Non-drowsy Allergy Medicine

je55ek said:

Hi, I've got my first race tommorow, and wouldn't you know it but today my allergies really kicked in. I've got the usual itchy, watery eyes and runny nose. Does anyone know of an over-the-counter allergy medication that won't cause drowsiness or other side effects that might hinder racing? I plan to check with a pharmasist, too, but hearing from people who have experienced the same thing always helps. Thanks,

Jesse K.

Don't know where you live, but here in Canada we can buy most of the none drowsy allergy medication over-the-counter. Personally I use either Claritin or Zyrtec and find both work well, with no side effects.

Thanks. I live in the States, and we can get Claratin non-drowsy over the counter. I just paid a visit to the drug store and the pharmasist suggested the same. I'm glad to hear another cyclist has used it before without side effects. Thanks again,

Jesse K.

je55ek said:

Thanks. I live in the States, and we can get Claratin non-drowsy over the counter. I just paid a visit to the drug store and the pharmasist suggested the same. I'm glad to hear another cyclist has used it before without side effects.

I hope your race went well, je55ek. 🙂

Quite a few people I know* find Claratin (called Claratyne in Australia; generic/chemical name Loratadine) very effective and do not have side effects. However, the one time I tried it, it made my heartbeat go totally nuts: highly erratic, and missing beats all over the place. At one stage I noticed a period of about 8 seconds when I didn't have a pulse at all -- I was monitoring my pulse pretty closely by then because it felt really weird, in a not-very-nice way -- and for several hours I mostly had random bursts of really strong beats really close together, separated by pauses of 2-4 seconds without any beats. Definitely not nice.

* I write health industry software, and while I'm not a health professional I hear quite a bit about various medications in the course of my work.

So, I guess this is mostly to say to everyone in general for the future that if you can, it might be better not to try a new medication for the first time on something like a race day when you'll be exerting yourself more than normal. 🙂

Mouse Potato said:

I hope your race went well, je55ek. 🙂

Quite a few people I know* find Claratin (called Claratyne in Australia; generic/chemical name Loratadine) very effective and do not have side effects. However, the one time I tried it, it made my heartbeat go totally nuts: highly erratic, and missing beats all over the place. At one stage I noticed a period of about 8 seconds when I didn't have a pulse at all -- I was monitoring my pulse pretty closely by then because it felt really weird, in a not-very-nice way -- and for several hours I mostly had random bursts of really strong beats really close together, separated by pauses of 2-4 seconds without any beats. Definitely not nice.

* I write health industry software, and while I'm not a health professional I hear quite a bit about various medications in the course of my work.

So, I guess this is mostly to say to everyone in general for the future that if you can, it might be better not to try a new medication for the first time on something like a race day when you'll be exerting yourself more than normal. 🙂

Scary stuff. I just took a Loratadine tablet this AM (Wal-Mart brand) and went on a fairly tough ride; didn't notice any ill effects on the HRM.

Did your allergy pill also have the "D" -pseudoephedrine? Believe Claritin-D has 120 mg of time-release pseudoephedrine; I've had some HR problems with that kind of doseage.

dhk said:

Scary stuff. I just took a Loratadine tablet this AM (Wal-Mart brand) and went on a fairly tough ride; didn't notice any ill effects on the HRM.

I'm sure that side effects like I had are very rare (I didn't need my HRM to notice the ill effects... there were times I thought it was going to pop right out of my chest!), given its approval as an over-the-counter medication.

(I've just looked up the Consumer Medicine Information sheet for Claratyne: the Side Effects section doesn't list heart rate irregularities amongst those most commonly reported... but it does say that "rare instances of hair loss :eek: was (sic) also reported". I think I'd rather have the weird heart rate, thank you very much! 😄)

dhk said:

Did your allergy pill also have the "D" -pseudoephedrine? Believe Claritin-D has 120 mg of time-release pseudoephedrine; I've had some HR problems with that kind of doseage.

The Claratyne I took didn't contain pseudoephedrine (that product is called Clarinase in Australia). In any case, pseudoephedrine on its own or in other combinations that I've had, at normal to moderately high doses, doesn't have a noticeable effect on my heartrate.

As for me, on the rare occasions I need an allergy medication now, I take one of the drowsy ones. Luckily I'm fairly immune to the drowsiness.