I sure wish I had a family doctor that knew myself and children. It seems that in moving every few years or being put on a new health care plan we always get bumped around.

A family doctor can be the source on on-going health tips and information and I think we've missed out on all that since we walk in and are meeting our new doctor for the first time or are in for a flu or similar children's visit.

I'm looking forward to learning more from Family Doctor Magazine and in this forum.

It's coming up on allergy season for my family and lot's of new grasses and rain this year in southern California. Any ideas for helping with the symptoms? We usually take Claritin since it's longer acting but I don't think it's any better than anything else I've tried on sale.

Hi, Danaw.

We have an interesting article on how antihistamines work coming up in the March/April 2008 issue of James Hubbard's My Family Doctor.

Claritin is one of the nonsedating antihistamines that you buy over-the-counter. There are others, and some you can get by subscription only. The only way to find which works for you is trial and error. Benadryl (diphenhydramine), Tavist and Chlortrimeton work well also, but have a tendency to cause drowsiness.

The main thing is to try to find out what you are allergic to, and avoid it. If it is a plant pollen then find out when it at its worst and try to stay indoors. Usually your local weather will provide info. Www.pollen.com is a good web site for this.

Other suggestions are:

Stay indoors in early morning and dusk.

Keep your windows shut.

Try nasal irrigation. (We have an article on that in the March/April issue, too.)

Start the antihistamine a week or two before allergy season and take it regularly (not as needed).

If the above fails, check with your primary care provider for prescription alternatives, including nasal spray steroids.

Consider seeing an allergist for allergy testing and shots to decrease your allergy reaction severity. These usually take several months to work effectively, but really help some people significantly.

We'll be posting a couple of articles we've done on allergies in the next few days. I'll post in this forum when they go online.

James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
Publisher, James Hubbard's My Family Doctor

As promised here are links to two articles regarding allergies in our Medical Index/Chronic Disease section.

The first is some allergy tips.

The second is on allergy treatments.

Hope they help,

James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
Publisher, James Hubbard's My Family Doctor