Anyone got hayfever / cat allergy etc and notice a correlation to symptoms ?

[ash0787]

I always get it between mid may and mid july, usually worse in mid june, not sure which type of pollen it is,
that time last year was also when I had the worst crash so far, I figure its probably not a coincidence,
it could either be the pollen or the heat, some people said something about an MTOR master fuel regulator or something which can sense what time of the year it is, I'm not sure about that but I did relatively well in august, when the temperature would have been about the same, so I think its more likely to be the pollen.

I have mentioned before that if I get a cold or something it seems to cause a disproportionate instability,
so I might be functioning reasonably well then suddenly feeling feverish / falling asleep which seems to be a virus, then it take a week or more to recover back to previous function level, and that might happen say once a month.

This time around, coming up to june I noticed a large health decline in the past 2 weeks, seems to take about 3x longer to recover than normal from any particular specific energy expenditure and I often waking up with ache in the lower legs which is verging on painful and so far one nightmare ( totally forgot about those ).

Anybody else experienced this trend ? if my theory is correct about how the disease causes symptoms it should be quite a common occurrence ... although they do say 'something' changes about the immune system after the first 3 years.

I also have an allergy to certain types of cat, I think the very short haired ones like the black ones, but I don't have a cat available to test whether the effect can be purposefully brought on.

 

[Mij]

@ash0787 I made that connection around 7 years ago. My immune system starts reacting beginning of April when the grasses etc spring up. I have constant sore ears and throat.

From August ---> January is when I feel best.

I've been allergic cats since 1983

 

[Snowdrop]

I think there are a great many people here on PR that have allergy symptoms. Over time many of us have become increasingly sensitive. At some point it becomes more than a discrete allergy (say to cats) and more generalised.

Have you looked at info on Mast Cell Activiation Syndrome (MCAS)?
See here: https://tmsforacure.org/overview/

There are other sites out there as well.

 

[Marigold7]

Yes especially as when now I am in a new place surrounded by new pollens in a deeply rural area. Starts in January with me and is exhausting but then that comes with hay fever with non M.E folk too. Dreadful just now; when I simply open the door to let the dog out, my eyes sting and fill etc. I live with three cats so am well used to them!

 

[Skippa]

My allergies (hayfever and cats being among them) just seem like an extra layer of crap being laid on top of the already troublesome ME.

I don't see one making the other worse, although I do take an antihistmine every day which seems to keep the worst allergy stuff at bay. Sometimes I need to double dose, and my ears are an annoying source of itching sometimes.

 

[ash0787]

snowdrop the allergy symptoms don't seem any worse than before, but it seems that level of pollen that isn't high enough to cause hayfever symptoms is still enough to irritate the immune system and I feel like I've overexterted a lot when I haven't.

I totally forgot about antihistamines, might be worth a try... I'm a bit wary of anything that is going to interact with the immune system though

 

[ash0787]

I took the benadryl once and it gave a pressure headache and put me in a bad mood, so I switched to clarityn instead, after 2 days of taking that plus the weather changed, temperature dropped slightly and yesterday it started to rain, my energy went back to normal illness levels almost, I thought it would take longer as I was at the point where I was having to sleep every 4 hours.

That basically seems to confirm my theory that most of the symptoms are caused by scaling immune aggravation either by external factors or whatever the underlying metabolic / viral problem is.

This would seem to have implications for the 'mould intolerance' theory, if somebody is allergic to mould spores but its not on a level that would normally be noticable to a normal person, it could still affect them if they had this disease, and mould spores are not limited to one time of year like pollen .... but its not like the mould itself is causing the disease either.

 

[Pen2]

@ash0787 I made that connection around 7 years ago. My immune system starts reacting beginning of April when the grasses etc spring up. I have constant sore ears and throat.

From August ---> January is when I feel best.

I've been allergic cats since 1983

 

[Pen2]

I have had cats and dogs...and horses most of my life. I can't touch my face after petting. My eyes start burning and itching. I am being treated for eye allergies and dry eye. I get real sick from this.

I frequently get rashes too, from hay,pine, sometimes I don't know why.

 

[ChrisD]

I was doing quite well a couple of weeks ago, sleeping 8 hours a night and starting to feel much better BUT along came the pollen and now Hay fever is wrecking me! In the past couple of months I had realised how Histamine was an issue for me with a scalp rash and also sleep disturbance, this all lessened when I lowered histamine in my diet.

But now the pollen is out of my control and encouraging all these histamine issues like waking during the night, so I am not sleeping for very long and therefore starting to lag again. I take Quercetin, Niacin and vitamin C for histamine but it is not cutting it, I wonder whether I should take an antihistamine? I read somewhere that it's not great to rely on these and can build up a tolerance or something

 

[Pen2]

Hi @ChrisD, I haven't given in and started antihistamine so I'm not sure. Do you have better allergy days? Maybe you can just take them as needed.

My allergies have been bad too. My eyes are still the worst part and I use prescription eye drops. I break out in hives alot. They itch for a bit then go away,(thankfully).

If you're having trouble breathing you need to take what helps!! That's probably antihistamine.

If your breathing is ok than it's such a catch 22.
Sleep or allergy relief.....yikes!!
I would talk to a Doc.

I'm sure I wasn't very helpful. Good luck, hope you feel better. Keep us posted.

Hugs to you,
Pen

 

[nettle_tea]

I have very severe tree pollen allergies, and a moderate dust allergy - I take 3 prescription meds every day, year round (Allegra, Flonase, and an inhaler for asthma), but the tree pollen allergy is not well controlled. This year, going outside for 10 minutes left me in unbearable sinus/throat/ear pain for hours. I had the worst ME crash of my life a week or two later. I suspect allergies may be a part of it, although I also just moved house, which was probably the main trigger.

I'm very interested in looking into MCAS testing, as my immune system has been getting increasingly overreactive (allergies, eczema, asthma) as my ME gets worse.

 

[pamojja]

I take Quercetin, Niacin and vitamin C for histamine but it is not cutting it, I wonder whether I should take an antihistamine?

I've taken a teaspoonful of ascorbic acid on the first sniffle in my nose, and usually that controls on-coming sneezing-fits well. Though if the pollen season is at it's highest (form me April/May), I have to repeat the dose every 1-2 hours. Tried a antihistamine once (don't remember which) and wasn't any more effective, nor would I want to have to repeat doses because of side-effects. Some year with worse weather with ascorbic acid I'm completely fine. In others, like this year I'm still recovering from the worst 2 weeks, where my nose was constantly clogged (though no burning eyes or uncontrollable sneezing fits).