Hay Fever

I love being in nature during the warm weather, but I suffer terribly from hay fever. Drugs don’t provide a satisfactory solution. Antihistamines suppress the runny nose and the sneezing, but do not relieve congestion. Decongestants can have unpleasant side-effects, like insomnia and irritability. Between the end of June and the end of August, I sleep in front of a filter-fan, and I try to balance the use of pills and nose spray, in order to avoid addiction. Oh my.

I came upon a simple and natural alternative: vitamin C. By taking vitamin C and B6 throughout the day, I am able to avoid all hay fever symptoms.

Antihistamines work by blocking histamine receptors. Vitamin C works (indirectly) by removing the histamine before it gets to the receptors. Basically, it enables the body to create more of the enzyme diamine oxidase, which breaks down histamine. In other words, it allows the body to overcome hay fever the way it was designed to.

Dosage

First things first. Vitamin C only works in units of grams. People who think that vitamin C doesn’t work are almost always thinking small.

Secondly, Vitamin C seems to work in concert with other vitamins, that is to say, it participates in chemical reactions that require other chemicals. For this reason, I have supplemented Vitamin C with multi-vitamins, but after experimenting on myself, I have come to the conclusion that B6 is C’s necessary partner for dealing with pollen allergies.

It is easy to take too little vitamin C (no effect) or to take too much (bowel rumbling). Worst yet, if I take the ‘right’ amount of Vitamin C, but not enough B6, I get the rumbling and allergy symptoms. It took some practice to maintain a good balance, but it was a life hack well worth mastering.

I typically take about a gram of Vitamin C every three hours. The B6 I take three times per day, up to 100 mg total.

Cost

Eight grams per day is quite a lot over two months. It’s cheapest to buy Vitamin C in powder form. One hundred grams sells for 2€, so that would be 6€ per month, which is far less than a week’s worth of drugs.

Effect

When done correctly, the effect is total: there are no symptoms at all. I do get some stomach discomfort from time to time though.

There is neither addiction nor drowsiness.

A downside comes from sleeping through a dose. Then, one risks waking up in the morning with a stuffy nose. Often, the stuffy nose awakens me sometime during the night and I take another dose. It takes about twenty minutes after taking vitamin C for my breathing to become clear again, so here, nose spray remains a valuable item on the nightstand.