Using a neti pot? Are you using sterile saline in it? If not, you can be introducing bacteria into your sinuses each time!

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?se...cal&id=6046064

It is best to use sterile water or sterile saline. Once this organism is in your sinuses, it is difficult to get rid of.

One has to be careful with neti pot use.

for antihistamines I use Zyrtec now. I find Claritin useless.
I take one at night, and it lasts me into the next day. Not much drowsiness from it.

Another good way to control allergies is using grapeseed extract.
About 200mg a day tends to work for us too.

The new OTC Allergra is good but weak I find. But the absolute worst is Claritin. You know there are studies on it that found it equal to placebo?

I tried singular and it just made me nauseated. Of course that is true of half the meds I try. I know it is rather expensive and a lot of insurance plans will not approve it for allergies.

Thanks mrsD! You are always so helpful. I decided to try 1/2 Zyrtec tonight. Hopefully I will wake up breathing better. As for my Neti pot, I boil the water first. I use the little packets for the saline solution and mix it in the water. That should be ok, right? I do find that I get better relief with the Neti pot than with the Flonase.

Barb - You are a lot like me. I have a hard time with medicines and tend to react negatively to a lot of them. I will keep what you experienced in mind and may be not do the Singulair.

I do agree that the nasal steroids are not really effective, and I think way over done and over promoted.

There is an OTC product hubby used for a while...NasalCrom.
This blocks histamine from mast cells...and is not a steroid.

But it is expensive. Hubby has worse nasal allergies than I do. I had allergy shots in my 20's and that helped me quite a bit. It wasn't much fun...and I had reactions all the time. So I quit after 3 yrs. Hubby finds taking Chlorpheniramine at night and on bad days, Allegra, during the day helps. I also make him use the grapeseed, during spring when he seems the worst. Both of us had a heavy season this year with all the rain we had..molds!

Boil that water for a long time. The organism in tap water is hard to kill...it is related to TB...and as such has a very heavy cell wall, and can survive well under many conditions, and that is why it is so prevalent in tap water. It is also a skin contaminant in wounds, surgical procedures and acne. It shows up in cheap botched office plastic surgery patients, for example. This organism is resistant to most antibiotics.

I consider the nose very important as a portal for disease and chemical toxicity. This path to the brain is quite distinct and fast.
Not to be gross, but, the amoeba thing from swimming in ponds/stagnant water, gets into the brain quickly thru the nose and kills the person ..no treatment for it available. This got alot of publicity in Texas and Florida in the recent years.
This is one of many incidents recently:
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/0...a-teens-death/
Seems to becoming more common in many states, but perhaps it is just medical communication being more efficient?

When you buy a nasal product in the stores, they are all made with sterile procedures, and people don't understand this as a rule.

Just be really careful.

Edit--- I just found this article describing a nasal product to deliver small amounts of insulin to the brain for Alzheimer's...
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/alz.../AN01956/rss=1
This illustrates the nose as a portal directly to the brain.
(low insulin in the brain is implicated in Alzheimer patients. The brain actually makes insulin because our body insulin does not cross the blood brain barrier. Low insulin in the brain is now called Type 3 diabetes.)

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.