Ya, pre-tuning before the flood of histamine is helpful. Herbalists caught onto this idea, and advise people to pre-tune prior to their allergy season with the herbs that show antihistamine effects. Some also emphasize the care and maintenance of a 'happy' liver, which is a major locus of histamine clearance through methylation.
It's something that seems obvious in hindsight. Can't quite deal with allergies when your body is already activated.
By chance, based on TunaFortuna's comments do you know of any herbal/natural basis for antihistamines? I haven't looked into this area so I'm uninformed on what plants or supplements are worth considering and which ones have shown benefit.
A lot of the "antihistamine" effect found in plants is really mast cell stabilization. Various flavonoids are good at stopping the mast cells from vomiting out histamine and a load of chemotactic compounds- cytokines, etc. Quercetin and luteolin are well studied. In particular, quercetin has been fairly easy to extract in high concentration from plants, and it seems that the extracts work better than the synthesized product. So any weed with lots of these flavonoids will tend to do what big pharma wished that cromolyn would have done. People with crazy mast cell issues, as well as garden variety sniffles, rhinitis, asthma, have gone to the weeds, and they do love the nettles, milk thistle, perilla, elderberry, onion peels, chinese skullcap and many others. I'm finishing up an article that I teased a couple weeks ago, (hope to publish today) telling everyone another easy leaf to chew in the fall to calm down the seasonal allergies.
Interesting! I'll be on the lookout. Within the time of my comment I looked up a few things on honey and whether it may help with allergies. The argument is based on two hypotheses: either the honey contains the allergen in question and thus acts as an immunotherapy agent by way of gaining tolerance, or that compounds within honey may contain antihistamines.
Supposedly some sources of honey such as Tualang honey from Malaysian rainforests contain quercetin and other phytochemicals, and so it does appear that antihistamine agents sourced from plants may be what helps, and it all depends on which plants the honey is made from.
Yaa, people buy local honey for their personal allergies, that is raw and unfiltered (only big chunks removed). Should be unheated, unpasteurized to do the most good.
This is fascinating info. I've had terrible 'all year allergies' to grasses, weeds and dust my whole life...I feel like a 'snot machine' (lol).
One thing that has helped mitigate some of my allergies is switching to homemade cotton handkerchiefs. I basically cut up a few worn out cotton dresses and I wash them with white thyme oil to clear any germs out.
This is ironically one of those times were masking may have some benefit. I believe the size of pollen granules are large enough that most masks can block them.
I definitely feel for the snot machine issue. You have to kind of wonder where all of this mucus even comes from at some point!
I haven't at anything in particular as the focus on this post was to examine OTC drugs. The only thing I recall hearing about when it comes to honey is that local honey may help with allergies although I haven't done much research into that argument. I think for NPIs, or the more natural route you can try searching for naturopaths or other people on Substack who may offer better insights.
I may do a follow-up if I find some interesting information. I think people such as Weedom below may be people to turn to about these questions.
So I've done a bit of digging into honey. I may post an article later today with an overview. As I mentioned to Weedom it appears that honey may work in two ways. Either the honey contains the allergen in question, and so consumption of honey induces a tolerance to the allergen over time, or the honey contains natural antihistamines.
It seems that the evidence, albeit limited, points more to the latter rather than the former, mainly due to the fact that most honey bees are not sourcing their pollen from the main agents in seasonal allergies, and so you're not likely to be introduced to these allergens in honey even if locally sourced. This also tells us that not all honey may contain the right number of natural antihistamines, and so unless you are aware of what plants and pollen were sourced for the honey you produce a lot of this may be up in the air from the consumer position.
Thanks for your perspective! I looked into honey a bit more and I may write a broad article later today discussing it. I haven't looked into bee pollen though so that may be something worth saving for later.
I eventually figured out that as annoying as pollen allergies were, and I had them from age 12 onward after moving to Northern California, antihistamines interfered with my ability to think and work and I decided to forego them. Now, the main problem seems to be air pollution, not pollen, involving pollutants that aren't accounted for in the air quality index.
I took Seldane for a while, in my 40s I believe, and developed an abnormal EKG. I stopped taking it, the EKGs cleared up, and Seldane was pulled from the market in 1998 in the US for causing cardiac arrhythmia. Problem solved. My use of antihistamines went down after that, for some reason.
That's interesting. Seldane was one of the second generation antihistamines. It appears to be a prodrug of fexofenadine (Claritin) and it's the prodrug form that showed cardiotoxicity. Sorry that happened to you ClearMiddle. I have considered a series for looking at different drugs that have been removed from market and examine what went wrong.
I think it depends on the specificity of certain antihistamines, as even some may be able to bind to cholinergic receptors or other receptors within the body. Looking for more specific antihistamines may be more beneficial for people if they want to reduce side effects.
