Nothing Short of a Miracle

Okay I am going to go ahead and say it... It is a miracle and I am cured!  Sorta, I think... maybe... Usually by this time of the year I am living on Claritin, Nyquil to sleep and tons of hot showers just to be able to keep breathing.  Typically my allergies are that bad and they pretty much always have been.

I am usually affected earlier than everyone else by about a month.  I start having symptoms by the 3rd to last week of February and by my birthday, the end of the first week of March I am just in full blown survival mode and miserable.  This usually lasts until the end of March for me.

The risk really comes into play when my immune system becomes involved fighting my allergies.  A nasty negative feedback loops gets set up where my allergies wear me down, I become susceptible to catching other bugs and my immune system then gets all out sorts... witness the seven weeks last spring where in the end I had a severe respiratory infection when it was all over.

But this year?  This year... hardly a bump in the road.  I bet in the past three weeks I have maybe taken three Claritin... five at the most.  My worst symptoms so far are itchy eyes and some sniffles and sneezing here and there but hardly anything like I am used to.  By now my allergies would be on a scale of 1-10 an 11... now... .5.

It all comes back to cleaning up my diet and going Paleo.  Of course I don't know if my lack of symptoms is due to giving up the gluten or dairy but either way it is working.  And even if I don't adhere to the Paleo diet for the rest of my life (which I doubt I will just out of practicality) at least now I have a new tool in my arsenal to fight my seasonal allergies.

The great upside is this... I am not having allergy attacks.  I can run without having to blow my nose every five minutes or having huge, blinding sneezing fits.  My lungs are staying clear and the grand sum of of the symptoms are not wearing me down.  To me this means that I will be able to train better this spring than ever.  Hell, I might even gain ground for once instead of just hanging on for six to eight weeks like in the past.

Like I said... damned near a miracle.  When I was a kid I had to get two injections a week for my allergies until I was a teenager and I have suffered with them horribly ever since.  This is a great and awesome turn of events for me and I am really grateful for the relief.

Usually when the charts look like this... it is miserable for me.  Now... barely a symptom!