Why has nobody invented a cure for hayfever yet?!

[Chubbymummyof2]

Long term hayfever sufferer; prescription medication (tablets, nose spray, eye drops), also tried local honey, breaze stuff (basically Vaseline around nostrils), the wipes…nothing works!
How has no one found a cure for this seasonal misery yet? My husband reckons its the pharmaceutical companies stopping it from happening because hayfever is big business, everyone buys tablets, but surely someone could’ve come up with a cure for it by now?

Anyone got any tips that I might not have tried yet? Pleeeeeeease!?!

You can still get them, my BIL has it every year. It has to be done privately though, I think he pays around £100.

In the 60s and 70s, you could have pollen desensitising injections: they actually had pollen in them. I had them for several years when I was at secondary school. I think the effect must have been cumulative, because I didn't get hay fever for nearly two decades afterwards. When I started to get it again, in the 90s, I asked the GP about them and he told me that they'd been banned because a few people had died of anaphylactic shock after having them. 😮

Mine has been the worst ever this year, so next year I'm forking out for Kenalog. I live on the edge of open countryside where it's grass for miles and miles (literally as far as I can see in one direction), so loads to trigger hay fever. Yesterday, I had an appointment 20 miles away, the other side of a forest, and it was nowhere near as bad up there. It's actually been keeping me awake at night, which has never happened before.

I'm blaming "no-mow May" for it being worse. Everyone's grass has got so long that it's actually flowered.

I had those injections too, for a few years. They didn't make a lot of difference at the time, but I don't get hay fever nearly as much now.

In Australia they are looking at chopping down all their plane trees in the cities as they cause so much hayfever. Presumably they’ll replace them with a less potent variety of shade tree!

There's no 'cure' as such, because it's an overactive immune response when the individual is allergic to a 'harmless' natural substance (pollen). I guess you can only really alleviate the symptoms.
OP's husband sounds like a conspiracy theorist 😂😂

I don’t suffer too much myself thankfully, but I remember having several conversations with my driving instructor about it as he was really bad over the spring/summer we worked together. He mentioned that at home they’d invested in several air purifiers, dehumidifiers, and (I think?) some air conditioning. He said it was transformative as at least inside the house it wasn’t too bad, helped with sleep etc.
Then because he’d be in the car most of the day he could set the air conditioning to not draw in too much air from the outside.

This is the one my family member uses and swears by despite everything I read saying it should not work https://www.thehivehoneyshop.co.uk/product/hayfeguard-local-honey-have-hayfever-its-ok/

I find that Beconase really helps stop sneezing but I’ve yet to find anything that stops my eyes itching.
I’ve had hayfever since I was 3, I’m 55 now, and up until we moved to the edge of an AONB 14 years ago my eyes were never a problem. Now they itch and are watery from the end of February until the end of Summer and I’ve yet to find anything which has an effect on them.

Another vote for Dymista here. I take it for nasal congestion (thank you menopause) and it’s fabulous.

My husband reckons its the pharmaceutical companies stopping it from happening because hayfever is big business

I'm afraid he's talking bollocks. There are countless conditions which don't have a 'cure', including ones much more serious and debilitating than hay fever. Trust me, pharmaceutical companies would make a fortune out of a 'cure' for hay fever and would love to find one.

Hay fever isn't a disease, in any case. It's your own body's immune response. The only way that can be treated is to suppress that response with drugs like antihistamines and steroids.

I use those red diode things up the nostrils, to much hilarity and Rudolph comments. They do help me but I also think I might be growing out of hay fever as I age. I also rinse my eyes and nose regularly and use Vaseline.

I went to see my GP and got a load of Fenoxfexadine, it’s brilliant. He also said over the counter medication for hayfever is ridiculously expensive and low dose, he said the margins on those products are huge.

This is why there is no cure.

I had those injections in the 80s. I remember the appointments moving to being in a hospital setting and then them being banned altogether, mid to late 80s.

I was a teen then - but my hay-fever is now much better. Not sure if that was down to the treatment or i just grew out of it.
Dd also had bad hay-fever as a teen and hers has improved in the last couple of years.

@LakieLady Also councils not mowing verges at all is not helping.

It’s not just the grass verges that don’t get trimmed. It’s branches of trees which block road signs. I report the latter on an app called Love Clean Streets. It also reports fly tipping, dead animals (badgers), damaged bins etc.

Same with hand, foot and mouth

Medieval diseases, the pair of them!

@ErrolTheDragon if you are late thirties onwards and at least in peri menopause this is the time allergies develop. I already had some but they became significantly worse at age 49 and I also became allergic to hair dye.

Don’t you start with the fenofexadine. It’s fexofenadine. My DH is on it and keeps pronouncing it fenofexadine too and now I’m saying it wrong and when I saw you had written it like that I was questioning which was right. Aaargh! 😂😂😂😂

🤣🤣 sorry!!

You can’t get rid of vegetation for the reason of stopping hay fever! We need as much vegetation as possible for global environmental reasons, for air quality, fur local wildlife, for water run off and sewage/waste water/drainage issues. And unless you get rid of all trees and grass it would be completely ineffective - the worst hay fever days are hot and windy - pollen travels for miles.

There may be other reasons to complain that councils are not keeping up with the maintenance of vegetation - being able to read road signs as you point out is a good one - hay fever is not!

My husband and all the others mentioning the huge profits the pharmaceutical companies make…definitely not a conspiracy therorist, just fed up of me spending so much money of hayfever relief products!!

There's a growing body of evidence suggesting a link between gut health and hay fever (allergic rhinitis). An imbalance in the gut microbiome, often referred to as dysbiosis, may contribute to inflammation and an overactive immune response, potentially exacerbating hay fever symptoms. Improving gut health through diet and probiotics could help manage hay fever symptoms by promoting a more balanced immune response.

https://www.independent.co.uk/health-and-fitness/gut-health-allergies-hayfever-b2742126.html

Fair enough, but to claim that Big Pharma is actively preventing the development of a cure for hay-fever is a theory about a conspiracy 🤔

I'm dyslexic, I read that as 'Ovaltine is what I use the rest of the year.' I was a little puzzled.

I have had terrible symptoms for the last 20 years every year during hayfever season.
This year: nothing.
The only thing i have changed is buying a dehumidifier (to dry clothes, not for this purpose) and using it all winter.
I now think i was allergic to some mould which grows in warm damp conditions like spring and summer after a British (wet) winter.
I absolutely cannot believe it but it's heaven. If it really has cured my allergies I would buy it ten times over its that valuable!

Hope this works for some others.

An absolute game changer for my son has been doing the nasal saline rinse. He hated it at first but now willingly does it due to the relief it brings.

spend time in a salt room if you have one nearby. Salt bath. Go to the seaside.

This stuff