Air pollutants are definitely something to consider for respiratory problems. I wouldn't be surprised if air pollution is associated with allergies to a high degree. Probably one of the reasons to stay away from cities I suppose.
I enjoyed this post. I am a chemistry nerd so it satisfied a basic yen. Interestingly, I am one if a few who is not sedated by Benadryl. My Son is the same. We have almost an opposite reaction. I have always wondered about that.
That's interesting! I'm curious if this may be due to genetic variability in the domains for the H1 receptor. I believe they are the same within the CNS as in other parts of the body, although that may suggest that Benadryl may not be as effective. 🤷♂️ It's always something to think about when researching these drugs. One thing about researching is that it fortunately has made me more curious about these things!
Thank you! My children are suffering terribly right now from ragweed, and a pediatrician advised daily Flonase and Zyrtec for my son. My baseline assumption is that modern doctors just want to push meds on patients, but the logic of blocking the histamine receptors with Zyrtec rather than ragweed makes sense!
Given that there is some interest I may take a look at natural antihistamines. It's been argued that OTC antihistamines are one of the safest drugs out there due to how often they are used, but in all honesty it's not quite a sound argument. As I mentioned to ClearMiddle it may be best to consider whether the OTC antihistamine has a more narrow window of binding affinity. I used to just grab Loratadine because it was cheap, but if it has the ability to bind to other receptors then I may decide to put out more money for something that may have more specificity.
Also, none of this is medical advice! Just my opinion on things! 😉
My older one is a very good eater; I'm still getting her a food allergy test this week to see if she has an intolerance. I had chronic sinus infections my whole life until I cut out wheat and corn.
Could be related to gmo crops that have seed sterilizing genetic codes added. Could be combination of all toxicants exposed to making us more allergy prone. When I stopped working outside of home my allergies reduced without effort! Home cooking and stress reduction?
I very much enjoy research. Several other anomalies in my family: we have mild to moderate allergic reaction to morphine and derivatives. Also, heparin is the most effective blood thinner, the newer ones are ineffective. Weird family
Ya, pre-tuning before the flood of histamine is helpful. Herbalists caught onto this idea, and advise people to pre-tune prior to their allergy season with the herbs that show antihistamine effects. Some also emphasize the care and maintenance of a 'happy' liver, which is a major locus of histamine clearance through methylation.
It's something that seems obvious in hindsight. Can't quite deal with allergies when your body is already activated.
By chance, based on TunaFortuna's comments do you know of any herbal/natural basis for antihistamines? I haven't looked into this area so I'm uninformed on what plants or supplements are worth considering and which ones have shown benefit.
A lot of the "antihistamine" effect found in plants is really mast cell stabilization. Various flavonoids are good at stopping the mast cells from vomiting out histamine and a load of chemotactic compounds- cytokines, etc. Quercetin and luteolin are well studied. In particular, quercetin has been fairly easy to extract in high concentration from plants, and it seems that the extracts work better than the synthesized product. So any weed with lots of these flavonoids will tend to do what big pharma wished that cromolyn would have done. People with crazy mast cell issues, as well as garden variety sniffles, rhinitis, asthma, have gone to the weeds, and they do love the nettles, milk thistle, perilla, elderberry, onion peels, chinese skullcap and many others. I'm finishing up an article that I teased a couple weeks ago, (hope to publish today) telling everyone another easy leaf to chew in the fall to calm down the seasonal allergies.
Interesting! I'll be on the lookout. Within the time of my comment I looked up a few things on honey and whether it may help with allergies. The argument is based on two hypotheses: either the honey contains the allergen in question and thus acts as an immunotherapy agent by way of gaining tolerance, or that compounds within honey may contain antihistamines.
Supposedly some sources of honey such as Tualang honey from Malaysian rainforests contain quercetin and other phytochemicals, and so it does appear that antihistamine agents sourced from plants may be what helps, and it all depends on which plants the honey is made from.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7870997/
It's interesting to see all of this come together!
Yaa, people buy local honey for their personal allergies, that is raw and unfiltered (only big chunks removed). Should be unheated, unpasteurized to do the most good.
This is fascinating info. I've had terrible 'all year allergies' to grasses, weeds and dust my whole life...I feel like a 'snot machine' (lol).
One thing that has helped mitigate some of my allergies is switching to homemade cotton handkerchiefs. I basically cut up a few worn out cotton dresses and I wash them with white thyme oil to clear any germs out.
This is ironically one of those times were masking may have some benefit. I believe the size of pollen granules are large enough that most masks can block them.
I definitely feel for the snot machine issue. You have to kind of wonder where all of this mucus even comes from at some point!
It is the mucus that binds us (lol)!
