Growing up with severe allergies to pretty much anything with 4 legs, and the self control of a toddler who just spotted a cute-ass puppy… yeah I went through a lot of benadryl. What I’ve learned after a lifetime of eating that shit like candy: you gain a tolerance to it like any other drug.
My super power now is I can eat a whole handful of that shit and it’ll do nothing. No drowsiness. No hatman (is that actually a thing, or is this just some weird internet bullshit?). The tradeoff being: no relief from allergies. Which is kind of a bummer considering allergies can do things like close your airway.
Morale of the story: ROTATE YOUR ANTIHISTAMINES!! If you’re taking that shit every day, use benadryl one day, then loratadine the next, then cetirizine the next, etc. Give your body breaks from any one of them so you have time to shake that tolerance before it develops. Cuz when you need it to work, you NEED it to work!!
Bonus tip: read the back labels of your meds. You’d be amazed how much shit is just rebranded and price-jacked diphenhydramine (benadryl). Especially sleep aids… like that “Zzzquil” shit is just stupid expensive benadryl.
Bonus tip tradeoff: you just lost any benefit you might have been gaining from the placebo effect. Sorry.
That I didn’t know, but they absolutely work if you don’t know it’s a placebo!
So… don’t go correcting Grandma when she starts talking about how healing crystals and acupuncture cured her arthritis. “I’m so glad you found a solution!!” and start talking about cookies or some shit.
Bonus tip: read the back labels of your meds. You’d be amazed how much shit is just rebranded and price-jacked diphenhydramine (benadryl). Especially sleep aids… like that “Zzzquil” shit is just stupid expensive benadryl.
There are like four or five different active ingredients in the entire pharmacy. Find whatever you want, check the active ingredients, then just find the cheapest with the same name and number.
Does rotating them actually work? I thought they all just blocked your histamine receptors, so your body couldn’t care less just which substance did that for expressing more histamine receptors / making more histamine, thereby developing tolerance.
Edit: Yeah, so I hate to place a nocebo here, but taking a break, not rotating them, seems to be the only effective remedy to anti-histamine tolerance. That is, if taking a break is tolerable, of course. I don’t know if that has to be said but please take medical advice from your health care professional of choice and not from a lemmy comment.
Tolerance developed to one antihistamine extended to others, even though the chemical relationship was not close.
Return of pharmacologic response to an antihistamine after discontinuance of the drug takes from 3 to 14 days.
I mean this is anecdote so take it as you will, but the rotating advice is straight from my own doc after we bitched about benadryl not working anymore.
Granted, this was a solid 20 or so years ago, so new findings and best practice are expected.
But, benadryl remains a dud for me, while I haven’t developed a tolerance to any of the others.
Glad it helps you get by!
I hadn’t heard of the rotating antihistamines trick and was curious about the mechanism, so I asked Dr. DuckDuckGo. Could’ve always been some other tolerance mechanism, like faster breakdown of the drug, which rotating might help with. The paper does mention benadryl and a handful of other substances, but it’s also ancient by research standards, so I don’t know if that applies to all antihistamines or if some circumvent tolerance induction somehow.
Growing up with severe allergies to pretty much anything with 4 legs, and the self control of a toddler who just spotted a cute-ass puppy… yeah I went through a lot of benadryl. What I’ve learned after a lifetime of eating that shit like candy: you gain a tolerance to it like any other drug.
My super power now is I can eat a whole handful of that shit and it’ll do nothing. No drowsiness. No hatman (is that actually a thing, or is this just some weird internet bullshit?). The tradeoff being: no relief from allergies. Which is kind of a bummer considering allergies can do things like close your airway.
Morale of the story: ROTATE YOUR ANTIHISTAMINES!! If you’re taking that shit every day, use benadryl one day, then loratadine the next, then cetirizine the next, etc. Give your body breaks from any one of them so you have time to shake that tolerance before it develops. Cuz when you need it to work, you NEED it to work!!
Bonus tip: read the back labels of your meds. You’d be amazed how much shit is just rebranded and price-jacked diphenhydramine (benadryl). Especially sleep aids… like that “Zzzquil” shit is just stupid expensive benadryl.
Bonus tip tradeoff: you just lost any benefit you might have been gaining from the placebo effect. Sorry.
i read this article that some placebos work even if you know they’re placebos. i’m not awake enough to find it right now tho
That I didn’t know, but they absolutely work if you don’t know it’s a placebo!
So… don’t go correcting Grandma when she starts talking about how healing crystals and acupuncture cured her arthritis. “I’m so glad you found a solution!!” and start talking about cookies or some shit.
There are like four or five different active ingredients in the entire pharmacy. Find whatever you want, check the active ingredients, then just find the cheapest with the same name and number.
On that note, Costco!
Fr fr. If you suffer from allergies and take one of the OTCs it’ll pay for the card over a year.
Does rotating them actually work? I thought they all just blocked your histamine receptors, so your body couldn’t care less just which substance did that for expressing more histamine receptors / making more histamine, thereby developing tolerance.
Edit: Yeah, so I hate to place a nocebo here, but taking a break, not rotating them, seems to be the only effective remedy to anti-histamine tolerance. That is, if taking a break is tolerable, of course. I don’t know if that has to be said but please take medical advice from your health care professional of choice and not from a lemmy comment.
https://www.jacionline.org/article/0021-8707(51)90033-0/fulltext
I mean this is anecdote so take it as you will, but the rotating advice is straight from my own doc after we bitched about benadryl not working anymore.
Granted, this was a solid 20 or so years ago, so new findings and best practice are expected.
But, benadryl remains a dud for me, while I haven’t developed a tolerance to any of the others.
Glad it helps you get by! I hadn’t heard of the rotating antihistamines trick and was curious about the mechanism, so I asked Dr. DuckDuckGo. Could’ve always been some other tolerance mechanism, like faster breakdown of the drug, which rotating might help with. The paper does mention benadryl and a handful of other substances, but it’s also ancient by research standards, so I don’t know if that applies to all antihistamines or if some circumvent tolerance induction somehow.
Only if I believe you, eh heh heh~~
the hatman is most definitely a thing. He’s the final boss of the shadow ppl stage