Allergy

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ALLERGIES

If you find yourself sneezing, wheezing and coughing even though you take over the counter drugs and try to avoid known or suspected allergy triggers. Women with potentially serious allergies may benefit from prescription medications or allergy shots, in which a tiny portion of the substance that you are allergic to is injected into your system every week for about a year to help desensitize you against troublesome allergens that are impossible to avoid.

Here are some basic strategies that can help women with allergies breathe easier:

Salt your nose

Over the counter saline nasal sprays are a safe way of loosening mucus. It's not a drug so you can use it as often you want. To make your own salty solution, take a half teaspoon of salt dissolved in eight ounces of lukewarm water, put it in a bulb syringe and flush it into your nose while leaning forward over the sink so that it can drip out. Look for buld syringes at your local drugstore.

Make a cool compress

For itchy, red swollen eyes, "Take a clean washcloth, run it under cool water, put it over your eyes until its warm and try again, if you need to.

Seal your mattress

One of the biggest problems with dust is dust mites, teeny creatures that live on dust, skin flakesa and other bits of microscopic household debris that collects in bedding, furniture and curtains.So zipping a plastic cover over your mattress is a good way of limiting dust mite exposure.

Clean the dehumidifier

Dehmudifiers should be cleaned out every week. Otherwise, molds will proliferate.