Hello everybody,

I am new to this list. My name is Cristina and I'm Italian.
I have been alergic for an incredibly long time, I used to think
that there was no solution. But something that happened recently
made me change my mind:

I am spending 10 weeks in the UK to attend a course and I feel much
much better than I feel in Italy. Moreover I went home over the
weekend and I started sneezing again and I stopped as soon as I
arrived in England.

I had an allergy test in 1998, the results were that I am very
alergic to pollen and slightly alergic to dust.
In Italy I have a cat, I live in a city, my partner smokes and I
don't have any anti-acar fabrics in the house. Here in UK I live in
the country, my dorm room is very clean as cleaning personnel come
every week to hoover the place and nobody smokes.

The kind of allergy I have is rhinitis, I sneeze a lot when I wake
up and it's much worse in May and June. I also sneeze if I move from
a hot to a cold room and viceversa. I feel very badly if I stay in
dusty environments.

My first question is: according to my symptoms, which you think is
the main reason of the difference between Italy and UK? Is there
anything I can do to improve the situation or is it basically due to
the fact I live in an Italian city while here in Uk I'm in the
country?

My second question is: does anybody in the list have a smoking
partner? Have you got some useful advice on how to tackle the issue?

Thank you very much in advance for any help you might give.

Best wishes

Cristina