Allergies Community

I to have been having these symptoms with the exception of a couple different than I've read so far. Along with the sneezing,unbelievably runny /stuffy nose asthma that neither of my inhalers help early fatigue (that I can't afford), I also have this constant fluid in my throat. I've been running indoors due to the fact that cold air hurts my lungs way toooo much.
My DR.S came up with a list of possible factors.
1. Animles/pets
2. High protien WTF?????
3. Rhinitis
4. Acid Reflux
5. Asthma
6. Dust
7. Pollen (I live in Wisconsin I have it worse than ever and it's below freezin what could possibly be pollinating now?)
8. sinusitus
9. overdoing it, blahblahblah
I don't wanna go to another Dr. until I myself have a suggestion for them other then to go back to school for a brush up course on whatever to figure this out. No one has a true answer and I've been to 6 different Dr.s

This board's descriptions are identical to mine. My triggers are strenuous outdoor exercise (usually cycling). Season doesn't matter. Not related to allergies. I can work in the garden all year round without allergic symptoms, but when I strenuously exercise, watch out, big time rhinitis which last for 3-4 wonderful days. Nothing works for me. I've tried Zyrtec and nasal steroids without help. My history and symptoms point directly to vasomotor rhinitis or exercise induced rhinitis. When it gets going, not even maximal dose pseudophredrine can bring it under control. When I get a cold, pseudophedrine will control the symptoms pretty well. This is another animal altogether. I must be generating an excessive amount of histamine. I will try RyGuy16's suggestion of lowering core temp immediately after exercise and see if this works. I will report back to this board.

People are so funny! This is called exercise induced rhinitis, not seasonal allergies, so you can disregard the comments suggesting anything about changing from outdoor activities to indoor or scheduling your exercise on "low allergen days". Its doesn't make a bit a difference whats in the air, because that stuff isn't what makes your nose run in the first place; its your body's reaction to it. Your body releases histamine to protect your airways from the particulates in the air, and it just so happens that your body releases the same chemical in response to strenuous exercise, only for different reasons I won't get into. So now that you know why its happening, you probably want an answer to what you can do about it. First thing I must say is that I can't believe doctors are on here recommending people take DRUGS for something as easily and obviously cured as exercise induced rhinitis. But then again, that IS the trend now days as it seems people just become lazier and lazier by the second. Natural cures are too much work, hey? Wrong. Antihistamines serve their purpose during life-threatening anaphylaxis, but shouldn't be used for "normal" inflammation like this. Its "normal" because your body is adjusting to the work load its performing. That histamine is required during the strenuous exercise, but your body isn't quite used it, so more is required to get the job done. But then your body is left with a surplus. Where does excess histamine get excreted from the body when your not sweating? The mucous membranes of your nose and eyes! Just like when you're so upset over something that you cry; its a mechanism your body uses to get rid of excess stress hormones and return to a homeostatic condition as quickly as possible. So whats the rate limiting factor here? Obviously, its mucus production. Mucus consists primarily of two substances: A) proteins, and the substance that is the ultimate cure for this condition: WATER!! Drink a half gallon to 1.5 gallons or so of water when your done, watch as your nasal passages continue to fill up with mucous, keep blowing your nose, and your rhinitis will be gone in an hour. Eventually your body will adjust appropriately and release adequate amounts of histamine for your exercise activities w/out the excess that causes this condition. Don't take antihistamines, they have other side effects you'll probably be better off without. Histamine is good at the right levels, you don't want to block it. And you should be soaking your insides with H2O anyway after exercise; it flushes all the keytone byproducts, wastes, etc.. from your exercise out of your body and it hydrates your muscles for optimum repair and recovery. I don't even have a college degree, lol, so I don't understand why DOCTORS can't tell people this stuff; its like they DON'T want to give you the healthiest and best advice because when you start doing everything right and naturally, it threatens their job security and lowers the demand of their services. Pretty interesting, huh? lol

This sounds like a good thing to try, but it doesn't stop the onset of the rhinitis- 1 hour of stuffiness is still a high price to pay for exercise. My 15 year son recently developed exercise-induced rhinitis, as well as hives and wheezing on a few occasions, mostly competitive sports or running. Mountain biking or swimming so far have not caused it.


Has anyone tried altering diet to overcome this?- a local naturopath recommended eliminating dairy and wheat.

Drinking more water in general seems like a good idea, maybe taking vitamin d, b, and reducing caffeine and sugar, too.

Anyone with experience with this, please respond!!
The allergist offered us no remedy, just said it may go away on its own.

Have you tried simply taking an OTC antihistamine an hour or so before exercising? That should inhibit the rhinitis if it is caused by excess histamine released in exercise. Or alternatively, if you just get congestion, consider a saline sinus rinse, which is natural and non-medicated (most of us use the NeilMed brand available in any drugstore).

Also, I'd be concerned about your son's hives and wheezing -- consider consulting with an allergist who is skilled in treating exercise-induced rhinitis and exercise-induced bronchospasm (which is what the wheezing is). You can find one in your area through the allergist-search widget on aaaai.org.

Hope this helps. Take care & good luck. Judy

Thanks for the reply.


He has not tried taking anything before exercising, but something we could try.

What do you mean by OTC- which antihistamine do you recommend?
He never just gets congestion; it's sneezing, followed by runny nose and congestion, which lasts a while.
He was going to start soccer in a week or so, but has decided it's best to give it up.

I'll look for another allergist, but the one we saw was an older, experienced one and he didn't seem to have had a lot of previous cases like this, if any.

