Hayfever

And as you read above, there is no evidence that over the counter tablets cure allergies.

Skully, sorry I mean, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall featured people producing honey in Hackney in one of his many middle-class-idyllic-isn't-life-nice-in-the-country-with-bunny-wunnies-and-bees-and-yummy-food programs so someone must have bees producing it. Does Hackney have a farmers market or has the gentrification not got that far yet?

http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:csrgvZSVrq4J:http://www.aidanbrooks.blogspot.com/2008/05/taste-of-two-honeys.html+buy+hackney+honey&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk

''Hackney Rooftop Honey are in the process of setting up a website for online sales, but for the time being you can buy their honey from H E Tidiman (Master Butchers), 57 Broadway Market, Hackney E8 4PH.''

Although this was from a year ago so it's maybe not there anymore...

And as you read above, there is no evidence that over the counter tablets cure allergies.

Antihistamines don't cure allergies, no-one has ever claimed they do.
The relieve the symptoms. Nose sprays work very much like asthma inhalers. They relieve the symptoms. Some people have said certain tablets they have a weird reaction to .. fair enough. The ones I take make me sleepy as hell about 4pm.

The drug companies spend about £400 million bringing to market each drug, they make bloody sure it works, because it has to pass clinical trials at several stages. That is before they invest money actually batch synthesizing it.

But obviously they aren't proven to do what they do. .......

I have isolated my allergy to the bed area in my room. After a massive hoover/dust of the whole room I am now fine sitting at my desk and walking about but as soon as I lie in bed I almost instantly start sneezing and getting a blocked nose. I have changed my duvet and pillow to non feather versions, I have put fresh bedding on and hoovered and flipped my mattress over but the problem still continues. I think the next step is to try swapping the other pillows I have and maybe even getting a new mattress.

I can't deal with having shit nights sleep for the whole summer I really want to try and track down where the problem lies. I am almost out of ideas of what the offending object could be.

dust mite shit. that's what you're allergic to.
i guess.

and
www.badscience.net
for better explanantions of "wee" and "woo" altermeds..

Don't forget the power of the mind. If you approach homeopathy with scepticism it is definitely not for you. I don't get it either but in France it has been an important part of general medecine for a long time and a lot of GPs and pharmacies specialise in homeopathy.

You need to remember that doctors are people too. Most are likely to be skeptical about homeopathy but a small number will be proponents of it. Just because a GP thinks homeopathy works doesn't make it a whole lot more credible than if a homeopathy remedy user thinks it works. BMJ articles are probably the best place to find evidence-based studies.

Antihistamines don't cure allergies, no-one has ever claimed they do.

I was reacting to your comment "acupuncture is bollox" and as a general point I don't get the "one tablet fits all". We are all different and to give the same treatment to someone who is 50kg or 130kg, 20 year old or 65 year old, seems completely wrong to me.

Anyway, my experience with acupuncture and traditional chinese medicine has been extremely positive. After surgery over a year ago and a few 5-mn visits over the years at my GP who completely misdiagnosed me, I was told that I was suffering from a nasty condition and the level was severe. The specialist after surgery came up with a treatment: hormonal injections for 6 months with nasty side effects. There is no cure for it so the treatment would have to continue. When I asked what my other options were he told me that if I didn't have the treatment I would need to have regular surgery and worse. I turned to acupuncture as it has extremely good results for pain management. I was sometimes in extreme pain and I was scared that it would happen outside home. My condition has improved by 80% and continues to improve. I haven't taken any pain killers for over 6 months, I don't suffer the headaches I used to have, my sciatica has gone (I had a sciatica for 2 years before starting the treatment and learnt that it was related to my condition) and lots of other positive things. I know someone who has the same condition as me, she pops a lot of very strong pain killers on a daily basis and has had surgery twice within a year.

The only thing is acupuncture does not cure you instantly, it is a long process. It is amazing at reducing pain (and is used in some hospitals I believe to help patients after chemotherapy treatments).

I also practice Qikung and meditation.

http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:csrgvZSVrq4J:http://www.aidanbrooks.blogspot.com/2008/05/taste-of-two-honeys.html+buy+hackney+honey&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk

''Hackney Rooftop Honey are in the process of setting up a website for online sales, but for the time being you can buy their honey from H E Tidiman (Master Butchers), 57 Broadway Market, Hackney E8 4PH.''

Although this was from a year ago so it's maybe not there anymore...

I'm gonna go get me some of this. Hopefully they're still going strong.
Cheers for the info.

I was reacting to your comment "acupuncture is bollox" and as a general point I don't get the "one tablet fits all". We are all different and to give the same treatment to someone who is 50kg or 130kg, 20 year old or 65 year old, seems completely wrong to me.

Anyway, my experience with acupuncture and traditional chinese medicine has been extremely positive. After surgery over a year ago and a few 5-mn visits over the years at my GP who completely misdiagnosed me, I was told that I was suffering from a nasty condition and the level was severe. The specialist after surgery came up with a treatment: hormonal injections for 6 months with nasty side effects. There is no cure for it so the treatment would have to continue. When I asked what my other options were he told me that if I didn't have the treatment I would need to have regular surgery and worse. I turned to acupuncture as it has extremely good results for pain management. I was sometimes in extreme pain and I was scared that it would happen outside home. My condition has improved by 80% and continues to improve. I haven't taken any pain killers for over 6 months, I don't suffer the headaches I used to have, my sciatica has gone (I had a sciatica for 2 years before starting the treatment and learnt that it was related to my condition) and lots of other positive things. I know someone who has the same condition as me, she pops a lot of very strong pain killers on a daily basis and has had surgery twice within a year.

