To Your Health

Q. Spring pollens are in, and mold just won't let up. How can I stop my sneezing fits without resorting to antihistamines?

A. Although sneezing from pollen or mold allergy is hard to ignore, it is seldom anything more than annoying. There are at least five remedies for airborne allergy symptoms, though not all are feasible to everyone.

Vacate: Some people can afford to simply leave the area when their allergy season arrives. Perhaps you can plan a vacation for the mountains or a Caribbean island that is free of your allergen.

Decontaminate: Use air filters to rid at least your home and workplace of pollens and mold spores. Good HEPA (High Efficiency PAper) filters cost around $100 for a room-sized unit, even less for a desktop. Keep your windows closed during the worst of the season to keep pollen out, and stay indoors when you can. Thoroughly clean carpets and drapes to minimize mold growth. Look for damp places and places where water collects, like the drain pan of your self-defrosting refrigerator, that can be dried out.

Medicate: Antihistamines decrease the tissue swelling of allergic reactions, and some of the newer ones do not make you sleepy. Remember that the use of some antihistamines when driving is as dangerous as drinking alcohol and driving. Perhaps in the category of hitting a gnat with a sledgehammer, hydrocortisone nasal spray, available only by prescription, blocks allergic reactions in the nose, throat, and lungs in a different way from antihistamines. It is fairly safe since little of this potent drug is absorbed into your entire body.

Vaccinate: Although allergies are not infectious, a knowledgeable allergist can prepare "desensitization shots" that alter the reaction of your immune system to the allergen. Allergens that enter your body through mucus membranes will trigger the build up of immunoglobin E, the immunoglobin that reacts with certain white cells to release histamine. It's the high level of histamine that causes the common allergy symptoms. Allergy shots carry the allergen past mucus membranes, deeper into your tissues, and trigger the build up of immunoglobin G that does not release histamine. If you can generate 10 to 50 times more IgG than IgE for a specific allergen, which a year or two of desensitization shots can accomplish, you should be free of allergy symptoms.

Invigorate: Give your body the power it needs to withstand the assault! Several nutrients have been reported to reduce allergy symptoms, but two are famous for controlling allergies. One of these is pantothenic acid, or one of its relatives, pantethenol or pantethene. All are considered vitamin B-5 and, when used in amounts of 500 to 2,000 mg per day, are reported to reduce symptoms. The other is vitamin C, and again several hundred milligrams per day are needed for help with allergy symptoms. Both probably operate by increasing the body's own production of hydrocortisone, one of the remedies mentioned above, and an increase of only 5% per day in your body's hydrocortisone production can make a difference in your response to an allergen exposure.

The last four remedies can be combined to amplify their effectiveness, or you may be lucky and just one will be the "magic button" that solves your problem.