[moreinf]

Drug information says that "Do not take pseudoephedrine for longer than 7 days if your condition does not improve or if symptoms are accompanied by a high fever." But in my case, I have allergy and sinus following it (very quickly), so taking allergy pills with pseudoephedrine is very useful. But these days, I am in Minnesota, I have to take it everyday. But I take it only one dose a day. (Direction days take 4-6 times a day). One dose is fine with me, and I take it every morning.

But I am afraid if I take it like that for 3-4 months (during winter season), is there any side effects or serious problems? You know, I take it just once a day, and I don't have any special problem since I took it (now, it's been 2-3 weeks). I sleep well, my heart is not so bad...

I tried many allergy pills, but mostly, Chlorpheniramine (in Wal-phed sinus & allergy and equate allergy sinus, with psedoephedrine) or Triprolidine in ActaTabs with psedoephedrine.

Thanks in advance.

[boogerdrool]

Hi I am not a dr but I have been taking benedryl and other allergy meds every year (about 4 straight months out of the year) every 4-6 hours or whatever it says since I was 11 (I'm 25 now) and I have had no health problems. Unfortunatly, there are very little meds that work for my allergies so I do what I can. Maybe you should ask your dr for a script?p.s I know what its like to be in Minnesota and having allergy problems!

Thanks, Kimberly

[moreinf]

Does the Benadryl have psedoesphedrine? I see that Benadryl-D has it (nasal decongestant), but my question was about nasal decongestant, not about allery one.

[boogerdrool]

The kind of benedryl I use does.

Thanks, Kimberly

[Angel8]

Greetings: I have had to take almost every antihistamine/decongestant on the market until the recent crop of new ones. Most of the old ones no longer work for me because I took them for so long I got resistant to them. There are some heavy duty prescription ones that still work, but some of them have unpleasant side effects for me.

Pseudoephedrine wires me up like I have pure caffeine running in my veins instead of blood. I can't take it because it gives me a severe jumpy feeling, and a feeling like bugs are crawling all over me. Makes me totally hyper until it wears off. As a young child they gave it to me as Benadryl, and my Mom tells me all I could do was sit or stand in one place, wringing my hands and feet and squirming, shaking my head and saying, "I can't help it, I can't help it..." over and over until it wore off. Not fun.

I could not take the sinus meds with the now-banned phenolpropanolamine (PPA) in them, because that medication gave me violent dizzyness and disorientation. I took a Drixoral 12hour decongestant once that had PPA in it, and I had the falling down dizzy bed spins for 12 hours until it wore off. I had to lie on the couch and hang on for dear life until it stopped. Now they have pulled it off the market because they said it causes strokes in young women. NO KIDDING! I could have told them it was bad stuff 20 years ago!

Clorpheniramine Maleate, which is in Clortrimeton, I took for so long as a teenager it no longer works. If my nose and eyes are itching, it will stop that, but it does nothing for drying up the sinuses anymore. Brompheniramine Maleate, which used to be in the big blue Dimetapp decongestant tablets, still does work to keep my sinuses draining, but it makes me angry. I was on it for a month once and was beginning to like being angry all the time. Had to stop taking it immediately that I realized that! It makes my Mom like a manic-depressive. While she taking the pills, she is depressed and morose and weepy. As soon as it wears off she feels like the world is happy and full of joy, then she takes the next dose and gets depressed again and so on. So she can't take it either.

I found that almost all the sinus/allergy meds screw up my sleep patterns something awful, I don't get a lot of rest while on them, and my dream cycles are messed up bad. They don't usually make me drowsy, though, its just that I don't seem to get good sleep while on them.

My Mom took Sudafed (pure psuedoephedrine) for years and thought she was an insomniac! It is basically a fake form of ephedrine, so it wires people up.

