Dust Mite Allergies!!

[TheMoonIsBlue]

Does anyone have any natural (or medications suggestions) tips that could help dust mite allergies?

Even changing my bedding very frequently, sheets, pillowcases blankets and all, washing them in HOT water and drying on HIGH temperature, I still get itchy and congested every night! It's not so bad the night after I freshly wash everything, but geeze I can't wash my entire bedding every single day! My bed is only 1.5 years old, and it is a quality bed and is made for people with allergies, I use a dust mite cover also, no down pillows at all, definitely no bedspread. NO pets allowed anywhere near my bedroom ever. Wash my hair before bed.

The only things that seems to help nasal wise is steroid sprays, which I HATE, because they make me feel awful with continued use, aggrevate insomnia, and seem to make me moody....

Seems to be affecting my skin as well my face gets itchy, and my skin.

Antihistamines only help so much and are so drying....

Anyone have anything they found that helps?

Ugh, I need a dust mite free zone to sleep in.

P.S. Thought I'd combine two post: re: ECZEMA

I have had huge patches of ECZEMA lately on my LEGS ONLY, and I think it may be related to these allergies, but I don't know. I am using Cerave lotion, but one huge patch just won't go away- even when it is not itchy, it still is a large slightly red/pink rash on the pack of my thigh.

Does this mean a trip to an allergist? I saw one years ago with those wonderful "skin prick" tests, nothing showed up, and dermatologist just prescribed steroid lotions for Eczema. However, I've never had a rash last this long and be so large.

 

[Sallysblooms]

There are supplements for allergies. I have not tried them. I have the dust mite allergy, very common. My little dog sleeps with me. I have never had a problem with it, had allergy tests and shots for years.... BUT that is before I knew I had CFS. I thought I was sick with allergies. It was CFS. So I don't take shots now.

Wood floors are great. Easy to get clean under furniture and beds.

Would be good to see a dermatologist and allergist to see what the problem is. Sounds like more than dustmites, but I have just not heard of this. Probably other allergies also. I would find out. if you have an allergy to dust mites they would surely show up with the skin pricks. Even if mild. Hope you find the problem.

Also, maybe change the soaps for the laundry, shampoo or body. That will make me itch, some perfumes or chemicals in soaps. Not all though, just a few.

 

[TheMoonIsBlue]

Thanks Sally. Will look into is. I didn't test positive for any specific allergy years ago. Those skin prick tests were AWFUL! Nasal sprays due help, but hate the side effects.

I only really have this nasal itching and congestion at bedtime, and it doesn't start up really bad until I've been in bed a few house, that's why I am thinking I have become hyper sensitive to dust mites. Any allergiest once told me, that everybody's nasal passages swell up to an extent at night when sleeping, but with people who have allergies, they can swell up a lot more- hence the congestion. (A lot of congestion is actually just nasal membrane swelling)

Would love to have the carpet ripped up. I did have it cleaned well recently. I have wood floors in most of the house but right now, ripping it up in the bedroom is not something I can physically or financially do.

 

[Gavman]

i dont know. i have that problem too and its freaking annoying. How I deal with it is, i got tontine anti-allergy bed cover and pillow case cover and a blanket. Thats all i use. As far as dry skin goes, i use magnesium oil and im pretty sure its good stuff for it.

 

[merylg]

I am allergic to dust mites, pollens, grasses, cockroach dirt, animal dander etc etc. Yes is a nightmare! Have to try and wash my sheets about every 3 days. I use a washing powder that is free of perfumes. I have some woollen blankets I cannot use...seem to be allergic/sensitive to the dye...not really sensitive to wool. Tend to use cotton and acrylic blankets.

I read somewhere that house dust mites feed off molds. So there is a whole other issue to consider. I am also sensitive to wood varnish, fomaldehyde & volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in general. I bought some bedside tables, then found I could't tolerate the smell of the varnished wood.

I also have suffered from eczema, hives & dermatitis at different times.
By an elimination diet I found that coffee was the cause of extreme itchy hives on my back. So I don't drink coffee anymore!
Dermatitis on my hands was exacerbated by detergents, but I found the underlying cause was a food protein - potatin in white potatoes.
Eggplant can give me joint swelling where I have osteoarthritis at the base of my thumb.

Plaquenil also caused this swelling, plus itchy red rash all over arms & legs...(as well as severe facial flushing that hurt cheekbones).
So consider any medications and all foods as a possible cause of your itching. I had help from a couple of Allergists/Immunologists & dietitians to work it out. Hope you can work it out.

