Coming into the allergy season for many, is there any negative impact on training or recovery from taking OTC allergy meds like Zyrtec or Claritin?
I know positives would be that I can breathe through my nose, actually sleep through the night and not sneeze out a lung during my runs/rides, but is there any negative implications?
I’ve been on Loratadine (Claritin) for many years, never noticed any downsides. If there are any, they’re far outweighed by the positives.
some antihistamines when dosed at regular or above regular dosing do or may cross the blood brain barrier (BBB). This is especially problematic for 1st generation antihistamines such as benadryl or Hydroxyzine (from which Zyrtez is an isomer and Xzyal an isomer of that)
The older antihistamines like Benadryl will cross the BBB and can cause you to be sedated and/or impaired. I once knew a guy who lost his pretty sweet job bc he got a DWI on 50mg of benadryl. Don’t be that guy.
Allegra (fexofenadine) doesn’t cross the BBB so you shouldn’t have problems with side effects.
The claritin family (Clarinex is an isomer of Claritin) can cross the BBB at above recommended dosing and also cause anticholinergic side effects.
The zyrtec family can cross the BBB at recommended dosing and their parent compound, Hydroxyzine, is probably the most potent antihistamine available.
I’d also recommend using the antihistamine with an OTC nasal spray such as nasacort AQ, flonase or one of the other. Avoid Afrin which can cause rebound.
A nasal saline rinse may also help provide relief by flushing out any allergens in the nasal passages.
The negatives are that if you dose above recommended dosing you may be more tired, drowsy or even impaired. These are easily mitigated though. Allergies are one of those conditions that can make life miserable.
hope that helps
There was some interesting research which showed that antihistamines blunted the super compensation effect of training. It was pretty generalized but fascinating, warning it’s a long read: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5161583/
Something untested that I would love to learn about: For those with allergies, dermatitis, urticaria, and other adverse histamine responses; is the excess of histamine so great that the attenuation of histamine via allergy medicine reduces it merely to a normal post-exercise level?
In any case, during the summer if I don’t take anti-histamine the itchiness is the hardest part of the workout. If I didn’t take them I probably wouldn’t do the workout. So unless the training effect is entirely cancelled out, it’s still a net win.
The older antihistamines like Benadryl will cross the BBB and can cause you to be sedated and/or impaired. I once knew a guy who lost his pretty sweet job bc he got a DWI on 50mg of benadryl.
ANY amount of Benadryl will knock me out for about 24 hours…
some antihistamines when dosed at regular or above regular dosing do or may cross the blood brain barrier (BBB).
… more
very helpful, thank you…
didn’t know that these would cross the BBB, bit scary.
never had allergies until I’d lived in one place for more than ten years, started developing spring and fall allergies which have steadily gotten worse. Time to move again…
some antihistamines when dosed at regular or above regular dosing do or may cross the blood brain barrier (BBB).
… more
very helpful, thank you…
didn’t know that these would cross the BBB, bit scary.
never had allergies until I’d lived in one place for more than ten years, started developing spring and fall allergies which have steadily gotten worse. Time to move again…
We can swap houses. I’ll take my house in Tucson in the winter, you can live here in the summer. Nothing produces polled once it starts hitting 100 daily. You’ll have ~ 100 pollen free days here every summer. Also good for sharpening up those cycling tan lines!
There was some interesting research which showed that antihistamines blunted the super compensation effect of training. It was pretty generalized but fascinating, warning it’s a long read: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5161583/
Body adapts to inflammation, so anything that reduces inflammation may blunt that. A nice overview about the role of histamine in exercise here https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5161583/. Antihistamines effect around 1/3 genes responding to exercise. So if you can avoid taking them it’s probably not a bad thing. If it’s the difference between exercising and not exercising the pros of taking them outweigh the cons.