Pollen Allergies Ragweed

[Cocolove]

The past month has been pretty bad. I went to live on a farm for a few days and had to leave because I was mentally an physically exhausted, and sneezing and blowing my nose constantly. I have been mostly inside, but at my home the ragweed isn't as bad. I will be going in a couple days to a farm for a month. I won't have air conditioning, and am worried I will have to wear a mask/ventilator thing 24 7. I have been struggling for my whole life, some months out of the year I am just out of commission and unable to do what I could otherwise. 

Any advice would be appreciated. I eat very very healthy, organic at the least, lots of permaculture biodynamic food. I've been vegan and omnivore, cut out dairy, I've tried allergy shots for like 4 years, helped but didn't last. 

[Average Investor]

I found drinking honey in water helped a bit with symptoms. You can download a pollen tracker on your phone too. From what I know typically the morning hours would have the least amount of pollen to worry about. The tracker may alert you to another allergy you may be unaware of. 

Consider investing in a quality hepa filter for your room. Stop bringing your shoes into your room and if you can just leave them outside all together. Have clothes set aside for outside use only and rinse off with a quick shower if you go outside. Masks are pretty in style right now, so it would not be a bad choice to wear one while you are out and about. 

I assume you are trying to avoid use of antihistamines. This is a good choice for sure and I went the same route. More suffering, but you will be much healthier overall and have a much stronger immune system. The fact that you are getting this sick is actually a sign of a strong immune system. 

[Michael569]

There is something else you can try. A growing scientific evidence is supporting the fact that allergies, asthma and many other hypersensitivities are due to an imbalance in a segment of the adaptive immune system called T-Helper cells (TH-cells). 

There are two side to this:
1. T-helper Cells 1 (TH1) are your intracellular immune boosters against bacteria and viruses as well as tumours. 
2. T-Helper Cells 2 (TH2) are your extracellular defenders against things like fungi and parasites. ]

In normal state, these should be balancing out approximately every 12 hours. In conditions like asthma, allergies and autoimmunity it is believed that the immunity can get "stuck" either way. Autoimmunity is called TH1 dominant condition and allergies & asthma TH2 dominant condition. 

Now that you understand the concept (and I'd encourage you to research this more to see if it makes sense to you) there are few things you may try experimentally and see if they help. If, like me in the past you feel like you have tried everything and nothing helped you are mostly likely experiencing TH2 dominance. This is pretty much how I cured my allergies in April 2019 and haven't had a single episode since. There are few products that can help: 

1. Strong complex of medicinal mushrooms including Reishi. Reishi are crucial but it seems they work best when accompanied by other products like Lion's Mane, Maitake and SHitake. You have to make sure the mushrooms are not grown in the warehouse. Find a company that practices wild cultivation otherwise they are useless. 

2. Resveratrol has a potency to reverse TH2 dominance (I'd leave this as last option)

3. Thorne Research has a product called Moducare, this seems to be a powerful TH1/TH2 rebalancer 

4. Turmeric & Ginger seem to have some effect but this may not be strong enough and I don't know what amounts to use. 

I'd suggest you start with Moducare or The medicinal mushrooms complex. 

At the moment I don't know of any other products or drugs that can do this. Antihistamines are symptom management because allergies are not caused by histamine release, that's just a consequence. Sometimes the immune system needs a powerful kick to get back on balance and these products can deliver the punch. 

BEWARE: if you suffer from any autoimmune disease DO NOT use any of the products above, they can give you massive flareup because autoimmunity is TH1 dominant condition and all of the above can stimulate TH1 cells excessively. 

Good luck!

Feel free to pm if you have any questions about this

[Brian Wolfe]

Ragweed causes symptoms like sneezing, stuffy or runny nose, & itchy eyes. Also it can trigger asthma flares. People who have ragweed allergies are reacting to its pollen. During ragweed season, one plant can release a billion grains of it into the air.

[Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj]

I had started the carnivore diet just before last summer and it wasn't as bad as it used to be but this year it was practically gone. I've been walking over newly cut grass multiple times.

Edited September 16, 2020 by Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj

[Cocolove]

@Average Investor

yea I ordered some masks that will block out ragweed. I was tested so I am pretty sure it's just ragweed and tree pollen. When I'm inside it's pretty much fine. The problem is being outside. My life purpose is sustainable agriculture so this is an issue. At this farm I will be going to, I won't have AC or any filter. Maybe I should get one before going. Yea, I am avoiding those. I tried one this year and it didn't even help.

@Michael569 I already have a bunch of Paul Stamets mushrooms including a mixture of 5 types and lions mane, I will try this. Great advice thanks

@Brian Wolfe I know lol

@Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj That's fascinating maybe in a few years if nothing else works. Carnivore scares me.

 

Thanks so much everyone!