My breathing problems are still a major issue. We are looking into relocating to be out of the city and near the sea.

 

[Valentijn]

Normal laundry detergents mess me up, especially if they're strongly perfumed (most normal ones are). I doubt dust mites are the problem if you're washing everything that often. Have you tried a hypo-allergenic, unscented detergent?

 

[xrunner]

I have had a dust mites allergy for years. In my experience, the best remedy is to thoroughly sanitise the bedroom where you sleep.

1. Where there are mites there is always mold, even if you can't see it. You'll have to get rid of the mold or they'll come back even after cleaning all.
2. You'll need to clean/wash everything bed, linen, stuff in your wardrobes, drawers, curtains etc. or they will propagate again. For the mattress and pillows you need a bed cleaner.
There are natural products to kill the mites during washing but I can't stand the smell of them. I used distilled vinegar instead, soak one item at the time in 50:50 vinegar/water for 24hrs, then wash. If you have carpets you can use vinegar also (the smell will go away after a couple of hours) and steam clean. Just hoovering won't get rid of them. The vinegar also kills mold if exposed long enough.
If you can get the sun shining into your bedroom that should help kill some of them (it's the UV rays that kills them).

You can also try Naet. It helped me reduce symptoms but the allergy hasn't gone away completely, I can still get some itching in my throat if I overstay my exposure. I found it works very well for sensitivities but less with classic allergies.

these guys have some helpful remedies for the house
http://www.healthy-house.co.uk/home

 

[SickOfSickness]

There's some sprays on the market now, that are supposed to reduce dust mites. I don't know if they work. I saw some good reviews.

IMO the easiest thing is humidity levels. I believe below a certain level, like 40%, the dust mites can't survive. When you are in the bed, it would increase the temp and humidity (I think we can't avoid sweating some), but at least the rest of the room would not be hospitable to dust mites. A lot of humidistats give wrong readings, like +/- 2% variance, or they are miscalibrated, so make sure your level is actually accurate and good.

 

[hurtingallthetimet]

someone may have already suggested it but maybe change laundry detergents? anything that you bath in or shampoo hair? or perfume? perhaps if you dont already have an air purifier that might help...or getting air conditioning filters changed?

just trying to throw everything i can think of out there...maybe it is in the air outside? increase in something outside ragweed or something?
i hope that you feel better

 

[Insomniac]

I also have dust mite allergy. I got the same complete barrier covers you did it was not enough.
Then I washed the linen frequently but that was not enough , like it isn't for you.

I then got rid of carpets and got a high temperature steam cleaner. Once every 1-2 weeks I get someone to steam the entire bed, mattress, duvet and pillow. I only need the linen's washed once a month now and it's better. I just hate the price of it all.

I strongly recommend getting a high temperature steam cleaner because it kills both the dustmite and denatures the allergens. But is must be a high quality, high temperature and pressure one, ideally recommended by the British allergy foundation or by another person with allergies. Don't do the mistake of getting a cheap one like I once did.

 

[Sasha]

My nose gets blocked when I lay down to sleep, to the extent that I can't sleep on my side. Unfortunately I can't sleep on my back either because of an unfixable problem with my leg. My pharmacist has just given me Beconase and says it so low-dose a steroid that it's safe in the long term. Any thoughts?

Unfortunately I'm too sick to do heroic stuff with steamers and whatnot!

 

[Sallysblooms]

See an allergist again. Since your dust mite test was neg. maybe you can find out what is wrong. Best to find out.

 

[Athene]

Oh, dustmites! You can call me "Mrs. Allergy" !!!

I went to see a fabulous immunologist who gave me a lesson in the life of dustmites!!! Here are his tips:

Putting anything in the freezer for 2 hours will kill all the dustmites. You should freeze your pillow each day, and can in fact freeze all the bedding, to save having to keep washing it.

Have you got a hypoallergenic solid latex pillow? I would die without one of those. You have to cut off the cotton cover (unless it is pure polyester or other synthetic fabric) so the dustmites have literally nothing to eat on it. You wash or freeze your pillowcase, and can wipe it with a damp cloth or freeze it, each day.

Hanging blankets and covers outside, especially when it is sunny or windy, will also remove a lot of dustmites. They hate sunlight, so try to flood your bedroom with light every day.

Hanging your clothes out of doors overnight will get rid of the mites and you should certainly do this with wool, which is their favourite food, before wearing it.

Don't eat tomatoes. This is a cross-over allergy; the protein molecule so closely resembles dustmites that most peope allergic to dustmites alse react to tomatoes... so, if you have eaten toms and then get into a slightly dustmitey bed, your reaction will be much worse.

