Sick of Red Tide? Here's Help

August 24, 10:12 PMSurf ExaminerPat Pemberton

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It usually starts with a sneeze around 4 p.m.

An hour later, the sniffles arrive. And roughly an hour after that, my skin is itchy, my sinuses tingle, and my nose is running so much, I'm temped to pack Kleenex up my nose like gauze.

Okay, I'll admit, sometimes I actually do cram Kleenex up my nostrils -- and you can imagine how attractive that is. But when the red tide hits me real bad, I just get desperate.

In my little surf town, summer equates with sunshine, glassy conditions and warmer water. Yet, that warmer water I appreciate so much also brings forth red tide, which I do not appreciate so much.

There's a lot of stuff online about red tide, but I won't bore you with biology stuff. In short, red tide is an algal bloom. And when it's around, it gives the water a redish or brownish hue. Though certain forms of red tide can be harmful to marine life, it doesn't bother most humans.

Unfortunately, I'm not in that Most category, and I'm not alone. Since red tide can cause some surfers to get sick -- presumably because they are allergic to it -- that leaves the ill surfer with three choices:

1.) Play more tennis in the summer.

2.) Surf in the day, be miserable at night.

3.) Find a remedy.

I like tennis, but I can't go without The Stoke for an entire summer. Yet, even the best session is not worth the kind of illness I get from red tide. So I've explored numerous medicines, and, well -- most don't help.

I've tried Flonase, Benadryl and even Zyrtec, the last of which gave me real hope since it used to be available only by prescription. But none of those did the trick. So far I've found only one thing to be effective in combating red tide: Claritin-D.

Not the regular Claritin -- that doesn't work. It has to be Claritin-D. And because Claritin-D contains pseudoephedrine -- a key ingredient to meth -- you have to buy it at the pharmacy so the government can keep tabs on how much Claritin-D you're buying. (One poor guy bought Claritin-D for his church-camp-bound son and got busted.)

But that's not all. Once you've picked up your Claritin-D, you have to make sure to take it before you go in the water. I've taken it after, and it just doesn't work. But if I take it after, it seems to help. I might get a little sniffly, and I'll still sneeze a few times. But it cuts down on the symptoms dramatically.

Before you think I'm a complete shill for Claritin-D, I will say there are some side-effects. Mostly, I feel a little tingly sensation that's not so great. And sometimes I even get a little sweaty. This guy even said it hampered his, ah . . . ability to love.

Despite the side-effects, I've found Claritin-D to be the best solution to red tide.

Now, of course, I'm no doctor, so I should probably provide this disclaimer: This is how Claritin-D worked for me. As those commercials always say, "Results may vary."

So if you take Claritin-D and you lose the feeling in your left foot or have an urge to bark at the moon, well . . . I did say "results may vary," right?

 Photo: Alejandro Diaz