Histospan-D was once given to me for a bad sinus infection, it is a prescription med. It worked really well, dried up the condition in a few days, but boy was I loopy on it. I don't remember a lot of stuff that happened while I was on it, and I had an incident where I filled out my classwork in my earth science class with some of the strangest answers anyone has every seen. I sort of came to toward the end of class and looked over my work before handing it in, and found I had answered the questions with whatever had wandered through my head at that moment. I had to really quickly re-do all the questions and hand it in before the end of class. It was scary!

Now they add acetominophen to almost all the sinus/allergy meds available OTC, and it makes me psychotically violent, so I have nothing I can take without going in for a scrip. And I hate to do that, so I usually just have to suffer through allergy season. I have been controlling the sinus infections for some years now with herbal combinations of fenugreek, thyme, goldenseal, echinacea, lobelia, and a few others. I can stop the infection in about 4-5 days with those herbs. Usually if I get a sinus infection it gets all congested in a day or two and then goes straight into bronchitis within 3 days. But with the herbs, I can get it to dry up the snot before it has time to get blocked up and infected. Works pretty well for me.

I hope some of this may help you in your search for relief.

[moreinf]

Thanks for your help.

I just ordered the book, Easy Breathing: Natural Treatments For Asthma, Colds, Flu, Coughs, Allergies... from amazon.com

But... how do you get the berbs? Isn't it expensive?

Thanks.

[Angel8]

You asked how you get the herbs. I go to my local health food stores and buy them in capsule form. Some of them can be pretty pricey. I only have to take them when my nose starts to run, though, so it isn't so bad. Maybe once or twice a year if I am lucky.

Fenugreek and thyme work best in combination, but fenugreek is an estrogenic and not recommended for those who have or are at high risk for breast cancer. Thyme can also be made into tea (1 tsp dried thyme per cup of hot water). It is very useful for helping to break up mucus in the lungs so it can be expelled. Drink a few cups a day for that. Can turn your urine a little greenish if you drink enough of it. Fenugreek smells like a very strong celery, and I find after I have been taking it for a few days, I start to smell like it. My skin even starts to smell of it. But it works.

At the first sign that my sinuses are about to try to kill me, I start taking the following three times per day:
500mg vitamin C
three fenugreek capsules
three thyme capsules
three goldenseal capsules
three eichinacea capsules
one lobelia capsule

(Lobelia can be used to treat stopped up ears as well,
it supposedly helps stop swelling in the eustachian tubes, but it is an emetic if you take too much. I find if I take more than one capsule at a time, I sort of feel like I'm going to puke for awhile)

It is a pain in the butt to try to gag down all those capsules at one sitting, but the fact that it works for me is worth it. And I usually only have to do it for a few days, until the condition clears up.

If you are not allergic to bees, try taking bee propylis on a fairly regular basis. It is the substance the bees build around the entrance to the hive. It shows properties which are anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and I think anti-viral, and many allergy sufferers have had good luck taking it for their allergies. A lot of people will use local honey for the same reason. It will contain a little bit of a lot of local pollens and stuff which may help you build something of a resistance to it. Sort of like a natural allergy shot, I guess.

But if you are allergic to bees, it could be bad for you, so I wouldn't take it in that case. My Mom has had pretty good luck with a substance called "Quer-C-Zyme" which is an enzyme the body either does not make or doesn't make enough of to help her against her allergies. When she lived back in Illinois, this stuff was the only thing that kept her sinuses at bay during leaf-burning season.
I have not tried it yet.

You can also try "Herbally Yours," by Penny C. Royal, and "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Herbal Remedies" by Alpha Books edited by Frankie Avalon Wolfe if you are just getting started in herbalism.

I find since I am badly reactive to a lot of synthetic chemicals the more natural stuff seems to be better for me, but you still need to be very informed and careful when using herbs so you don't have allergic reactions, or other undesirable effects. And just because something is "natural" or "organic" it doesn't necessarily mean it is good for you! Remember "Arsenic is natural, Hemlock is organic." Both are poisonous! Do your research. There are a lot of great books out there. Hope you get some relief.

Angel8