Allergies

Just looking for some ideas or help with allergies.

So for the past couple of years, I wake up every morning and my sinuses are worse than a coke head's. Essentially, I wake up and have nasal drip in my throat. Literally, the first thing I have to do is hock up a loogie. It drives me crazy.

I can't figure out what is causing it. I've gone to an allergist and they've run tests but nothing really comes back conclusive. The only thing they said i react to is dust mites. I don't think it is a dust mite issue as I am somewhat of a neat freak. Our house is cleaned professionally every two weeks, so I don't have some dusty home.

The thing that is weird is I only have this problem at home. When I travel, I never wake up with the phlegm in throat or sinuses aggravated. Literally just spent a week on Martha's Vineyard out in the woods and didn't wake up a single day with phelgm in my throat. First night back in Chicago, my sinuses are messed up again. I got to other cities and don't have the issue.

It is obviously something in my house, but can't figure out what it could be. We don't have mold (at least that i can see). No signs of water infiltration.

a reply to: Edumakated

Do your cleaning people bring their own supplies? They can actually bring other people's dust/germs/etc
into your house.

Do you use down bedding? How old is your mattress? Do you have a lot of carpeting?
We never wear shoes inside our house and we clean our carpets regularly, yet they still gross me out.

I visited Chicago recently and the air quality there is very bad. An air purifier is a must as is hepa filters on everything, especially vacuums. I completely stopped using bag-less vacuums and had to go back to fully bagged hepa vacuums.

Also, whenever I visit the East coast I breathe so much better, but when I visit the West coast it is opposite. I was so congested on the West coast.

a reply to: Edumakated


Do you have school aged kids living in your house?

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: Edumakated

Do your cleaning people bring their own supplies? They can actually bring other people's dust/germs/etc
into your house.

Do you use down bedding? How old is your mattress? Do you have a lot of carpeting?
We never wear shoes inside our house and we clean our carpets regularly, yet they still gross me out.

I visited Chicago recently and the air quality there is very bad. An air purifier is a must as is hepa filters on everything, especially vacuums. I completely stopped using bag-less vacuums and had to go back to fully bagged hepa vacuums.

Also, whenever I visit the East coast I breathe so much better, but when I visit the West coast it is opposite. I was so congested on the West coast.

The cleaning people use our supplies. We don't have much of any carpet in our house (just one area rug in living room). Hardwoods throughout as my wife has bad allergies too. We also have industrial grade air filters. However, we haven't been using them lately.

The mattress is maybe five or six years old. Tried washing sheets, down comforter, etc more frequently but none of that seems to work.

I'm going to sleep on couch downstairs to see if that isolates the problem to the bedroom.

I'm wondering if my wife likes to keep the windows closed too much. She prefers the house to be basically hermetically sealed while I like open windows so fresh air can come through.

originally posted by: olaru12
a reply to: Edumakated


Do you have school aged kids living in your house?

5 and 2.5 year old....

a reply to: Edumakated

Stop using the down for a while too, just see if that makes a difference.

Get a mold kit. They sell them at the hardware stores. They are cheap and you can set them in different rooms.
If there is mold, you'll know. Sometimes there is a slow leak somewhere, like from a fridge or to a toilet.

a reply to: Edumakated

How old is your mattress?

You realize those things will gain several pounds over their lifetimes from dead skin that falls down into them? That might be where your dust mites are hiding and why you seem overly reactive only overnight.

originally posted by: Edumakated

originally posted by: olaru12
a reply to: Edumakated


Do you have school aged kids living in your house?

5 and 2.5 year old....

It's not allergies...it's stress!

a reply to: JAGStorm

Yep. This is what im thinking. There is a show about this i saw a while back. The mold actually had neuro effects on the homeowners too. Id start with this.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Edumakated

How old is your mattress?

You realize those things will gain several pounds over their lifetimes from dead skin that falls down into them? That might be where your dust mites are hiding and why you seem overly reactive only overnight.

The mattress is only 5 or 6 years old. However, we also use a mattress cover that is suppose to keep dust mites out of mattress.

