Description

This video by TV360 offers you expert advice for living with common allergies and ways to combat them.

Transcript

Joe’s story is a common one. Allergy in the sense of what we call allergic rhinitis or hay fever. In fact, there’s an estimated one in every six Americans. So it has become quite common. There are three ways we treat these symptoms. The first and arguably the most important aspect of management is avoidance. So for people such as Joe who is allergic to outdoor pollens, the most important avoidance measure is air-conditioning. By keeping the air-conditioning on so the windows can be closed you cut down the indoor pollen count by 90% or more. So that’s huge. Avoidance measures for dust mites would include mattress and box spring encasement, washing all bedding in hot cycle—130 degrees Fahrenheit or hotter kills dust mites; and reducing indoor relative humidity which is something that happens when you use the air-conditioning also reduces the indoor levels of mold spores, as well dust mites. So avoidance measure is the most important, but they are frequently incomplete which is why people need to take regular medication. Of the medications available over-the-counter medications can be used. There’s one anti-histamine that is non-sedating. In other words, it is not associated with drowsiness or performance impairment and that’s called the Loratidin. The other end of histamine may cause sedation or performance impairment and for this reason Loratidin is preferred. Prescription anti-histamines also are frequently prescribed and the most effective medication according to current evidence for the treatment of this condition is an intra-nasal steroid and that’s available by prescription. The intra-nasal steroid do exactly what we want them to do in the sense that they achieve a local anti-inflammatory effect in the nose, the nasal membranes and the medication is not absorbed through lining of the nose to cause side effects. If avoidance measure is combined with medication use are not effective, not feasible and not desirable allergy shots or what we call allergen immune therapy can be used. Many studies on both sides of the Atlantic and other areas of the world had confirmed the effectiveness of allergy shots or allergeno therapy for treating these symptoms and the benefit generally consists of two things. Number one it reduces your level of symptoms. Number two it reduces your reliance on medication. I tell my patients if you think of a volume knob on a radio that gets turned down, but doesn’t go completely off that’s what we’re talking about. Nonetheless for someone like Joe that can be a major improvement in the sense that he has less symptoms with exposure to relevant allergens such as going outdoors during relevant season and has less need to take medication.