Strange (?) allergy symptoms

[stevie_sloth]

Ok, so my special internet friend who lives in New Jersey has been experiencing, for pretty much the first time in his life, allergic reactions to the intense pollen that's around there right now.

Apparently it's the worst pollen season ever there because of the mild Winter, and there have been warnings issued about staying indoors and stuff.

So anyway, he's never really been bothered with it before, doesn't have allergies or asthma or anything, but this year...he noticed he would cough in a quite chesty / congested way whenever he was inside. And yet when he was outside (amongst the pollen), he wouldn't cough at all. Whenever he did cough, his nose would run as well, which would make it worse.

It got to the point where he would be up coughing his ass off during the night and has now resorted to taking Claratin antihistamine tablets, which have worked perfectly. No more coughs at all.

He noticed there were 2 particularly pollen-worthy trees right in his back yard, and also one right where he was working during the days...so that'd be what's causing the reaction, except I find it odd that there were no symptoms during the day when he was outside. Only once he'd been inside for an hour or so did the symptoms commence. (although I heard that houses' air quality is 3 times worse than whatever the outside air quality is, so that's kind of interesting)

So anyway...I noticed over the past week or so since this started, he'd been sneezing in multiples, which he does not generally ever do. And the other day, even being on the allergy meds, he sneezed 5 times in a row one time and then a few hours later sneezed 6 times in a row (4 of which I got to see as he filmed them for me...*sigh of excitement*)...so clearly the pollen is still around and his body is reacting to it.

But after this long and probably boring explanation, has anyone ever experienced seasonal allergies that were predominantly coughing and NOT so much nose-related??

[Pearlised]

Well, first came to mind was a cold, but obviously you guys would have thought of that XD

I would suggest asthma also, because you dont need to have had it before. It can appear randomly and it can even be helped significantly by antihistamines. Also, it does make a bit of sense as there may be a 'trigger' indoors setting him off coughing (which could be a constriction of the airways in response to the irritant) I only speak from experience, and Im no doctor!

Of course, the sneezing does suggest some allergy, though it could also be both asthma AND a cold. There's no law

I dont know if I've helped here I'm just speaking from opinion.

[glowstick03]

Actually, my own allergies are a lot like that. When I have allergies, my sinuses will clog up, my nose will run, I'll cough...I will sometimes sneeze, though it's usually just a really itchy nose, leaving me wishing I would sneeze, but it's mostly the other symptoms that bother me. It was probably because of the different symptoms that it took me a while to figure out they were allergies and not a cold.

So to answer your question, yes, seasonal allergies can be like that, though I wouldn't know about why they only bother him inside.

[DogLover]

I actually cough a lot from allergies, but it's more of a throat cough because my throat always itches along with my nose. So I'm not sure about chesty...

A quick internet search has informed me that sometimes allergies do cause coughing, as does asthma.

Maybe he's allergic to something in the house, like dust or some kind of product. It could have just developed recently... Also, I'm desperately allergic to this tree just outside my window, and because it doesn't close properly whenever the wind blows in the right the direction all the pollen blows in to my room. It's really bad because it's more concentrated in there...so maybe something like that?

[Dusty15]

It sounds like allergy induced asthma, which is essentially allergies that cause an asthma flare up but can also include sneezing, itching, etc...