Hay Fever

[hwest]

I have been to Thailand on a number of occasions but never had a problem with hay fever.Is this just me being lucky or is the climate etc. not condusive to this problem.With the hot weather here in the U.K. at the moment it is pretty bad even after taking all the medication.Maybe keeping to the seaside resorts may be a factor.Your views on this are most welcome.

Hwest

[mrbojangles]

I have been to Thailand on a number of occasions but never had a problem with hay fever.Is this just me being lucky or is the climate etc. not condusive to this problem.With the hot weather here in the U.K. at the moment it is pretty bad even after taking all the medication.Maybe keeping to the seaside resorts may be a factor.Your views on this are most welcome.

Hwest

Might get better response if you post this in the Health, Body, Medicine forum.

Mr BoJ

[bkkmadness]

I feel for you, I had terrible hayfever as a kid and though it got less and less as I got older it was always a problem in the UK in the summer. I found a good anti histamine nasal spray worked better than any tablets I tried. A good natural solution as well is to eat a lot of honey, will builds up your resitence to pollen.

Over in Thailand, for some reason I have never had a problem with it at all even in the heat and rural areas which was such a relief as when I first come here I was expecting to suffer a lot with it.

So I have to add my reason for living in Thailand is not the women or cheap booze, but medical..........honest guv.

[Nordlys]

25 years in Thailand and never heard of anyone suffering from hay fever here.

I wonder if Thai people know what it is. In fact is there a word for it in Thai, I wonder.

[OldAsiaHand]

On the other hand, significant respiratory problems are common among foreigners who live in Bangkok and it's hard to tell where to place the blame. The horribly poluted air treats everyone badly and that's part of it, of course, but I can't really see any diffference in my own mild tendancy toward hayfever between when I am here and when I am in California. Does that mean that there is some form of ragweed in the air here along with all the other crap? Who really knows?

[buadhai]

AFAIK "hay fever" is just the common name for allergies to plant pollen. If you're allergic to a particular plant, you'll probably have the typical "hay fever" symptoms when that plant blossoms.

As for myself, I frequently had hay fever symptoms during the 26 years I lived on Saipan -- another tropical spot. I controlled this with occasional use of nose spray and antihistamines.

So far, after three months in Isaan, I am mostly symptom free. But, who knows, maybe the local plant that will bother me hasn't bloomed yet....

[bbtali]

I used to suffer bad in U.K but as soon as came here no problem at all!

[Buff-horns]

i get it bad in the UK , but never had it in LOS. there just isnt the pollen to cause it i guess. grass and trees etc ..

but you get the humidity and mossies instead

[Thetyim]

Well I find it difficult to beleive all these replies.

I had hayfever in Uk and I get it here and so do all the other falangs who live near me.

There have been other thraeds here and quite a few posters also suffer.

[chownah]

I spend alot of time in the rice fields at all times of the year and I do get a low grade type of hay fever. Actually I think there are two sources. One comes from the rice plants at harvest when cutting, stacking, and manual threshing...this would be in late Nov or early Dec. The other comes in the middle of the dry season when there's lots of stuff blowing in the wind so I haven't a clue as to exactly what is causing it. Also in the dry season there is some plant which causes me to break out all over in small itchy bumps....my wife says its because I touched it...she doesn't know which one it is...I think she's right because it happens when I've been either cutting down the weeds or I've been trapesing through them. At any rate none of this is debilitating or nearly as bad as the hay fever I have had back in the States. The itchy bump thing was kind of scary the first time it happened but it only lasts a day and then its mostly gone....we're talking itchy bumps ALL OVER!!!

[bina]

yes thai do get hayfever they just dont pay attention (at least the country folk i know); they take 'tiffy' aka sudafed/chlortrimeton and paracetamol mix.... what we call tylenol allergy, or nusidex.... my thai worker suffers every year during feb. april along with my allergic kids; we have two guys that can not work in the chicken houses cause they get asthma attacks (they dont call it that but thats what it is) but thai country folk self medicate for every little sniffle, and more is better (3 tiffy pills every three hours!!!)... probably falang dont have as much of a problem due to the fact that they are 'new' to the area; the first 10 years in israel i had very little allergies, a big change to the states... now olive trees do it to me every time... i also had no allergies in thailand although i thought i would (dust, animals, cat hair, feathers)....

some of our guys suffer in the orchards but, again, self medicate and keep on going... had one guy couldnt work in the hatchery because of the formalin type chemicals (no one should work there, but thats something else).... anybody ever check infant mortality among up country thai due to respiratory problems? (asthma at that age kills quickly and doctors call it pnuemonia as a misdiagnosis same as palestinian infant mortality causes), and we have one guy supposedly allergic to bees...

my friend's sisters kid is allergic to cats (he cant breathe near them; that's called asthma in the states and israel, dont know how they treat it if they treat it)...

city people i havent a clue....

[katana]

There was a thread on this a while back in the Health Section.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=19228