I've even slept in chicago hotels and dont have the issue so it isn't the Chicago air.

a reply to: Edumakated

Unless you're just now realizing you have an allergy to animal hair, it's probably the high ragweed pollen count and mold count in Chicago right now. Take 24 hour Claritin. It works great for midwest air.

a reply to: Edumakated

It might be the wet conditions leading to higher than normal fall pollen counts.

Our son is gacking away like he has asthma, but the doctor confirmed there's nothing wrong with him except slight post-nasal drip. So he's fighting the allergies too.

It doesn't help that he has a super-sensitive cough reflex.

I am pretty sure they make pillow and mattress covers that help control mite issues.
Maybe check for them on Amazon.

Also, how is your duct work? Has it ever been cleaned? I think some of that is a scam, but then....only if you don't need to have them cleaned.

originally posted by: DontTreadOnMe
I am pretty sure they make pillow and mattress covers that help control mite issues.
Maybe check for them on Amazon.

Also, how is your duct work? Has it ever been cleaned? I think some of that is a scam, but then....only if you don't need to have them cleaned.

They do make those covers. I use them on my pillows and my mattress.

I don't think duct work cleaning is a scam. I recall you had an issue with allergies at some point and I recommended that?

I had my ducts cleaned last year or the year before and I don't think they had EVER been cleaned since the house was built. I saw the before and after and noticed an immediate air quality improvement.

a reply to: Edumakated

As suggested, mite covers and duct cleaning can help, but do you have any pets? How old is your house? Any mold or mildew issues?

If the air is too dry that can also be a problem.

Here's s weird one. You mentioned
you're a neat freak, and dust mites are probably your best guess for what's causing allergies.

Do you make your bed everyday?

If you do, that really helps the dust mites breed and stay alive. Maybe try pulling back the bedding.

Otherwise, it has to be something bed related. Your wife's lotions/hair products/fragrance, etc. Maybe?

Im so intrigued by this mystery.

Avoid any foods with alum in them. and also any stomach meds with aluminum in it. Aluminum is also in most baking powders. Aluminum is a neuro-exitant. It can make your allergies worse. There is a lot of alum in some pickles and often in quick melting cheeses.

If you are allergic to rag weed, avoiding chicory is important. Chicory inulins are found in lots of health foods. Also most of the green and other bell peppers are related to ragweed.

Identify what food chemistries you are intolerant to.

Now tomatoes, avacado, kiwi, canned pineapple, and some other fruits and veggies can knock out histaminase which is one of the bodies enzymes to break down histamines. This is different than consuming foods that contain histamines. Many of the foods they tout as good for us contain lots of histamines. Histamines are also released from our muscle stores when we exercise, the amount stored in our bodies might also be too high. Exercise induced asthma can result from stored histamine being released. Lots of things contain histamines. Also, there are genetic snps that are relevant to allergies but genetics does not usually trigger the allergy. There is IGE, and IGA responses that can cause problems accentuating the allergy. Those are epigenetic traits.

We need histamine in our bodies, but some people need way less, so they get negative reactions because they make way less enzymes to break it down. Histamines are tyramines. But there are other kinds of tyramines, like catacholamines and putramine and cadavarine.

We cannot avoid histamines completely, but we can avoid some of the food chemistry that interferes with our body breaking down histamines. Also, we need certain minerals in our body to make the enzymes in the histamine and tyramine detox pathways. I really like tomatoes, but am getting more and more intolerant to them as I get older because the chemistry of the tomato destroys DAO enzymes. I can still eat tomatoes one meal a week without too many problems. Citrus also can block histamine reducing enzymes. I have always broken out around the mouth if I eat lots of citrus and or tomatoes. I also get sores here and there from those two foods. It seems they stimulate histamine which goes out and stimulates an attack on anything in my body, A harmless incapsulated sliver triggers the immune system to fight it, it eventually disappears or at least what is encapsulating it does. Histamines actually help us heal, but too much tears us apart.

a reply to: Edumakated

Chewing on Anise seeds is amazing for my asthma. It works much better than the inhalers.

a reply to: Liquesence
That's good to know! Thanks.

No, we never did.
But we did move to a much newer place. Ducts are still shiny clean.

Don’t know if this will help but, I used to have a problem with allergies (hay fever and leaf dust, mostly).

I started having a mug of hot tea before bed every night into which I would add about a tablespoon of Local wildflower honey.

After two to three weeks, no more problems!