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KosAbility: Feeling miserable here in pollen nation, seeking hay fever advice [1]

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Date: 2023-05-28  

This is my first-ever spring with hay fever and it’s exponentially worse than I’d imagined. I’ve done fieldwork with hay fever afflicted colleagues and thought I was suitably considerate, but I now realize I underestimated hay fever: Suffering it is indeed. It’s so debilitating I took multiple rapid covid tests over several days to be sure it was really pollen causing my distress. When all tests confirmed that it’s not covid, I felt disappointment—for that moment, covid seemed less troublesome.

Then, I made it worse for myself by being oblivious to proper hay fever behavior. It’s spring, the air quality is great (no wildfire smoke) and morning temps are cool, so I opened windows and turned on an exhaust fan. This quickly sickened me so intensely I could barely open my itchy watery red eyes and was constantly blowing my snotty nose, which amped up the headache. I squinted at the computer screen (brightness at the lowest setting), searching “best OTC drug for hay fever” and decided on Claritin (loratadine). I picked it up immediately at the nearby drugstore and dry swallowed a dose in the car. Finally, hours later, that drug and improved common sense measures like closing windows provided some stability, but I’ve been as sealed up as possible ever since, only popping outside to clean the bird bath and handle other essentials

If this had hit me when I was a kid, I’d be a very different person now—certainly not a botanist or any profession that involved being outdoors in springtime. I’m hoping this season’s pollen abundance is an exceptional event due to ample rainfall lasting into late spring (last night we had more rain) and clement temperatures that help squeeze the last bit of pollen from all the plant anthers. What a life horror it would be to know in advance that hay fever will be coming up again year after year along with the flowering plants!

I’ve come here today to ask for advice on coping with hay fever. I’m using an air purifier inside, keeping windows closed, wearing a mask when I must venture outdoors, taking Claritin once a day, and using ibuprofen for headaches.

What else helps ease hay fever?

x A poem about hay fever pic.twitter.com/vIBbLsJcrL — TwistedDoodles (@twisteddoodles) July 23, 2020

I also saved a couple health-related tweets to supplement my extended whining session.

This is a subscriber-only story but even without the whole story, this part is worth sharing: “Low-dose naltrexone is often used to treat chronic pain and autoimmune disorders. Now, for many struggling with debilitating post-COVID symptoms, it's one of the few treatments that works.”

x In regular doses, naltrexone is used to treat people with substance use disorder, as it blocks the opioid receptors in the brain. In small quantities, it takes on several paradoxical qualities, relieving chronic pain and tamping down inflammation

https://t.co/IszIIPkr6J — National Geographic (@NatGeo) May 27, 2023

This one is odd but, if true, very good news. What might be the physiological connection between shingles and dementia?

x New preprint proposes that the shingles vaccine may prevent about 1 in 5 cases of dementia.



Live discussion on impact + limitations from lead author & Biohub Investigator @PGeldsetzer1 with Joe DeRisi, president of #CZBiohubSF @czbiohub at 4 pm PT.



Spaces link to come. https://t.co/wtAyPPLw3N — Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network (@czbiohub) May 26, 2023

KosAbility’s monthly meetings are held the last Sunday of each month at 4 pm Pacific (7 pm Eastern).

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/28/2171208/-KosAbility-Feeling-miserable-here-in-pollen-nation-seeking-hay-fever-advice

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