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March 26, 2006
Allergy Season
It's here. I'm just starting to feel the fuzziness in my head. I've been sneezing and blowing my nose, too, and this is a bad sign. Each year my allergies seem to be worse. And each year I suffer stoicly through them, putting off medication in the hope that it'll all be over soon. It lasts for ages, though -- longer each year -- and I blame this entirely on the poor air quality in the city. For all the advantages of living here, the air is a definite drawback and in the spring I always fanticize about living in a farm somewhere, far away from the clouds of bus-generated, lung-stressing diesel fumes.
About four years ago I finally sent myself to New York Magazine's allergy-doctor-of-the-moment. He did a bunch of tests and confirmed that I'm allergic to grass and tree pollen. He also sent me home with lots of free medication (which is why, I suspect, he was so popular with magazine readers). The Allegra and Flonase worked, and I had a bearable spring that year.
The following year, I planned ahead and got my Allegra prescription, only to find our that my health plan decided that it didn't need to cover Allegra. Clarinex only, which doesn't work for me. Ever since, I've been a snotty mess all spring. My nose is like a faucet, and I'm incapable of staying outside (even at the cherry blossom festival, which I was determined to enjoy).
This allergy season, out of sheer desperation, I'm taking a different tack. I'm ignoring the medical establishment altogether and buying things from women in shawls and headscarves in tiny off-the-beaten track stalls. My mother would be mortified.
Derek's mom, however, is a seasoned alternative medicine expert. She has gladly given me advice on herbal remedies, since the rest of the family tends to shy away from her regular admonitions to take bovine eye supplements, echinacea, etc. With her help, I've been steered toward buying various bags of dried brown things. Also dried yellow things. We're in Delaware for the weekend, and we went to one of those indoor weekend markets yesterday that carries everything from Amish sausage to garage sale rejects. I bravely ventured into a stand with herbal remedies of various sorts picked up some astrogolus for less than $2. It's the real thing -- little slices of the root. I also picked up a jar of bee pollen, which I've become addicted to. It's chewy and a little sticky. Once you've started down this path, there are endless opportunities to get caugt up in exotic cure-alls -- it's a bit daunting. After I'd picked up the bee pollen, I inexplicably found myself buying flax meal and some other odd-looking herb. It's a slippery slope.
Derek's mom has lent me an old book called "Folk Medicine" to help me along my alternative medicine route. It describes "Vermont healing practices" and focuses largely on honey, vinegar, and frequent urinalysis (with your trusy "Squibb's Nitrazine Paper"). These three things, used in combination, can ostendibly cure everything from bedwetting to high blood pressure. There is also the odd mention of turpentine and castor oil. The book, thankfully, doesn't require urinalysis or castor oil for allergy treatment, but strongly recommends replacing daily coffee with Brigham tea to address severe allergies. I'm also supposed to contact my local Vermont honey beekeeper and get a year's worth of honeycomb cappings to chew on. This seems less likely, but the book is so pursuasive that I'm convinced the tea will solve everything.
Actually, every recommendation in every herbal remedy book seems to be guaranteed to fix my allergy problem (and several others), so how can I possibly fail? I plan to eat a teaspoon of bee pollen a day, along with a cup of astragolus-infused Brigham tea. I'm not entirely sure the astragolus will help the allergies -- it's supposed to strengthen the immune system, which may mean that I'll react even more strongly to allergens, but I could swear I read somewhere that it can help. Honestly, isn't it obvious that I'm a little desperate here? I'll try anything.
Posted by csageday at March 26, 2006 05:04 PM
Comments
Well, I've been having terrible allergies the last couple of years, so I'll be interested to see how this works for you. I've heard that if you're going the bee/pollen/honey route, that totally local bee products are the thing, and I was just reading an article about Brooklyn beekeepers. I know you can get NYC honey at the Greenmarket in Union Square; I think the place to get the Brooklyn honey was Two for Tea (if that's the name of the place) in Park Slope.
Hope it helps! As for me, I'm thinking of trying an allergy doctor this year!
Posted by: Rose at March 28, 2006 09:34 AM