Posts tagged: Hay Fever

Feb 21 2009

Do Allergy Shots Help in Reducing the Allergy Symptoms?

Allergies
Neelima Reddy asked:


Itchiness, watery eyes, runny nose, sneezing, and redness are some of the common symptoms that majority of the people experiences as allergy symptoms.

The most effective way to fight against particular allergen is immunotherapy or allergy shot, but some people will get frightened to get allergy shot.

Allergy shots hold a little amount of substance that fights against the particular allergen. For example, if the person is allergic to pollen, a small amount of substance called pollen will be added to the shot.

A small amount will be given so that the body will get used to fight against the allergen and if the body comes in contact with that substance next time, body will be familiar with that.

Who are not eligible to take allergy shot?

Allergy shots are not safe for everyone. Although most of the people experienced positive results from these shots, they are not suitable for all. People who are suffering from asthma, heart attack, and respiratory problems, pregnant women, and children under age of five are not recommended to receive allergy shot.

Alternatively, certain individuals are experiencing some side effects such as:

• Feelings of shock when the shot is initially injected

• Lightheadedness

• Nausea

So, for these reasons, the patient should stay in the doctor’s office for at least fifteen to twenty minutes after receiving the shot.

Benefits of allergy shots:

• Allergy shots improve allergic rhinitis, hay fever, bee sting allergies, drug allergies, and eye allergies.

• In some cases, allergy shots improve asthma symptoms also. The most common reaction to allergy shot is swelling at the place where the shot is given.

The success of this immunotherapy varies from person to person depending on the severity of the person’s allergy and the number of substances the person is allergic to.

In addition to the traditional allergy shots, there are new approaches to immunotherapy procedures to treat allergies.

Oral immunotherapy works similar to the allergy shot. In this method, increasing doses of allergen will be given to slowly build up the patient’s tolerance. The only difference with oral immunotherapy from allergy shot is with oral immunotherapy extract of allergen is used as drops. In this method, generally the drops are placed under the tongue and then swallowed.

Intranasal immunotherapy method involves intranasal administration of grass and house dust mite allergen extracts, which reduces the nasal symptoms such as “nasal allergy”.

The side effect with intranasal immunotherapy is nasal irritation. When compared to the traditional allergy shots, intranasal immunotherapy has no long lasting benefits.

Rush immunotherapy involves quick build up to the maintenance dose of extract. In this method of treatment, during early phase increasing doses of allergen will be given every few hours rather than a few days. Since there is a great risk involved with this rush immunotherapy, this should be done in hospital under close supervision.

Some people will experience severe reaction to the allergy shot, which is called “anaphylaxis”. In case of bad reaction with this shot, physicians will do appropriate treatment to stop this reaction.

Since allergy shots are not good for everyone, talking to the physician before taking this shot is more advisable. Visit Allergy Symptoms



Feb 20 2009

Now you can control your allergies

Allergies
Lyle asked:


ies of various types make millions of people’s lives miserable everyday and the allergies control at least some aspects of the sufferer’s lives. This is unnecessary since measures can be taken to keep your allergies under control. There are different types of allergies, determined by what causes the allergy. The most well known allergies are dust mite allergy, mold allergy, hay fever or pollen allergy and pet allergy.

Each of these different types of allergies creates a different reaction within the sufferer and has different sources, but allergy control measures can be applied to all of them. There are a variety of measures that you can put into effect, but they are intended to be back up measures for the allergy control products that it is advised you buy. There is a very large selection of products available currently. These products will help to reduce the allergic reactions of the sufferer by a large margin.

When focusing on the bedroom, there are eight main product types which are manufactured to decrease the effects of allergies. The bedroom should be the first area to be re-equipped since it is in there that the allergy sufferer spends a large portion of their time and it should be a refuge from the effects of allergies as opposed to aggravating the suffering. The different types of products are roughly divided into two groups, bedding products and air products.

In the group of bedding products there are the categories comforters, pillows and mattress pads. Comforters come in a variety of types and a variety of fills including down and a fiber fill. Most people with an allergy problem would automatically avoid down, but it is warmer than a fiber filled comforter, but you need to ensure that the comforter is hypoallergenic. People believe they are allergic to feathers, but they are in fact allergic to the dust and protein that attaches itself to the feather so if the down has been properly cleaned then it is not a problem. Fiber filled comforters are preferred by those in warm climates or during summer.

There are is a wide range of choices for people who would like a hypoallergenic pillow , whether it is foam, natural or synthetic. This choice is dependent on what you require from your pillow and your level of allergy. Mattress pads were the greatest thing ever invented by the bedding industry for an increase in comfort and support. Some of mattresses are created for hygiene, some are created for softness and some mattress pads are for back and joint support, but for allergy sufferers the important factor is whether they are hypoallergenic. The feather beds provided by Pacific coast are created to be an allergy control product. They come in every size to suit you and they are incredibly comfortable.

In the group of air products there are Air Purifiers, Dehumidifiers, Humidifiers, Steam Cleaners and Vacuum cleaners. These products all cater for different needs and different types of allergies. A dehumidifier would be the best option for a person suffering from a mold allergy, but a humidifier would be beneficial to a person with sinus troubles as a result of their allergies.

Dehumidifiers and humidifiers perform opposite functions, but they still perform well as allergy control products. Dehumidifiers lower the humidity level of the area around it in order to inhibit the occurrence of mildew, mold and damp. They are essential for any allergy sufferer who wishes to stop mold spores from growing within their house or in the basement and also wishes to keep the level of humidity low enough to ensure that dust mites are kept at bay.

Humidifiers come in two types, warm mist or cool mist humidifiers. These will both keep the air around them hydrated to a comfortable level to ensure that your allergies are not exacerbated. Warm mist humidifiers are more useful in cooler climates while cool mist humidifiers are better used in a warmer environment. The determining factors are ease of cleaning and noise levels.

Air Purifiers are very important allergy control products. They should be used in with either a humidifier or dehumidifier in order to get the best from them. A good quality HEPA air filtration device is an indispensable element to ensuring that an allergen free and healthy home is maintained. Air filters literally filter out harmful pollen and particles that will cause an allergic reaction in you. In order to ensure that you can select a high quality product we have circumspectly chosen the finest air purifiers to present for you to select from out of the numerous products we have tested.

Steam Cleaners often look like a vacuum cleaner but that is where the similarity ends. The use of a steam cleaner ensures that you can sanitize, deep clean and deodorize in one simple procedure without using any of the chemicals that can be found in supermarket cleaning equipment. For allergy sufferers, there is the built in benefit that the heat of the steam penetrates deep down into any material being cleaned and therefore the dry steam instantaneously kills any and all dust mites, viruses, molds, and fungi that may be there.

A HEPA vacuum cleaner is a highly effective allergy control product that will suck up all the allergens and dust which have become settled onto furniture floors and carpets. These settled allergens are the ones which keep getting stirred up and therefore consequently inhaled by people due to movement within a room.

One allergy control product will help you to lower the allergen level in the area of your bedroom, but it is recommended that you utilize a combination of products in order to bring the allergen level to it’s lowest possible point and therefore bring your allergic reactions to an absolute minimum.



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