Tesco Hayfever & Allergy Relief Tablets

...work had told him that Tesco do their own brand of hay fever tablets which are far cheaper than the 'branded' ones, they contain exactly the same active ingredient but work really well. Dad bought some and said they were good and that although his hay fever was not completely 'cured', it he did feel it had eased off considerably.

I decided to try them for myself. I looked at the plain little white box with the familiar Tesco logo ...
...week. These little white Tesco equivalent tablets are very cheap in comparison, as they sell at a fraction of the cost - 99p for the same amount!!

Within about twenty to thirty minutes of swallowing the tablet I felt a little less itchy - not much, but just a little. I wasn't sure if it was just my imagination, but the following day I took another with my breakfast and the day after that I took my third one. By the end of day three ... more

I have suffered from hay fever and eczema all of my life - since I was a baby. The eczema gets really bad during times of extreme stress and during the past few months it has been so horrible, painful, itchy, weepy and swollen that I haven't wanted to leave the house. My friends have all been really good about it (they are used to it) and try their best to sympathise with me. My mum has had me on various 'fad' diets, including cutting out dairy, wheat alcohol (that didn't last long!) and most recently she force-fed me ten organic juiced carrots with spinach every night for four weeks, as she'd read somewhere that vitamin A is good for the skin. All that happened was that I developed a faint orange hue, so I quickly knocked that on the head!

My doctor says my hay fever is strongly related to the fact that I have eczema and that the two are connected. At this time of year I hate to be outside as the pollen really does make me wheeze, my eyes water, I sneeze and my nose runs. When my eyes water it gets into the eczema cracks around my eyes and then it makes me literally cry with pain when the salt from my tears gets into the cracks.

Over the years my mum has tried me on all sorts of medication - some of it really expensive, some of it cheap. I have also been to see an acupuncturist in the hope that he might be able to 'cure' me - he didn't. Mum saved up to take me but I'm no better. He just stuck a load of needles in me everywhere, told me I need to wear socks or slippers on my feet when in the house to keep my feet warm as my heat was "escaping from my head" and that this was making my face flare up, and also I had to lay off bananas (as they are "wet" food, whatever that means)!!

My dad also suffers quite a lot from hay fever but he doesn't get the eczema and his friend at work had told him that Tesco do their own brand of hay fever tablets which are far cheaper than the 'branded' ones, they contain exactly the same active ingredient but work really well. Dad bought some and said they were good and that although his hay fever was not completely 'cured', it he did feel it had eased off considerably.

I decided to try them for myself. I looked at the plain little white box with the familiar Tesco logo and thought to myself that I had nothing to lose - this was about three weeks ago. The first day I took one I was revising for my exams. I was at home by myself and took one on an empty tummy. The box stated that you only need to take one a day and that the active ingredient is 10mg of Cetirizine Dihydrochloride. This is the same active ingredient that can be found in the more expensive brands you can buy.

Mum used to pay about £3.90 for a box of Zirtec tablets and these would generally last me about a week. These little white Tesco equivalent tablets are very cheap in comparison, as they sell at a fraction of the cost - 99p for the same amount!!

Within about twenty to thirty minutes of swallowing the tablet I felt a little less itchy - not much, but just a little. I wasn't sure if it was just my imagination, but the following day I took another with my breakfast and the day after that I took my third one. By the end of day three I had noticed a definite improvement in my hay fever symptoms. My bus stop is right beside a large cherry tree up from where I live, and normally while I wait for the bus to arrive I am sneezing and having to blow my nose all the time. It was my friend Katie who noticed that this wasn't happening any more. I agreed with her that I did in fact, feel pretty much okay.

I can just about live with the hay fever but it's my eczema that causes me the most grief. My doctor says it's stress-related and that I need to do stuff to 'chill out', but when the eczema gets really bad I just get even more stressed - it's a vicious circle. After about a week however, of taking a tablet every morning after my breakfast I have noticed an improvement in my skin. It's still red and itchy but the flare up has calmed down quite a bit and I don't feel as stressed about it as I normally would.

The only downside of these tablets is that they do make me feel very very sleepy during the day. The box warns that they can make the user feel drowsy and that each person will experience different side effects. As the weeks have gone on I think I have become a little more used to them being in my system and my body is getting used to them, but in the early days I just felt like dropping off all the time during the day. Not good when you are trying to revise for exams!!

Anyway, I don't claim to have the perfect complexion now, but I have noticed a definite improvement since taking these. They have helped enormously with my hay fever symptoms and they have helped a fair bit with my itchy skin. I'm now taking them before bed instead of first thing in the morning though. This is because I don't want to feel tired all day especially now as I'm in the middle of exams, and also if I take a tablet just before I go to bed it helps me to sleep through and not scratch my face in the middle of the night without realising it. Before I started to take these before I went to bed, I was having to wear gloves all night to stop me from scarring my face with the constant scratching I did all night.

I do think that if anyone has the horrible symptoms of hay fever and eczema that they should give Tescos' tablets a try. They aren't a miracle cure but they are cheap, effective and just as good as the more expensive brands. I just wish they'd make a Tesco tablet to make me chill out more and stress less …… xx 

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