I don't have any studies or great information, but I do have "one case
scenario" which is me:
I suffered from hayfever allergies (spring season) for years without
fail. Horrible horrible seasons of about 2 weeks of utter
sleeplessness, etc. Every single year from as young as I can remember.
When I was still pregnant with my daugher, or perhaps just after her
birth, I sought out information on what hayfever drugs I could safely
take while breastfeeding, and found one that seemed ok. But last year
was the first year I have not ever had to use hayfever drugs for as far
back as I can remember. the allergies were slightly there, but still
very tolerable compared to previous years.
There are 4 factors which might have influenced this, which changed last
year (that weren't there in previous years). The first is that I was a
mother. Had never been so before. Could pregnancy and birth have
eliminated/lowered an allergy? I doubt it, but...
The 2nd is that I was nursing. Could nursing have made my allergy more
tolerable, in that my body "knew this was not the time to be using lots
of drugs, so made the need for them all but disappear"? I also doubt
it, but hard to know.
The 3rd & 4th are that I consulted a doctor about it in the sping time,
and he suggested homeopathy which I started (this being a treatment, but
I don't consider it "hayfever drugs" per se). His suggestion was
Pollens 30ch and Thymuline 9 ch. I buy both OTC in drugstores, and the
dose is one capsule (which has 1 gram of granules) per week, under the
tongue. The maker of these is Dolisos (I have no financial interest in
their company), a company based in France.
What he said about these is that they work for some people, but not for
others. His theory about spring allergies was that they are a
cumulation of other allergies. FE, maybe if I lived with a cat, and
were allergic to a cat, most of the year round it wouldn't bother me,
but come spring time, it does just because it's a "straw that broke the
horse's back" scenario: my body decides its overload, and can't deal
with it anymore, so breaks out into allergy symptoms. He said that a
lot of our allergies can be unknown to us, and even food allergies.
So, perhaps the 3rd thing would be the use of the homeopathy, either as
a placebo or if it actually works...
The 4th thing, is that I made a food lifestyle change when I got
pregnant (and hadn't had any allergy seasons between july 99 and spring
2000 when the next allergy season came, to verify this!): I no longer
drink cow's milk and I avoid most cow's milk products (cheese, youghurt,
ice cream: I eat them in moderation sometimes as a "treat", like maybe
once a week or every 2 weeks, but I don't make any effort to eat a fixed
amount in order to "get my calcium for the day"). Perhaps that was my
allergy that was always present, and when the spring pollens arrived it
caused my body to overload...and in eliminating (or much reducing) the
cow proteins, I end up with much less severe allergies in springtime.
This year seems tolerable too, so far (touch wood). I am still nursing,
still doing the homeopathy, and still avoiding milk products most of the
time.
So, as far as conclusiveness, there is none in my case, but perhaps any
one of these might have helped, and something obviously changed, because
in the spring of 99 and 98 my allergies were just horrible. I actually
went into emergency once in 98 for a ventolin mask and asked if they
could just put me to sleep for the next 3 weeks while the allergies were
at their worst, at one point. ;-) Perhaps all 4 have helped reduce the
allergies...I don't know at all.
Hope this helps a tiny bit, perhaps...?
Fio.
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