Even with meticulous adherence to allergen avoidance strategies, complete escape is often impossible. There's no reason to be miserable. Many over-the-counter and prescription medications provide major relief for allergy sufferers. An oral antihistamine, like cetirizine or loratadine, is typically first line and will address most allergy symptoms. Many of these formulations now contain decongestants to address stuffy nose (you know a medication has a decongestant if a "D" is tacked on to the end of the name, as in Claritin-D).
For those with predominantly nasal symptoms, including postnasal drip, a daily intranasal steroid spray sch as Flonase can lead to significant improvement.