Honestly, it IS amazing that our bodies can spew that much fluid out of our noses! There are times I feel like a faucet. Blech.
what is your take on non-pharmaceutical interventions, like honey or nettle?
I haven't at anything in particular as the focus on this post was to examine OTC drugs. The only thing I recall hearing about when it comes to honey is that local honey may help with allergies although I haven't done much research into that argument. I think for NPIs, or the more natural route you can try searching for naturopaths or other people on Substack who may offer better insights.
I may do a follow-up if I find some interesting information. I think people such as Weedom below may be people to turn to about these questions.
Thanks!
So I've done a bit of digging into honey. I may post an article later today with an overview. As I mentioned to Weedom it appears that honey may work in two ways. Either the honey contains the allergen in question, and so consumption of honey induces a tolerance to the allergen over time, or the honey contains natural antihistamines.
It seems that the evidence, albeit limited, points more to the latter rather than the former, mainly due to the fact that most honey bees are not sourcing their pollen from the main agents in seasonal allergies, and so you're not likely to be introduced to these allergens in honey even if locally sourced. This also tells us that not all honey may contain the right number of natural antihistamines, and so unless you are aware of what plants and pollen were sourced for the honey you produce a lot of this may be up in the air from the consumer position.
I use local raw honey and bee pollen. I think it lessens the severity of my pollen sensitivity
Thanks for your perspective! I looked into honey a bit more and I may write a broad article later today discussing it. I haven't looked into bee pollen though so that may be something worth saving for later.
If nothing else, it’s tasty.
: )
I eventually figured out that as annoying as pollen allergies were, and I had them from age 12 onward after moving to Northern California, antihistamines interfered with my ability to think and work and I decided to forego them. Now, the main problem seems to be air pollution, not pollen, involving pollutants that aren't accounted for in the air quality index.
I took Seldane for a while, in my 40s I believe, and developed an abnormal EKG. I stopped taking it, the EKGs cleared up, and Seldane was pulled from the market in 1998 in the US for causing cardiac arrhythmia. Problem solved. My use of antihistamines went down after that, for some reason.
That's interesting. Seldane was one of the second generation antihistamines. It appears to be a prodrug of fexofenadine (Claritin) and it's the prodrug form that showed cardiotoxicity. Sorry that happened to you ClearMiddle. I have considered a series for looking at different drugs that have been removed from market and examine what went wrong.
I think it depends on the specificity of certain antihistamines, as even some may be able to bind to cholinergic receptors or other receptors within the body. Looking for more specific antihistamines may be more beneficial for people if they want to reduce side effects.
Air pollutants are definitely something to consider for respiratory problems. I wouldn't be surprised if air pollution is associated with allergies to a high degree. Probably one of the reasons to stay away from cities I suppose.
I enjoyed this post. I am a chemistry nerd so it satisfied a basic yen. Interestingly, I am one if a few who is not sedated by Benadryl. My Son is the same. We have almost an opposite reaction. I have always wondered about that.
That's interesting! I'm curious if this may be due to genetic variability in the domains for the H1 receptor. I believe they are the same within the CNS as in other parts of the body, although that may suggest that Benadryl may not be as effective. 🤷♂️ It's always something to think about when researching these drugs. One thing about researching is that it fortunately has made me more curious about these things!
Thank you! My children are suffering terribly right now from ragweed, and a pediatrician advised daily Flonase and Zyrtec for my son. My baseline assumption is that modern doctors just want to push meds on patients, but the logic of blocking the histamine receptors with Zyrtec rather than ragweed makes sense!
Given that there is some interest I may take a look at natural antihistamines. It's been argued that OTC antihistamines are one of the safest drugs out there due to how often they are used, but in all honesty it's not quite a sound argument. As I mentioned to ClearMiddle it may be best to consider whether the OTC antihistamine has a more narrow window of binding affinity. I used to just grab Loratadine because it was cheap, but if it has the ability to bind to other receptors then I may decide to put out more money for something that may have more specificity.
Also, none of this is medical advice! Just my opinion on things! 😉
Soooo many reasons to get kids to increase veggies and decrease processed food, and mitigating allergies is one of them.
My older one is a very good eater; I'm still getting her a food allergy test this week to see if she has an intolerance. I had chronic sinus infections my whole life until I cut out wheat and corn.
even fungus can be seasonal.
Could be related to gmo crops that have seed sterilizing genetic codes added. Could be combination of all toxicants exposed to making us more allergy prone. When I stopped working outside of home my allergies reduced without effort! Home cooking and stress reduction?
I very much enjoy research. Several other anomalies in my family: we have mild to moderate allergic reaction to morphine and derivatives. Also, heparin is the most effective blood thinner, the newer ones are ineffective. Weird family