The only thing is acupuncture does not cure you instantly, it is a long process. It is amazing at reducing pain (and is used in some hospitals I believe to help patients after chemotherapy treatments).

I also practice Qikung and meditation.

I am glad it works for you, however I cannot accepting something working when there is no sound logical unpinning behind it. Flows of energy and other crap that it is based on it just doesn't cut it for me, if at some point there is a sound explanation as why it works I will believe in it until then I have to remain sceptical.

^

Homeopathy/Accupuncture etc are all bollox. There is no evidence that says they work at best they are a placebo.

Ask any doctor: placebos work.

eat a teaspoon of honey from your local area.
it's ment to build you up a immunity to pollen from the honey
you have to start early in the year
but i don't no if it works

Poor old Bee, what's happening to them?!

I don't deny it that someone's psychology well being does affect ones health. And it is my understanding that this is how the placebo effect works.

What I have a problem is that there are treatment methods that claim to work on some mystical bullshit principles that don't have any sound scientific unpinning, they may have a placebo effect, but that doesn't mean the principles of how they work is true.

Oh yes, and apples. A shed-load of apples. Believe they have natural anti-hysthamines in. I'd go for old varieties, which aren't bred for fast-growth and massive yield, so maybe Cox's (yumm) or if you can find them, Beauty of Bath (amazing apples), Codlins, or maybe cook with the old-fashioned cookers like bramley or maybe russets.
Natural anti-histamine in apples is Quercetin, also in onion.

You can buy Quercetin supplements in health food shop.
Just about the best natural hayfever remedy IMO.

nasal sprays are def the way to go.

Vitamin C is a winner with allergies. There have been quite a few studies showing that blood levels of Vitamin C are significantly reduced in sufferers of hay-fever when their symptoms are at their worst. Supplementing your diet with Vitamin C tablets or carrots and oranges could make a difference. I, for one, am off to eat a few clementines right now.

Peppers have got loads more vit C than any citrus fruit so get a few of them down your neck too.

I use Benodryl 3 a day tabs and get by on just one a day. I only take them when I start getting symptoms as they work very quick. One pack of 24 usually lasts me a year or 2 as I'm only a mild sufferer who didn't even get hayfever for the first 30 years of my life.

+1 for the nasal sprays, life savers.

I am glad it works for you, however I cannot accepting something working when there is no sound logical unpinning behind it. Flows of energy and other crap that it is based on it just doesn't cut it for me, if at some point there is a sound explanation as why it works I will believe in it until then I have to remain sceptical.

But Nerves work on electrical Impulse. The Ancient Chinese didn't understand about electrickery, so they called it Chi.

Think about it, Electro-Magnetic Energy flows through every living thing... So, If by using Needles (Which are electrically conductive, and thence can be used to short-circuit current) to create short circuits in nerves-points you can kill pain, I can readily accept that as a provable, explainable premise.

Same as Osteopathy. I can accept that if I have a jammed up joint or a short muscle mis-shaping my skeleton, maniplulating said problem area in specific ways will help the body get itself healed.

I don't accept the Chiropractic opinion "Everything can be healed by just having having an aligned spine", neither do I accept the "Water has memory" opinion of Homeopathy because these statements cannot be proven.

However, There isn't "big money" in doing properly structured methodology based primary reseach into any of these therapies, and so, we can never actually "know" beyond reasonable doubt which ones are "good" and which are "hooey".

But there we go eh? I for one will keep going to the Osteo, as being able to walk beats being on pain-killers and not being able to walk really...

Don't forget the power of the mind. If you approach homeopathy with scepticism it is definitely not for you.

Which highlights it's role as a placebo.

Anyway, my experience with acupuncture and traditional chinese medicine has been extremely positive. After surgery over a year ago and a few 5-mn visits over the years at my GP who completely misdiagnosed me, I was told that I was suffering from a nasty condition and the level was severe. The specialist after surgery came up with a treatment: hormonal injections for 6 months with nasty side effects. There is no cure for it so the treatment would have to continue. When I asked what my other options were he told me that if I didn't have the treatment I would need to have regular surgery and worse. I turned to acupuncture as it has extremely good results for pain management.

Storm, it that you ? :P

During your surgery, did you use the pain killing power of acupuncture - or did something tell you to stick to recognised medicine ?

• 1 to pretty much all what Damo and lucas said.
  

http://www.chemistdirect.co.uk/30-days-allergy-and-hayfever-relief-cetirizine-tabs_1_10167.html

29p for 30 tablets, exactly the same as Zirtek for about a tenner. Drug TFU.

During your surgery, did you use the pain killing power of acupuncture - or did something tell you to stick to recognised medicine ?

You know what it is like with recognised medicine, you have to do what they say. After all they didn't study for 9+ years to be questioned.

Interestingly my friend's dad who has been treated for cancer for 10 years had hypnotherapy instead of anesthetic during his last surgery. He said it was amazing.

I think nasal-spray-honey-placebos are clearly the only option