Stephen Merchant hired "allergy exorcists" to find out why he felt unwell in his flat.
Stephen Merchant hired allergy exorcists
The 49-year-old actor and writer revealed that back in 2012 he could not set foot inside his home without sneezing or his eyes starting to stream.
He did everything he could to figure out the source of the problem, including hiring "allergy exorcists" and going to see a doctor in London's prestigious Harley Street, who Stephen claimed turned out to be a "quack".
Speaking on the 'My Mate Bought A Toaster' podcast, he said: "I discovered I was allergic to my flat. I couldn't figure out what the problem was but I did a lot in the next couple of years to try to not have eyes streaming, sneezing, every time I entered my flat.
"It was brutal. I'd go away on holiday, I'd come back and within an hour I'd be sneezing, my eyes would be streaming. The whole house was spotless, I had allergy people come round to do tests on whether there was too much dust. Allergy exorcists, they couldn't find anything.
"At one point, I thought, maybe it's me, maybe I'm the problem. I said to someone 'Do you have any tips on allergy specialists?' and they gave me a number, I went to this guy. It was what I can only describe as a Harley Street quack. I was so furious and I got there and I thought, hang on a minute, this is not a proper clinic. He had sort of like an attic room and he had these little jars of things that said things like 'apple', 'dust', 'cat', 'cheese'. He asked me about my allergies, I said I thought it was dust and sure enough when he got out his dust jar, that was the one that informed him I was allergic to dust. I wish I hadn't told him. I was so furious with him."
After all of his investigations, Stephen finally figured out the cause of the problem was his mattress.
He said: "It subsequently turned out it was the mattress, the mattress was the issue and once I changed it, life was never the same again."
He quipped: "That bed saw a lot of action in 2012 and I had to get rid of it".
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