[DrewNows]

drink your urine, say goodbye to allergies. The body is so intelligent, it will produce whatever you need, just trust it's safe and meant for consumption. 

[Cocolove]

@Michael569 Very interesting post, its been a while now and spring allergies are in full swing. Paul stamets medicinal mushrooms didn't seem to help. I might try moducare.

@Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj

I have a bunch of extra pasture raised meat, might give this a try soon. Would a week be a good test time?

[Michael569]

@Cocolove since making that comment I've gone a bit deeper into understanding allergies and it is a bit more complex than that. How's your gut health?

[Girzo]

I have tried the mushrooms, too, they are shite. I haven't really researched what I am buying, just bought a generic brand from a local pharmacy, so it might have been not a fair shot at trying them.

The way is to learn to manage this effectively. Antihistamines don't hurt much. After taking them for a few weeks you have more or less tolerance to the sleepiness effect. For now (Baltic Europe) I just go with a big pill of fexofenadine, 160 mg in the morning and plan on adding to it up to 3 times per day 5 mg of levoceterizine, according to the needs when the polen season gets into a full-swing.

Fun-fact: LSD works like an antihistamine, so you don't have to take any allergy medication when planning to trip in nature. 

[Girzo]

47 minutes ago, Michael569 said:

How's your gut health?

Last year around April I have still had terrible, destroyed gut from antibiotics.

This year it's a happy vegan belly full of beans and other fart-producing materials, haha.

Will see if it makes any difference, but I don't feel like it does yet. It seems that the weather, and thus the pollen count in the air, has a much more profound impact on the intensity of allergies than any changes in diet.

[Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj]

5 hours ago, Cocolove said:

@Michael569 Very interesting post, its been a while now and spring allergies are in full swing. Paul stamets medicinal mushrooms didn't seem to help. I might try moducare.

@Sri McDonald Trump Maharaj

I have a bunch of extra pasture raised meat, might give this a try soon. Would a week be a good test time?

I'm not sure but I'd say at least a month.

[Cocolove]

@Michael569 I think perhaps that could have to do with it. I think it is pretty good. I eat pasture raised raw and fermented dairy, I make and eat lots of lactofermented vegetables. My digestion and bowel movements are very good. Around 4 years ago as a newly pubescent boy I took antibiotics daily for I think multilpe months for acne. It wasn't even that bad of acne, I wish I hadn't done that but I didn't know any better. Also used an acne skin cream until a year a go I realized it was an antibiotic and full of other chemicals, then stopped cold turkey, acne got worse for a bit, now it is so much better that's its nearly gone. Apparently that has a lot to do with microbiome. Should I take probiotics to repopulate or has time and lots of natural bacteria from the diet had time to help? Also, I've allergies my whole life. I bet my microbiome wasn't that good as a kid, because of standard american diet. 

Nice website!

 

@Girzo Yea, antihistamines work wonders. Higher risk of dementia and alzheimers is worth it for me because they make such a difference. If only there was something I could do about the pollen. Wearing a mask does that but its so uncomfortable when its hot out and im gardening. After raining, my allergies go away as the air and buds are clear of pollen.

[Hap E-Boi]

For me zinc supplementation and fatty fish as well as reduction of histamine intake did wonders after I learned pollen allergy was one of the symptoms of undermethylation. What antihistamines can do, you can also do naturally. For me it has an even greater effect and no side effects. Unfortunately I had to break my vegan diet in order to tackle my undermethylation, but with great succes for my health. Other than fish everything I eat is still fully plant based though. Perhaps do some research about the methylation cycle as well as epigenetics, and decide for yourself whether or not it's worth trying?

This can be a good source to start:
https://www.walshinstitute.org/
 

Feel free to shoot any more questions.

Edited April 28, 2021 by Hap E-Boi

[Girzo]

26 minutes ago, Cocolove said:

Also, I've allergies my whole life.

If you are twenty-something then you are probably in your worst period allergy-wise. My doc said it gets better the older you get.

I think we are just made to live in Spain, Mexico or some other hot, fun place, haha. When I was in Spain, even during the peak of the pollen season, I had zero allergies, that's probably because of how little plants grew there.

[Michael569]

35 minutes ago, Cocolove said:

took antibiotics daily for I think multilpe months for acne

oh man you bet this could be contributing to the whole allergy thing, disrupted microbiome, potentially disrupted gut mucosa with high production of LPS are all risk factor for worsened allergies. Yeah, I'd suggest some good probiotic mix. At least 50 billion CFU (make sure there is a good cocktail of bacterial colonies) per unit maybe for 2-3 months and prebiotics in forms of beans, wholegrains, mushrooms and some fortified foods. Feel free to hit me up if you wanna talk about it sometime  Yeah coming of SAD, that diet pretty much predisposes individual for everything, sometimes it is like a Russian rolutette, what comes first 

Good luck!