When you vacuum them away from the mattress and other thick things, (curtains for example), work extra hard on all the seams because that is where they love to linger and breed.

Every time you change your clothes, file your mails, or brush your hair, do it in the batheroom and never in the bedroom - otherwise you will be scattering your own body tissues around and that feeds the mites. Brush your hair thoroughly before going to bed to get any loose hairs out.

If you want to, and if you could stand it, you could investigate getting entirely synthetic fibre bedding - polyester sheets etc. Dustmites will eat anything organic. They love human skin cells and hair and wool the most, their next choice will be cotton and other natural fibres. They cannot eat synthetic fibres.

I think you have more than one allergy and I would also back up the others who have suggested you investigate hypo-allergenic washing products etc.
I have tried the special dustmiteskilling products like mattres sprays etc, they work well but they are too expensive to use them regularly and there is no point using them just once a month if you have a severe allergy.

 

[Sasha]

I'm wondering if my blocked nose at night could be a dust-mite allergy. I don't have enough energy (or a carer) to do the work with the bedding but would just getting a solid latex pillow and freezing the pillowcase each night be likely to make a difference?

 

[Athene]

I'm wondering if my blocked nose at night could be a dust-mite allergy. I don't have enough energy (or a carer) to do the work with the bedding but would just getting a solid latex pillow and freezing the pillowcase each night be likely to make a difference?

Hi Sasha,
Yes, that would be enough to make a noticeable difference to me, so I think it is definitely worth trying.

 

[Sasha]

Thanks! I'll give that a go.

 

[TheMoonIsBlue]

Thanks for all the tips everyone!! I am trying to sanitize my bedding using the super hot sanitize cycle in my washer.

A clogged nose at nighttime only can definitely be made worse by allergies, but there are people without any known allergies that get this also, including a few family members of mine. There are lots of posts online from people who can't breath through their nose at night. Allergists/ENT's told me that everyones nasal passages swell at night.......I forget why, but they just do. Maybe the way we breathe at night. If you have allergies, they will swell more.

Other contributing factors may be having a deviated septum.

You won't really know if you have deviated septum unless you get it checkout out by an ENT...or do some digging in your nose! LOL it can be deviated more at the top of the nose which would be hard to see.

I had a SEVERE deviated septum on both sides of my nose, which I had surgery on. Although what I don't understand is, how can you have a deviated septum for all of your life but then just all of a sudden develope sinus problems one day out of the blue? You'd think you'd have the sinus problems from childhood.

Nose clogging at nighttime only can be because the sinuses are not draining properly, again due to deviated septum and also allergies.

You may want to try propping up the head of your bed like they recommend for acid reflux and see if that helps your nose drain?

I have seen that spray that claims to kill dust mites but I don't know, does it really work? It cost about $30 for one bottle. It would only be a temporary fix anyways.....

 

[Athene]

Hiya!

Good comments on deviated septum. I have a badly deviated septum. It can suddenly get worse all by itself, like having repeat avalanche after the main one, so maybe that could be the reason for suddenly getting sinus problems.

Another cause of persistent, chronic sinusitis in many people is chlamydia pneumonia. There's a website all about it here:
http://www.cpnhelp.org/

I have used the spray, it does work well, but no better than the other things I mentioned in my list of doctor's tips... which are much cheaper. as you say, the effect wears off pretty fast. I found I could get the same result by very thoroughly vacuuming the mattress without using the spray.
The best solution of all is buying a hypoallergenic latex mattress.

 

[Sasha]

Thanks for all this interesting info - I've had this problem for at least 20 years but have (stupidly) never thought to go to my doctor with it - I thought it was one of those things that they would just wave away.

My chiropractor, who I went to see to try out the Perrin technique, gave me an exercise (part of the Perrin protocol) which involves putting an index finger either side of the bridge of your nose, pushing the fingers towards each other and then pulling down (in my case, some people need to pull up) to try to improve the nasal drainage. I didn't stick with it for very long - I should try it again.

 

[maryb]

Best thing I ever did was to buy a air filter for the bedroom, mine is on 24hrs a day, the room only gets hoovered once a week but I haven't had any problems since I put that in, I open the windoes everyday for as long as possible but in our damp cold climate its hard, as is staying hygenic when you have so little energy, in an ideal world yes we'd love to have fresh sheets every day but in reality............ for me its whenever I have a little energy and someone is around to help with on and off bit.
I got my air filter from healthy house (uk) its an airfree one,very quiet, have had it 5 years now, expensive at the time but well worth it.