An answer for this problem! For the past four years, I have suffered with the exact problem you describe. It is severe and virtually renders a person non- functional for several days. Antihistamines like Claritin or Benadryl did nothing. Well, a few weeks ago, a friend of mine saw how miserable one of these "attacks" was and recommended that I see her husband who specialized in allergies and asthma. So, desperate to find an answer, I went to the Asthma, Allergy and Airway clinic at Duke. After lung function tests and allergy testing (allergy tests negative), I saw the doctor and told my story of how after I do certain exercises such as running or rowing, I start to cough and then the severe sneezing and watering eyes sets in and goes on for days. Almost without hesitation and with a smile, he said " this is classic for exercise induced asthma"
"What!", I said. I have never had asthma. Nevertheless, he prescribed an Albuterol inhaler before and after exercise. I put it to the test a few days later when I ran up 7 flights of stairs, down , ran up to 6th floor, down, ran up to 5th floor -- you get it. This always triggers an attack. Well..... it seems he was right. No symptoms.... I was so relieved. I will keep putting this to the test, but for now, this seems to be the answer. I was suspicious at first because what does asthma have to do with sneezing and watering eyes. He explained that is is a different pathway than histamine which is why they don't help but prevention with Albuterol or Advair should stop the cascade of events that start as inflammation in the airways from asthma. I Hope this helps!

I was taken back by finding a whole community of people with the same problems I just discovered! I've been pretty active my whole life other than taking a few year long break after high school. I'm 24 and training for my first Triathlon. I do pretty vigorous exercising 6 days a week. And about 5 weeks ago is when I experienced this first. After a run workout I had a sneezing attack and it was incredible, something I had never experienced. I pushed through it, swimming and biking and running and it stayed there, bouncing from mild to moderate sneezing and congestion. I went to CVS and the pharmacist said SUDAFED. Then asked well, are you sneezing and have watery eyes? Answer being yes, she recommeneded a CVS brand of Allergy medicine. It cleared all of my symptoms up, until the medicine was gone. And then the symptoms came right back after a 6 mile run on Monday. The symptoms were pretty well gone until this morning when I was going to go run but decided against it because I was congested again and didn't want to reactivate anything.

So, has anyone figured anything else out? My Triathlon is in 7 weeks and I'd like to get back at it and I'm about to just start training through it, although I know doing something like that could potentially make it worse.. Anything, anybody?

Yesterday as I sat suffering terribly after my run on Saturday I turned to my friend Google to see if my horrible rhinitis after running was common and I found this extensive discussion. I too have intermittent episodes of horrible congestion, sneezing and runny nose after running. I just assumed that it was something in the air I was reacting to, but it never happens when I'm outside doing anything else or even walking around the neighborhood. Also, it is so hard to treat. Despite my being on Singulair and Veramyst, it takes days to break an episode once it starts. Ugh.

After reading all the posts here, I decided to head to PubMed to see what the scientific evidence says. I found a great review article/consensus treatment paper entitled Exercise-induced hypersensitivity syndromes in recreational and competitive athletes: a PRACTALL consensus report (what the general practitioner should know about sports and allergy) .


This article provided some great scientific information about the mechanism of exercise induced asthma and rhinitis. I don't know if this will show here but this is a diagram of why this happens:


So yes the water loss in the airways from the vigorous breathing starts the cascade of factors leading to swelling and runny nose (as well as asthma symptoms).

For me, the key benefit of the article was what was recommended for treatment if rhinitis was the main symptom. Having used antihistamines, nasal steroids and leukotriene esterase inhibitors, I was like what else is reasonable? They recommended something I hadn't thought of: Atrovent nasal. Wow.

I called myself in a prescription and just gave myself my first dose. I feel a little better already! I'm ready to do my noontime run without fear of smothering with my already stuffy nose.

I don't have any longtime results since I just started, but I thought the article might be a good starting point for others to use to discuss with their health care providers. Hope you all get some relief!

Have you monitored your breathing whenever this takes place, i.e are you breathing extremely hard? for how long? Also, are you breathing through the nose as well as the mouth? Have you tried using nose plugs? I began having these symptoms in my late 30's. At first the symptoms lasted through the afternoon and evening and were gone by morning. Then they began to last longer and longer and now go on for 2-3 and sometimes 4 days. Here's what I've learned. If I jog or bicycle at a pace that results in maximum sustainable respiratory exertion, while breathing through both nose and mouth, I usually experience days of severe head-cold-like symptoms. Recommended meds used before exertion have been able to prevent nor have any been useful for treatment after the symptoms have set in. The severity of the symptoms has, in the past, pointed me to "giving up" on exercise all together. One day I decided to try stuffing my nostrils with tissue-paper before heading out on my bicycle. I've been doing this ever since and have had 100 percent success in eliminating this experience. I can also say that I notice about a 50-75 percent correlation between this practice and the successes; in other words, on those occasions when I forget to plug my nose, I nearly always have a re-occurrence of the symptoms. I would like to know if anyone else has tried this simple remedy and what he or she experienced.

I just had to circle back here and share that though the atrovent I posted about helped, it didn't help the symptoms completely. What did work completely was 2 puffs of albuterol prior to exercise. Though I'm not asthmatic, there must be some reactive airway component to what is going on because in the past 3 weeks of running, there've been no further nose attacks. Go figure!

Try nose plugs.

No need for nose plugs. Two puffs of albuterol is much more comfortable than running with nose plugs.

I have just developed this condition since the cold weather set in. I ran a 5 K Sat. and was wrecked for two days. It has happened twice. Today I went to my doctor and he gave me a couple of samples of Veramyst nasal spray. It's a cortosteroid. He thinks it might be Exercise Induced Rhinitis. The spray will decrease nasal swelling etc. I'm going to run tomorrow and see if it helps. I have no known allergies.

revkevrock: I have been using Veramyst for years. It did nothing for these nasal symptoms. The only thing that really worked has been the albuterol (Ventolin)