Antihistamines - How the Other Half Live

[clovehitched]

Inspired by a post I saw elsewhere today where someone asked advice for itchy insect bites and people were suggesting all sorts of things to rub on them, but it was ages before the first person suggested antihistamines.

It reminded me of an incident a few years ago when I was at Boots, picking up a prescription. A lady came in and asked the pharmacist about some rash she had, and said that her GP had suggested antihistamines. "What do antihistamines do? I've never taken them before and I don't know anything about them".

I am boggled by both of these. Antihistamines are a fact of my life. I take an H2 receptor antagonist antihistamine daily, an H1 receptor antagonist antihistamine most days, inhaled steroids and nasal steroids daily, a nasal neurotransmitter receptor antagonist (it blocks mucus production) daily, and carry a Ventolin inhaler.

Thus when I get an insect bite, or insect bites, they are never more than the most temporary of irritations - the antihistamines take care of them as a side effect of the reason I take them - to try and control my ever present rhinitis and post nasal drip due to being allergic to dust mites, grass pollen, most mammals and $DEITY knows what else.

Sylvia has allergies too and not routinely having antihistamines in the house (in addition to the ones I get on prescription) would be akin to not having painkillers in. I sometimes forget that there are large numbers of people who don't experience routine allergic reactions to things, who seldom or even never take antihistamines, who don't keep a box in their car, or carry them in their handbag (don't even mention the spare nasal spray and inhaler that live in there).

The rest of us ... we just get to rattle when running up stairs!

Also posted at http://auntysarah.dreamwidth.org/244339.html - you can comment here or there.

Comments

[theapink.livejournal.com]

I think it was me who first suggested antihistamines in that thread. Although I don't need to take them routinely I ALWAYS have them available as I get very nasty reactions to insect bites.

[auntysarah.livejournal.com]

They're really useful drugs, aren't they? Even for people without allergies, I reckon they're handy to have around.

[alicephilippa.livejournal.com]

Immensely useful. I always have a strip on me¹ and take them everyday to help with the mild allergic reactions I get to some foodstuffs. As a result the only insect bites that bother me seem to be horsefly ones.

The only time I'm not taking them is when I have to take betahistine when I have a dose of labyrinthitis.

¹except when they are in a bag I've left in Left Luggage at KGX.

[naath.livejournal.com]

I don't tend to have them around (or indeed to ever take them) I think this is because I am ludicrously lucky where such things are concerned (I have very little reaction to such things as insect bites and nettle stings).

I wouldn't be without a supply of pain killers though (even if I don't take them often).

[ailbhe]

I grew up with antihistamine cream to put on insect attacks of all sorts. Nettle stings too, IIRC. Sudocrem for all wounds, up to and including loss of limb; antihistamine cream for anything lumpy; milk of magnesia for anything digestive; Vicks vaporub for cold symptoms; nice hot sweet drinks for pain. In my early teens we started being allowed drugs for pain, too.

I first took an oral antihistamine for an insect sting when a bee stung my lip in my early 20s. I knew I was camping in a field with a lot of people with hayfever so I just asked everyone until someone had a pill to give me. It was... automatic. I assumed someone would have antihistamines, and that that was the appropriate course of action.

I was right, too.

Gave my children infant piriton to make them sleep (desperate measures), but also when one of them was stung by a wasp.

I've never used them regularly or for a known allergy. Ever.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

Antihistamines are great; I remember finding a patch of nettles the hard way and I only noticed I had my arm on a nettle because of a slight tickling.

And I'm right with you with the boggling. Though I've a terrible habit of forgetting my meds because they're in the wrong bag and I only seldom take them (unless I eat out).

[darkwaterfairy.livejournal.com]

While nowhere near your territory, I've come to keep my antihistamine tablets on hand all year round as somewhere between the 'my skin being quite sensitive' and the 'aspie touch hypersensitivity', I'll occasionally spontaneously get intense itching all over my skin. And this is all year round, not just in my normally hayfever season.

VERY VERY appreciated when needed.

...but then I now have a long stick of those small screw together travel pots which acts as a micro-pharmacy for all ills in my handbag...

[lisaquestions.livejournal.com]

Antihistamines are amazing. Everyone should have some on hand.

[claire-stretch.livejournal.com]

DOCK LEAF!

[auntysarah.livejournal.com]

Disappointingly, wikipedia says they're just placebo.

[claire-stretch.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw that but then I googled dock leaf+antihistamines. my grandad was the one that introduced dock leaves to me, when I was young, its always seem to work with nettle sings at very least and reading up at very least the fluid in them is alkaline which counters the acid from the sting, that’s the theory.

A nature/animal/gardening freak says they contain antihistamine as well.

However that said, how true or false it is, I don’t know. Could be propaganda from the antihistamine manufacture who knows!

[auntysarah.livejournal.com]

While nettle stings do contain formic acid, they also contain histamine, which being an amine is basic/alkaline.

I suspect the histamine is responsible for more of the irritation than any formic acid present, which is why antihistamines work against nettle stings - they block the receptors, preventing the body's reaction to the sting.

[x-mass.livejournal.com]

i believe at least one company has a a partial vaccine that has completed stage three and another is at stage 2 with wide range vaccine against a lot of the issues you describe

I know 5 years is a long time but it could well be a lot better for you in 2015

personally I swear by hydroxine 25mg any time i have a histamic reaction out it comes. It also works potentates DHC which can be useful

[marjaerwin]

Ouch... Antihistamines. I know I'm allergic to Benadryl. It gives my hives. I try to avoid any antihistamines. Better to use air filters and the like.

[valeriekeefe.livejournal.com]

The irony... it hurts.

[auntysarah.livejournal.com]

I have dust mite proof bedding, laminate flooring, wash the bedding at 60 degrees, etc. etc.. Ultimately they cannot be stopped from breeding, and g ass pollen cannot be removed from the environment.

Without my current drug load I am constantly coughing from the irritation caused by mucus, and quite often feel the need tp retch and throw up because it causes me to randomly gag.

Short of living in a sterile bubble, there is nothing filters could do to address that.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

My dearly beloved is asthmatic and allergy to wasp/bee sting so AH's are a fact of life for him too. In my case, said stiongs are just sore for a while and nothing that TCP won't handle....

[lnr]

I rarely need antihistamines myself, although I do keep an antihistamine cream around for bites and stings that's usually enough in my case.

But my mum is allergic to cats, and to a less extent dust mites. My dad gets *horrible* reactions to insect bites (of the sort that occasionally mean having to visit local hospitals when on holiday). And my sister gets bad hayfever, and so does Mike. There are always antihistamines in my house too :)

[krissie-r.livejournal.com]

Undefined variable on line 7: A variable was declared but was not assigned a value.

I'm afraid the script failed and it didn't produce a point after that :p

*hugs* Personaly, I'm rattling with estrogen... post op, and still on 4 tablets a day. lol ... luckily, no major allergies... I don't envy you!.

[quentinwrites.livejournal.com]

I can't remember the last time I took antihistamines, if ever! I do however have a similar relationship with prescription-strength and over-the-counter co-codamol; it's in my kitchen, by my bed, in my hand bag, on my desk. With a chronic pain syndrome it's hard to survive without decent painkillers!

[parmonster.livejournal.com]

It amazes me how much "common knowledge" the average person just doesn't know. Oh wouldn't it be nice to be healthy and ignorant.

[notinventedhere.livejournal.com]

My handbag is constantly rattling, with generic Loratadine being one of the drugs responsible...