Adios, hayfever
It's a summer miracle!
This week’s post comes to you from the garden: I’m writing outside, feeling VERY smug about my hayfever, and lack thereof. (For context, have had appalling allergies every single year of my adult and teenage life, usually twice a year.)
But! Thanks to newsletter subscriber Lynne Prophet recommending Dr Sophie Farooque’s book Understanding Allergy a couple of weeks back, I can pretty confidently say… I’m cured?
It’s been YEARS of suffering, wailing at my medic parents ‘but antihistamines don’t WORK’ and ‘I can’t find my Beconase’ and generally inflicting misery on anyone in the vicinity. (Not sure about you but both the hayfever and the antihistamines make me irascible. Even more than usual!) But Dr Farooque’s book is SO good that I’m now lending it out to fellow hayfever sufferers (and might end up buying multiple copies like I did with John Lanchester’s A Debt to Pleasure - must have given away at least six before finally buying a file copy to keep.)
Dr Farooque has this stellar allergy tree diagram which goes something like this. (Please note it is heavily paraphrased, and from memory, as book lent out):
Do you think you have uncontrollable hayfever and that nothing works?
That is literally why I bought this book
Have you tried a second or third generation antihistamine?
Sorry what?
First generation antihistamines are shit1. Try loratadine, fexofenadine, cetirizine or desloratadine.
Oh yeah! I tried loraditine. It was rubbish.
Did you take it every day, at the same time, and first thing in the morning?
Er… no.
WELL DO THAT, FOR STARTERS. Or try a different one.
Have you tried using a nasal rinse?
That sounds disgusting.
Stop being a child! Get a decent saline or anti allergy nasal rinse or spray, and use it A LOT. Every day. Like all day. (But not more than it says on the packet.) Studies show that it is one of the single most effective things you can do to deal with hayfever or dust mite allergies.
Ok, ok. I’ll buy one!
Are you using anti-allergy eye-drops?
I have some! Ha! Let’s see - Boots own brand, expired in… 2023. Oh.
*pointed look
Ok ok! But I wear contact lenses!
They do make contact lens appropriate eye drops…
Have you done all of the above consistently - while wearing wraparound sunglasses, and avoiding going out on high pollen count days, for at least two weeks?
Yes!
Do you still have uncontrollable hayfever?
No!
Carry on with the above, and skip off into the sunset.
Actually, I do still have uncontrollable hayfever.
Did you actually do the above for two weeks?
Er…
Once you’ve actually tried all the above, if it hasn’t worked, it’s time to go see a doctor. You may need a referral to an allergy specialist.
For me, the combination of 1) sunglasses 2) nasal spray 3) contact friendly eye drops and 4) fenofexadine at the same time every morning has made an INCREDIBLE difference - I am in the skipping off into the sunset crowd.
THANK YOU Lynne, for the recommendation - you are a gold star legend: I wish I had known the above years ago, which is why I’m sharing it here - it is miserable to be allergic to sunshine, and a joy to sniff roses without fear of repercussion.
(It goes without saying that as medical degrees are (sadly) not inherited, I am not qualified to give medical advice: the above is intended to be a light-hearted precis of things that can be tried over the counter before getting more help: please see your actual doctor/pharmacist and/or read the allergy tree in Dr Farooque’s book before taking new medication. Please check ingredients lists/the NHS website in case anything known to disagree with you, and for suitability during pregnancy/breastfeeding or interactions with existing conditions/medication.)
I leave you with a bunch of roses from the garden, which I took to my god-daughter yesterday at brunch, and received in exchange half an EXCELLENT chocolate cake. (She is 6, and a vg baker.) I thought it unusual and delicious that the cake had a layer of apricot jam under the ganache - Sachertorte reminiscent? But it’s this Mary Berry recipe - wonderfully fluffy and light. I’m off to have a slice pre-lunch, because am a grown-up2 and no one can tell me not to. Ha!
I will be sorry to miss some of you at the Substack Bestsellers Fête tomorrow evening. Am almost certainly being irritating and self-righteous, but given that Jacob Rees-Mogg was in attendance last year (as a ‘a friend of Substack’) this year I replied to my invitation to say I had reservations about attending, should other prominent misogynist/fascist/white supremacist Substackers be in attendance. Like literally can you imagine going to a summer fete, with arty/writery type people on one side, and the manosphere/fascist white supremacists on the other, and having to pretend everything is fine and normal - like being on the internet, but in real life? Nah, mate.
(Obviously they may not have been invited, or invited and not attending, but those are quite different categories. It’d be nice to know before making the epic effort of dressing, and leaving the house garden.) Other invitees, do feel free to join my protest of one with a quick email to the organisers - I appreciate you may not be as pig-headed as am.
Enjoy your week - hopefully fascism free - I leave you with an existing but excellent THREE INGREDIENT recipe (max four, not counting oil & salt) should you need last minute dinner inspiration one evening. I made it this week for my family after a long time, and it was divine, and about to go into frequent rotation. My French exchange’s mother, Mme Renaud, taught it to me years back - it’s just puff pastry, smooth dijon mustard and tomatoes, takes five minutes to put together and it’s crisp baked heaven - SO much more than the sum, etc. The tarragon is optional, and it’s nicest with all-butter puff pastry & good tomatoes. Oink oink!
French style tomato tart
1 × 320g sheet of puff pastry (ideally all-butter)
2½ tablespoons smooth Dijon mustard
330g good vine tomatoes, thinly sliced
Optional: leaves from a few sprigs of fresh tarragon
1 teaspoon sea salt,
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Preheat the oven to 200°C fan/220°C/gas 7. Unroll the puff pastry, including the lining paper, and transfer to a roasting tin. Spread the mustard all over, leaving a 2 cm border around the edges.
Arrange the sliced tomatoes over the mustard, then scatter over the tarragon, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Drizzle with the extra virgin olive oil, then transfer to the oven and bake for 25–30 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and crisp. Serve immediately.
From: The Roasting Tin: Simple One Dish Dinners (Rukmini’s Roasting Tin) (p. 79)
She obviously doesn’t call some medication ‘shit’, I added that bit in.
Allegedly a grown up.
Rukmini, I am soooo pleased it worked for you!
You have now become like me - recommending the book to anyone who even mentions hay fever. I told you it is life changing!