Allergy Medicine Comparisons

I have allergies. I’ve had them since I was a kid. They’re fairly minor ones. Dust makes me sneeze. Eating corn makes me itch. Some perfumes can also give me a slight headache. Pollen and cats make me sneeze and make my eyes water.

The cats allergy is funny because we have three cats in our house. I’ve immunized myself to the allergy through exposure. But when I go on vacation that exposure goes away. When I return from my holiday there’s a brief readjustment period where I’m more sneezy and eye-watery than usual.

I control my allergies with Claritin. It’s not perfect, but it drastically reduces the symptoms. Another odd part of taking allergy medication is that corn starch is typically used as the body of pills. That means that my daily allergy pill contains one of my allergens. There are alternatives but they taste awful and I’ve chosen the lesser of two evils.

Over the last few months, I’ve noticed Claritin being inadequate for my allergy symptoms. This is probably related in some way to my aging body. The perfume headache thing was a new allergy symptom I hadn’t had before. I went to the doctor, and they recommended adding Flonase to my allergy routine to keep it in check. That worked. But I’ve also noticed nasal drip requiring me to clear my throat frequently along with some slight acid reflux.

Wanting to cure myself of those symptoms, I resolved to try some new allergy medications.

I’ve actually tried Zyrtec before. I tried it for a few days and found my symptoms to be a lot worse. I think that was due to an adjustment period between the different medications though. I resolved to try the new medications for a four week period to ensure any inadequacies I noticed were real instead of due to adjusting between the medicines.

The three allergy medications I tried were Claritin, Allegra, and Zyrtec. I took one pill in the morning of each day. Additionally, I maintained my Flonase dose throughout the trial. One squirt of Flonase in each nostril along with the pill at the start of each day.

Claritin

This was the default one I’ve been using for years, so I already had plenty of data. Claritin alone gives my headaches from some perfumes. I also still have a lot sneezing and eye irritation caused by pollen. I mostly survive pollen by not going outside very much, but that is its own problem. I’ve also experienced nasal drip, which is mucus going from the back of my nose down into my esophagus. That results in excessive throat clearing and acid reflux.

Allegra

Allegra was my first trial. The first weakness of Allegra is that it didn’t last as long as Claritin. My experience with Claritin was that it keeps me protected through the next morning at least. Allegra provided protection throughout the day, but definitely didn’t last into the next morning. My mornings with Allegra were considerably more sneezy than with Claritin as I waited for the Allegra to take effect.

The Allegra worked well at controlling symptoms though. I felt the headache perfume problem improve. I didn’t sneeze as much. Nasal drip went away along with the throat clearing and acid reflux. Eye irritation from pollen remained.

Zyrtec

Zyrtec was my next trial. It might not last quite as long as Claritin, but there was still some protection in the morning before I took my pill. My perfume headache symptom went away. The pollen allergy went away which also removed the eye irritation, nasal drip, throat clearing, and acid reflux. Pretty much everything was better with Zyrtec compared to Claritin.

With Zyrtec a clear winner, I tried it without Flonase to see if I could cut that out of my morning routine. I’d only introduce Flonase to manage headaches caused by perfume. Zyrtec alone was able to manage that.