The Three Big Over The Counter 24 Hour Allergy Medicines Don't Work ~ Bauer-Power Media

Jun 20, 2014

The Three Big Over The Counter 24 Hour Allergy Medicines Don't Work

7:00 AM

Paul B

I decided to stray away from tech today and go on a rant!

I have been an allergy sufferer all my life. It is particularly bad in Colorado where I grew up and where I currently live. It didn't bother me as bad when I lived in San Diego, but now that I'm back to my home state I have been living in my own personal allergy hell until today.

You see when you go to the pharmacy and you look at the allergy section you see something like this:

In the above picture the only thing missing is Zyrtec. Usually what I see is four solid rows of shelves that are peddling Claritin (Loratadine), Allegra (Fexofenadine), Zyrtec (Cetirizine) or the generic counterpart to these. Don't believe me? Check some of the other boxes on the shelf. Chances are damned good the active ingredient is one of the big three.

Sure you might also see Benadryl (Diphenhydramine) on the shelf too, but if you are like me you only want to take that when you are ready to go into a coma!

I got fed up with these pills not working so I went to my doctor who went way overboard with prescribing me a nasal spray, eye drops, an inhaler and some steroids. WTF? I just want a decent pill that works!

When I was in high school I used to take Tavist-D (Clemastine) and it worked great. What the hell ever happened to that? Why have we been reduced to three bogus 24 hour snake oil pills that don't do shit?

Well today while at Walmart I happened across a box of generic Tylenol Allergy Multi-Symptom medicine. I decided to check the active antihistamine and they used Chlorpheniramine! Yup! Not one of the big three! This is the active ingredient in the tried and true Chlor Trimeton!

True, Chlorpheniramine has been known to cause drowsiness, but it's not like the "knock you on your ass" drowsiness you find in Benadryl. You can probably handle it.

Well I found the one box on in the entire allergy section that didn't have one of the big three antihistamines, so I decided to buy it and give it a shot. Guess what? It worked like a friggin' charm! Why don't they put more of this on the shelf? It actually works! Nope, instead they keep it hidden!

Until they start stocking the shelves with what works, I'll order mine from Amazon. I found this bottle of 1000 four hour Chlorpheniramine tablets for less than $9! That should last a while and save me a few bucks!

What do you use to fight off allergies? Did you find this article while looking for an alternative to Claritin, an alternative to Allegra or an alternative to Zyrtec? Let us know about your allergy struggle in the comments!