Hi Bea,

I know sometimes it just seems like we can not win for losing, but there are things you can do to make it a little easier on yourself. The first of which is to quit smoking. Smoking not only makes your allergic symptoms worse, it permeates your home and adds to the dust issues that might be adversly affecting you. You mentioned that you have asthma. Smoking is definitely a bad thing for asthmatics. There is an entire site dedicated to helping smokers quit. It's www.stopsmokingconnection.com. You will find help, tips, resident experts with lots of advice, medical information and people just like you going through it every day.

For some of the other things, Allison Janse is a resident expert here who wrote an article about Allergy relief through food: Inflammation fighting foods and allergies. You can read the entire article here. She also has some good spring cleaning tips for allergy sufferers here. She's also written a very informative article about how some soaps might actually be hurting us and why. You can read that article here.

When it comes to allergy medications, it is really tough to know which ones to use. Everyone has different reactions to them, so there is no one fix. You can read about the various medications available here. You can also check out the regularly prescribed treatments here.

I hope this helps you get started. The best thing to do before starting any new health regimine would be to see your doctor. While online sites can be a wealth of information to help you ask all the right questions, only your doctor knows what is best for your care.

Take care and stay in touch. Let us know how you are doing!

Vicki M