Zyrtec and Zantac- can they stop working?

[Strawberry]

I have been on one Zyrtec a day for over a decade for severe allergies, but Dr K. upped me to one morning and night, and added Zantac (morning/night) to rule in our rule out MCAS. But this last week my allergies are getting worse? I have more sneezing fits, bloody mucous, and far more rash and itching than normal. The itching is extremely uncomfortable!

It reminds me of when drs tried putting me on stomach pills before. Nexium, prevacid, prilosec, etc. all quit working and I would get far worse (and then worse again) stomach acid. My stomach kept producing more acid in response to the up in dose of pills. I finally weaned myself off the pills using daily probiotics and baking soda when things would really get bad. Also eliminating wheat which is the only food allergy I have.

I am wondering if histamine can be pushed into overdrive to try to stay in balance?

I'm tired of having fire ants on me!

(I also added Valtrex a month ago, could this be delayed response to that?)

 

[Luther Blissett]

I have been on one Zyrtec a day for over a decade for severe allergies, but Dr K. upped me to one morning and night, and added Zantac (morning/night) to rule in our rule out MCAS. But this last week my allergies are getting worse? I have more sneezing fits, bloody mucous, and far more rash and itching than normal. The itching is extremely uncomfortable!

It reminds me of when drs tried putting me on stomach pills before. Nexium, prevacid, prilosec, etc. all quit working and I would get far worse (and then worse again) stomach acid. My stomach kept producing more acid in response to the up in dose of pills. I finally weaned myself off the pills using daily probiotics and baking soda when things would really get bad. Also eliminating wheat which is the only food allergy I have.

I am wondering if histamine can be pushed into overdrive to try to stay in balance?

I'm tired of having fire ants on me!

(I also added Valtrex a month ago, could this be delayed response to that?)

According to reports on Rxisk.org Zantac scored quite highly for Dyspepsia (540 reports), Rash (331 reports) Gastric Reflux (256 reports) Anaphylactic reaction (197 reports) with Anaphlylactic reaction and dyspepsia scoring 5.6 and dyspepsia scoring 7.4 on the PRR measurement.

Proportional reporting ratio (PRR)
PRR is a statistic that is used to summarize the extent to which a side effect is observed for individuals taking a drug, compared to the frequency at which the same side effect occurs for individuals taking another drug (or any drug in a specified class of drugs).

A PRR greater than 1 suggests that the side effect is more commonly observed for individuals taking the drug of interest, relative to the comparison drugs. This could indicate that the side effect is caused by the drug of interest, although it could also reflect sampling variation in the data, reporting errors, biased reporting, or a number of other causes.

The higher the PRR, the more likely it is that the drug is causing the side effect. A PRR greater than 3 supports causality.

PRR is defined as the ratio between the frequency with which a specific side effect occurs for the drug of interest (relative to all side effects reported for the drug) and the frequency with which the same side effect occurs for all drugs in the comparison group (relative to all side effects for drugs in the comparison group).

From what I understand looking at the general information there, it seems to me that if it is a drug reaction, Zantac is the most likely culprit. (If you find this info. useful, you can further filter the results yourself) There were no reports I could find of bad interactions between the drugs you mentioned.

I did not filter the reports by sex or age, so don't know if that has an effect.

I hope this information is of some help to you, maybe it can give your doctor more detailed information on the likelihood of it being a side-effect.

I am not a medical professional, or have any expertise in this field so please do not take anything I have written as a professional opinion.

Hope you feel some relief soon.

 

[Strawberry]

Thank you @Luther Blissett that is really interesting information! But now it becomes a conundrum.

I have always been very proud that my only food allergy is wheat, but now I am thinking I am having histamine reactions to food. The last time I got super itchy (yesterday), I looked up what I had eaten. Avocado flavored with fish sauce. (Yeah I am weird like that). High histamine. As is my favorite almost zero prep dinner, ham slices, cheese slices, and homemade kimchi. High histamine.

I guess I will continue to itch as I have no desire to eliminate most of my foods!

 

[Luther Blissett]

You've got adventurous tastebuds

I'm totally out of my area of knowledge, but a few things spring to mind.

Chamomile, does drinking it as a tea help with itching? I don't know, it's easy to grow if you have space and ability. Marigold too. Coconut oil is supposed to be good for an itchy scalp, if it doesn't work, you can use for cooking I suppose.

I guess it wouldn't be to hard to make some kind of cream by adding something to a basic moisturizer that does not upset your skin. Chamomile oil should be relatively inexpensive to try.

Hope you find some relief.