get a long. I had a horrible night last night waking up in the middle of the night with a one-sided headache. I think it was from spasms as my head was hard to move. Once I got it in another position, I was fine and went back to sleep. I also had the terrible dreams that I have experienced when taking Zyrtec. I also woke up this morning sore, spasming, and numbness in my torso as well as clammy feeling and dizzy. Not cool! I don't know if it's from the Zyrtec or from the restless sleep or MS acting up more because of my allergies. At any rate, Zyrtec is off my list again as I had weird reactions to it before. *sigh*

mrsD - I have heard good things about NasalCrom. I haven't tried it but it may be time. I know you are supposed to take it two weeks before allergy season starts as it takes that long to start working effectively. Yes, we had some good hard rains here that left lots of standing water/moisture. That does equal MOLD! We also have evaporative cooling in the house which presents more issues and with evaporative cooling you have to keep the windows open a little bit.

Everyone is different. My husband will not use anything else at night.. Chlorpheniramine (The Brand is ChlorTrimeton)! It is available at WalMart for about 3 cents a pill. If they ever stop carrying it he will have a FIT. It is not long acting, but he doesn't seem to mind.

This year he was so bad, I got the Allegra for him for the daytime, and he said it worked "some".

Everyone is different. And I think tolerance is common too.

Thanks for your help mrsD! I'm going to have DD21 get me one of the otc saline sprays as well. They probably easier and just as effective as the Neti pot. I wake up with dry and irritate nasal passages.

It's true, what works for some may not work for others. Plus, I take other meds and the Zyrtec may not "agree" with my meds.

BTW - My massage therapist comes today and I'll have her do extra work on the sinus area. Believe it or not, after she does it I feel and breath better and the nasal passages start to open up and clear. I was surprised the 1st time she did it. I had never heard of a sinus massage and didn't think it would work but tried it anyhow.

Mrs. D,
Regarding the nasal insulin for prevention of Alzheimer's...would this help someone who does not have diabetes? DH's mom is in late stages of Alz, and has type 2 diabetes...I am concerned because DH is beginning, at age 58, to have some trouble with memory, but he does not have diabetes. It could be middle age memory problems, but I do watch him and keep notes about what I observe...
He has had 3 of 4 grandparents die from dementia...of course they were in their 80s and 90s, so it could be age related...
anyway, just wondering...

There was a inhaled orally insulin in US until recently. It was made by Pfizer, and was called Exubera. However, it was not easy to titrate doses, caused irritation and patient acceptance was low. So they stopped making it.

The insulin for nasal application is different as it goes thru the nerves in the olfactory bulb in the nose directly to the brain.
Insulin does not cross the blood brain barrier, and so what gets into the brain will not come out. How to get the nasal to do both jobs then for the body and brain is problematic dose wise because insulin is very carefully measured for each person's needs.
I believe what was used in the studies is something that is not FDA approved yet for mass consumption.

Here is more to read about it:
http://www.diabetesnet.com/about-dia...nhaled-insulin

Type 3 diabetes, is relatively new, and low insulin in the brain is also tied to other neurological conditions in the brain, like Parkinson's as well. With some time, we may hear more about this.

But understand that nasal application of drugs goes to the brain rapidly and because of that one needs to be very careful with neti pots or other drugs. Cocaine of course is the most well known...and chronic use of IT erodes the septum and destroys the membranes as well as the nose being the royal road to euphoria.

I find this interesting because I was on Singulair for asthma for years. I went off of it for good when I got pregnant with my 2nd child. I never went back on it because the asthma seemed to disappear after he was born. The doctor said that body chemistry can change with pregnancy and whatever allergies were causing the asthma could have gone away.

Then, about 4 years later, I had my first full blown flare up that left me pretty disabled for awhile. It probably took 2 years and multiple rounds of IVSM to get back to about 80% of where I was before that. I've never gotten back to 100%.