Yes, cetirizine and fluticasone are a good long-term treatment for allergies.

Direct decongestants like pseudoephedrine are of limited use because you quickly develop a tolerance and they become ineffective. With corticosteroid nasal sprays, they work best after consistent use over several days and keep working more or less forever.

Neither Claritin nor Zyrtec are options for me. They both make me very ill.

While I can't say I have definitive proof, my allergies decreased significantly after I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, and as a result started consuming less sugar (among other things like dairy). I still get allergies, but much less severe than then first 3 decades of my life.

Allergies are worsened by dehydration. To rehydrate, drink one cup of water every 45 min and after you finish one put a speck of salt at the back of your tongue. Don't go over 8 max 10 cups in a day. Unless you're under extreme conditions you don't really need more than 5 cups per day once you're properly hydrated. The Eight Cups was developed for military basic training, not every day life. The other thing that can help allergies is washing your nose out with Ocean Nasal Spray (actual product name). The key is to pull it through your nose and caught it into your mouth and spit it out a couple of times in a row w fresh sprays. That clears mold and breaks that immune resistant slime, whatever it's called.

Yes. The third ingredient -- a decongestant like real sudafed -- is common too. Some people only need one or two of these drugs; others need all three at the same time.