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For years, I used to wake up every morning with a stuffed-up nose. I used to think I had the type of body constitution that was naturally susceptible to colds. But I wondered why, despite all my precautions to keep warm before bedtime, I would still wake up with a stuffed-up nose in the morning. I always asked myself, I don't feel like I have a cold but why is my nose stuffy?

I finally discovered the reason why about a year and a half ago. It was an allergy. Apparently, having a stuffed-up nose when you wake up in the morning is a sure sign of an allergy. So it wasn't an all-year-round cold after all. I was surprised. I always thought that allergies only affected the skin, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Ok, so I had an allergy. The next step was to find out the source of my allergy. A doctor can help you by administering a series of tests. The most common medical method is by scraping your skin and dabbing it with some substance in order to see the skin's reaction to it. Among the most commonly tested substances are grass and pollen. Sometimes, doctors can try one substance after another before finding out the source of your allergy.

The alternative to visiting a doctor is taking a simple allergy treatment that is probably available over the counter at your local drugstore.

It was my friend, Eric, who told me about these allergy treatments. As a kid, Eric has his share of allergies, especially during spring and summer when his nose was constantly runny and just wouldn't stop twitching all the time. He carried around a box of tissues everywhere he went and, as such, was the constant butt of what he called an endless stream of jokes.

After enduring those daily taunts and his stuffy nose for several years, Eric finally discovered that he was allergic to hay (he lived on a farm) and as soon as he started taking allergy treatments regularly, his nose problems stopped. And thankfully, so did the teasing of his neighbors and classmates.