Dealing With Allergies
By Ross
Allergies are very common in society, especially environmental allergies, such as, hayfever, dust and animal allergies. Many people find that having chronic or even seasonal allergies is like suffering from a constant cold. Allergies suffers feel stuffed up, conjested, fatigued, headachey and sometimes moody and irritable. As with all conditions their are variations in the severity of the condition. For some people allergies can be a minor nusience but for others allergies can be very debilitating and potentially life threatening in extreme cases. Thankfully for most people allergies aren't usually life threatening.
What causes allergic reactions?
Allergic reactions occur when the body's immune system mistakenly thinks that an antigen (protein) is a harmful virus or bacteria and launches an immune assault. This can lead to all the common symptoms associated with allergies which you can read below.
Hayfever
Hayfever is a seasonal allergy to pollens. Most often it is to grass pollens which in the UK up to 90% of hayfever sufferers are allergic to, about 20% of hayefever sufferers are allergic to weeds and 25% to tree pollens. Depending on which pollens you are allergic to a hayfever sufferer can have symptoms lasting just a few weeks out of the year to 4 months out of the year. With chronic allergy symptoms lasting this long can drag the immune system down and thus the individual. It is well known that viral infections for whatever reason cause an increase in benzo withdrawal symptoms. As allergies as they involve the immune system they to can cause an increase in symptoms. Headaches with disturbed sleep, irritability as well as the typical allergy symptoms sneezing, feeling run down and fatigued are just some of the symptoms to name but a few. Hayfever can also cause "Seasonal Asthma".
Dust and Animal Allergies
Dust and animal allergies are more year round allergies and are often commonly implicated in causing chronic asthma. Sufferers of such allergies get the same symptoms as hayfever sufferers except it tends to be all year round which can be most unpleasant for sufferers especially if the allergies are severe. I personally know of one person who spent 4 or 5 months per year in hospital due to dust allergies and resultant severe asthma and received a cure for his condition and requires no further medication for his asthma. Read further down the page for treatments and solutions for allergies.
Asthma
Asthma as esplained above is commonly associated with environmental allergens however not all cases of asthma are caused by environmental allergens and sometimes it can be caused by autoimmune causes. Asthma is caused by an immune reaction on the lungs which causes inflammation, irritation and conjestion of the lungs. This results in wheezing, breathlessness and in very severe cases death.
Allergy Symptom List
runny nose
watery eyes
itching of the ears, nose, eyes, throat, roof of mouth, or skin
sneezing
wheezing
blocked up ears
coughing
breathlessness
redness in the eyes
hives
skin rashes
sinus pressure
headches
irritability
sleep disturbance
concentration problemsTreating allergies
The traditional way of treating allergic conditions is via medicine including steroids, antihistamines and other medications. Non drowsy antihistamines which do not cross over the blood brain barrier have been formulated which have much reduced side effects. Steroids have many side effects but for some people they are essential.
However there are some nondrug methods for dealing with allergies.
Non Drug Treatment Methods
In the case of pollen allergies some simple measures can reduce the exposure to pollen including:
Closing windows and doors when pollen counts are high. By closing windows less pollen will get into your house and also the lack of breeze will cause much of the pollen to fall to the ground inside your house.
Bathing or showering twice a day will help get the pollen off your skin and out of your hair which may also help.
Wearing sun glasses if you are allergic to pollen can help especially when walking outside on a windy day or purchasing ear plugs if ears become blocked may also help.
Also purchasing an air filtration unit can be very benefitial as well. Air filtrations can significantly reduce allergic symptoms by filtering the air particles. The most important thing is to avoid the ozone or ionisation air filtration units. Ozone units/ionisation units produce ozone as a biproduct which is actually toxic to the lungs and has been shown to worsen asthma and allergy problems. Ozone belongs in the outer atmosphere and not in your lungs. The most safe and effective air filtration unit that I have found is the home air filtration unit made by ESSA. It works via an electrostatic field combined with filters. Environmental allergens are sucked into the filtration unit and the allergens are destroyed by the electrostatic field. The electrostatic field covers only a small area in inches and thus gives off no harmful byproducts unlike the popular ozone producing products on the market today which can be regarded as a scam in my opinion.
A method which can often cure many allergy symptoms but is not widely used by the allergenists in immunodesensitisation therapy. Why it is not in routine practise is unknown, perhaps it doesn't have the money behind it that pharmaceuticals have to promote it. Anyhow I have known one person who had severe life threatening asthma and spent as much time inside hospital as out of hospital who was cured using this treatment. His doctor, an allergenist administered innitially very small doses of the substance he was allergic to intravenously every few weeks and gradually increased the dose over a period of time. As treatment progressed his dust allergy rapidly improved along with his related asthma. After a period of I believe 3 years his treatment was finished. Before the treatment he was regularly on deaths door spending months at a time in hospital, with his allergies costing the hospital a fortune and almost costing him his life. He now has no problems with dust and no longer has asthma and requires no medications for asthma. I have another friend who was plagued with hayfever who had immuno-desensitisation therapy and has not suffered any hayfever since.
Another treatment which is very similar to immunodesensitisation therapy is Sublingual Immunotherapy (SLIT). It involves applying small doses of the allergen under the tongue and gradually titrating exposure to the allergen up. Both sublingual and immuno-desensitisation therapy work by tricking the immune system into seeing the allergen as a harmless object and thus "curing the allergy".
Dust allergy sufferers may find relief by purchasing dust mite resistant bed covers, investing in an air purification unit and replacing carpeted floors with wooden floors.
Those allergic to animals should limit their exposure to animals and places where animals live to reduce symptoms.
When allergy symptoms are very unpleasant, distressing or severe some allergy and or asthma sufferers may resort to buying allergy masks or even an allergy clean air tent. Wearing masks have the draw back of being unpleasant to wear all day long whereas a tent takes up a lot of space and is expensive but may be an option for those with severe allergies.
There you have it. I have tried to summarise the common allergic conditions which affect many peoples lives. I listed some solutions, some of which are simple and cost nothing whereas others which are either expensive or more of an extreme measure for severe cases of allergy.
Products Discussed in this page
Dust Mite Covers and other allergy products
Recommended Allergy Links
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