allergy free home strategies

[hegel]

Spring is here and I have allergies. Here's some new things I'm doing beyond drugs and nasal sprays.

--Allergy screens. these allow you to have windows open while blocking pollen and dust. Important for me because without air circulating I get mold issues in my basement apartment
--Hepa filters. Because of fire and smoke season here in the Western U.S. I invested in a good filter. It circulates air and helps with mold and of course pollen. I've decided I like a filter that causes more air circulation over ones with less
--UV light filter (comes with or without the Hepa circulating filter). This helps with mold and cooking smells in a small apartment. Apparently they're good with kitty boxes as well
--hypoallergenic filter for my cpap machine

I was going to use a bacteria filter for pollen, and in fact my Resmed airsense has a setting for that. But I think with the steps taken above I should be able to keep out most allergens and so won't need one.

Of course I've got hypoallergenic bedding and no pets. 

am I missing anything? Other than moving to Antarctica?

[Dormeo]

Hello from Oakland! My allergist recommended using NeilMed sinus rinse, which I think is helpful in clearing allergens out of my nose and sinuses.

She also recommended encasing my mattress and pillows in dust-proof covers. Warning: these somewhat reduce the amount of give in your bedding, because the weave is very, very tight. Finally, she recommended washing all bedding except the dust-proof covers in hot water (not cold or warm). Of course, if you're sure you're not allergic to dust, the covers and hot water may not be helpful.

I should get a HEPA filter device before the next fire season. What brand did you get?

[hegel]

Great recommendations! I use the squeeze bottle style nasal rinse.

I got an ancient Hepa filter at the Salvation Army that actually works really well and was cheap. But I now have an Austin hepa filter as well that is very good. I was tempted by those electromagnetic tower style filters because they don't need replacement filters, but they don't circulate air as well as what I have. This last helps combat any mold, which is death to me. 

My understanding is that if a filter meets Hepa standards, an old style that's cheap is still fine. 

Fire season sucks!!! and if pg and e cuts power, no air filter will help!

[Dormeo]

Thanks, hegel. This is off-topic, but we need to put a new roof on the house and are thinking of installing some solar panels that will keep a large battery charged, for those inevitable PGE outages.

I hope you have some good luck with allergy season this year.

[SevereApnea]

hi hegel.

If you move to the antarctic you might still take your dermatophagoides pteronyssinus with you!

I have had allergies all my life but slowly getting better. House dust mite, pollen, grasses, trees, cats for example. Had "desensitizing" injections which did not work, they induced bronchospasm and a visit to the local hospital.

Mowing grass meant an immediate shower.
Cats? no visitors who own cats please!
We eventually found a hypoallergenic dog, the Basenji, see avatar.
Enough about me...
One thing I did find helped a bit was having a simple new/clean aerosal spray bottle, filling it with water, and then before going to bed just spraying the mist into the air in the bedroom: my theory, this settles out all the allergens in the air. I did find it worked for the airborne allergens.

[hegel]

One thing I did find helped a bit was having a simple new/clean aerosal spray bottle, filling it with water, and then before going to bed just spraying the mist into the air in the bedroom: my theory, this settles out all the allergens in the air. I did find it worked for the airborne allergens.

That's a good idea. I'm thinking now that the hepa filter will do pretty much the same thing. Hoping anyway. 

Have you or anyone used a cpap bacteria filter for allergens and find that it was effective? again, I'm hoping that establishing a clean room will mean I won't need to do this.

[becker44a]

Hi hegel,
We just upgraded our Air Purifiers to a Coway AP-1512HH unit, as my wife suffers from many airborne odors and allergens.  You can find an extensive review by searching "wirecutter air purifier".  My son also lives in CA, the Santa Rosa area, and they bought one of these to help with Fire season smoke.  It has 3 filters: a mesh prefilter, a carbon filter for odors, and last, the HEPA filter.  So far, we are very pleased with this unit.
Hope this may be helpful.