I'm assuming taking antihistamines after exposure to a trigger is kind of like putting on a helmet after getting hit in the face by a baseball. Sure taking anti-histamine after a trigger will help block further histamine receptor activation, but a lot of activation has already happened and I don't think anti-histamines reverse that and so you just have to wait for your body to slowly recover from that on it's own right?

Does anyone have experience with pre vs post medication? It'll be a while before I can test it myself and so I'm just really eager to know if there's a huge difference because post-medicating didn't seem to help my symptoms even after several hours. I'm thinking if I had pre-medicated it may have blocked most of my symptoms.

I agree that prevention is better than dealing with an attack (especially if you're a shocker), but... I wouldn't underestimate the value of antihistamines to treat breakthrough symptoms.  

Here's an example that I experienced yesterday...

I went with my daughter's class on a field trip to a cave (it was SO COOL... I'm really glad I went).  The worst part was the bus ride... 1.5 hours in each direction, sitting in a too-small seat surrounded by a bunch of fidgety 1st and 2nd graders.  Oh yeah... and did I mention that this cave was in the foothills of the Appalachians?  Yeah.  It was a very twisty, nausea-inducing trip, even for someone without a mast cell disorder.  Anyway... I prepared by pre-medicating before each segment of the trip with an extra 20mg of Zyrtec and 300mg of Zantac.  That was fine on the way out.  It wasn't quite enough on the way back... I was feeling pretty nauseated by the time we pulled into the parking lot.  Fortunately, I keep a bottle of Pepcid Complete in my car.  It has calcium (for some immediate relief) plus a dose of H2.  That was enough to get rid of my lingering symptoms and I went on my merry way.  (The extra good news... my daily regimen keeps me on a pretty even keel, so this episode never went past the "nausea" stage.)

Of course it's better not to have an attack at all, but it doesn't take as long as you might think for antihistamines to relieve your symptoms after degranulation.  My first big attack (which involved a 911 call and an ambulance ride) was treated with nothing more than prednisone, Benadryl, and Pepcid.

Heather

Oh sorry, I didn't mean that it's pointless to take antihistamines after you already have symptoms. I see how it sounds that way. I hope this message is clear and correct this time.

I was saying antihistamines work to prevent inflammation and the continued feeding of inflammation from histamine receptor activation. But as far as I know, they don't, in general, also directly reverse this inflammation once it's there, but of course they will speed up recovery and mitigate the reaction.

I was just thinking that the inflammation that I had from the reaction without pre-medicating, was just very slow for my body to clear. Maybe some peoples' bodies can clear the inflammation quickly after the post-trigger anti-histamines stop the continued feeding of this inflammation.

It's good to know that it's easier to prevent symptoms than to treat them. That's basically what I was asking in a stupid verbose and unnecessarily overcomplicated way. lol I'll have to try pre-medicating as soon as I get the Benadryl delivered.

I was hoping that was the case because Benadryl may be the only med I tolerate since I'm intolerant to 99% of things I've ingested. I was wondering if I should give Zyrtec a try too if Benadryl alone doesn't work well enough for me.

And I know a lot of you guys take meds every day, so what about building up tolerance to them in the sense that they are no longer effective. Does that usually not happen to you guys or do up the dose or alternate meds or what?

Thanks starflower. The benadryl also seems to not make me very drowsy when I take it after a reaction to something I inhale. I guess because when our symptoms are up there's more histamine in the brain that offsets the anti-histamine Benadryl. Bendaryl seems to help with my brain fog quite a bit too. Does it seem to reduce your brain fog as well? Of course, if I take it when I haven't been having any exposure to triggers then the sedation affects my thinking.