Question:
I'm new to the group so I'll give everyone my story as best I can below
but I'll put my question up here at the top so as not to bore people
with details that may not matter.
I recently found out that I get hives from allergy medicine. I have
tried several over the counter and prescription allergy medications
including allegra, clariton, seldane and benadryl (I'm sure I spelled
all of those wrong!) I've taken others too but I don't remember the
names. Has anyone else ever had this problem or heard of this problem?
Answer:
This is fascinating enough that an academic allergist would be delighted to
discuss it with you. It sounds like a publication to me, or at least a
letter to the editor of an allergy journal. The best responses are associated with pollen allergies; your
experience is about typical for animal allergies. About 25% of these
people benefit with some measurable improvement. That improvement
does not mean it's something that you would notice. For instance if
you were having to use an inhaler and the number of times you used it
per day dropped from 5 to 4 - that's measurable but hardly noticable
to the patient. The primary benefit from recent reviews of studies is
that it at least keeps the response from getting worse. I'm not aware of any economical testing methods for these. It would
make some difference in understanding the condition but I can't think
of any practical change in treatment recommendations- which is to
avoid taking the drug. You might want to check/compare the ingredients/formula. Not all allergy
medicines have the same ingredient.
Here's claritin (and there might be different formulas for each brand).
http://www.rbhealth.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/online-store/scstore/s... pseudoephedrine sulfate
If you were taking the 24-hour formula then , as the formula wore off, the
hives came back, so not a reaction to the med?
http://www.ehendrick.org/healthy/00037910.html
more (and some conditions that might complicate allergies and/or allergy
medicine-taking, perhaps something to check?).
A lady I know few years back had awful time with hives until her thyroid was
properly treated.
I have thyroid problems so had great difficulty with allergy meds.
I believe a person can build a certain resistance to "allergens" and I have
done so.
http://www.aocd.org/skin/dermatologic_diseases/urticaria.html
I can live with cats (unless I wait too long to clean their cat litter -it's
the proteins apparently).
The proteins can collect on your clothes, and if you put the same clothes on
that you wore where there were animals, that too can cause the hives to come
back. So it's difficult to conclude anything at this point. (about your
situation)
anyway, all this to say that my solution (eventually) was to avoid the
allergy meds that I noticed reactions to and avoid the allergens.
J-gotta go clean the cat litter ;-)
