Magus ([info]marcmagus) wrote,
@ 2009-05-31 01:13:00
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Current mood:dead
Entry tags:allergies, drugs

Allergies II

Hey, if anybody out there with more medical knowledge than I wants to do me a huge favor:

There was one allergy medication that worked for me that I alluded to last post. It was called hismanal. It was pulled off the market because they found a connection with increased risk of heart disease.

If someone wanted to check out hismanal and the current set of offerings and see if there's anything which works in a similar fashion and is thus more likely to be effective for me, I'd really appreciate it.


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[info]pigfish
2009-05-31 06:31 am UTC (link)
1) WOW that's a messed up drug! Structurally similar to haloperidol?? Effective against malaria? Possibly useful to prevent muscle wasting in bedridden patients?? Jeeeeezzz...

2) Allegra was created to "replace" Hismanal when it was pulled, but what that says about efficacy is minimal. At least one study found Zyrtec to be as effective as Hismanal when applied topically, so it might be a good bet. Also, Chris swears by Zyrtec.

The new allergy "craze" treatment, however, is nasal irrigation, as this actually removes allergens from your mucus membranes, thus ceasing the reaction.

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[info]marcmagus
2009-05-31 08:23 am UTC (link)
Guess we'll see how the Zyrtec goes, then...

I've been doing the nasal irrigation thing, at [info]muppetk's recommendation. Funny thing, though: as things get inflamed inside your nose, the passages narrow, and it becomes more difficult to get water to flow through them. I think it helps on the normal days, and at least feels refreshing, but when I'm in full-blown attack mode like tonight it doesn't really seem to work.

Thanks.

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[info]shield_toad111
2009-05-31 04:11 pm UTC (link)
Minimal searching would make it appear that all of Claritin, Allegra, and Zyrtec have a similar mechanism of action to Hismanal (are all H1-antagonists). Claritin seems to have similar drug interactions as Hismanal... I don't know if that has means that it might work better for you or not. I could proceed to give you a whole mini-rant about how histamine antagonists are only treating a portion of the allergic reaction and that the fact that there are so many treatment options means that no one actually knows how to treat the problem effectively.

I'd recommend trying to find the pharmacokinetic data for each of the drugs to see how long you need to take each drug before you'd expect to see results. It shouldn't be too hard to uncover, though if you're not finding it easily I can try and help.

If none of the over-the-counter drugs work, you may want to consider seeing an allergist, tell him you've tried everything available without a prescription and maybe see if there are intra-nasal drugs available or any other options available. Or if something like intra-nasal steroids on top of the anti-histamine would give better results. *shrug* This is one of those things that's more of a problem in human medicine than vet med. (There are allergy treatments, but we see more skin problems as a result and there are also food allergy trials and the like that go along with diagnosis.)

In any case, good luck with things, dear.

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