Allergy Treatment
3 basic allergy treatments
Allergy is an abnormal reaction of the immune system when it misunderstands some ordinarily innocent foreign substances called allergens. There is a variety of allergens such as pollens, food, dust, insect bites or stings, environment conditions… Nowadays, medical allergy treatments are limited but an effective plan need to be a combination of 3 following basic treatments:
1. Avoidance
Avoiding the exposure of allergens is suggested to be the first and most important allergy treatment. For food, drug or cosmetics allergy, patients can easily stop using or touching that kind of product but for those who suffer from the pollens, dust or other airborne allergies, avoiding the allergens is more difficult. Some helpful strategies are frequently removing the dusty carpet, using vacuum cleaner or air purifiers, change feather and woolen pillows, clothing… to cotton or synsthetic ones,etc… Adjusting the lifestyle can help patients to reduce the allergy symptoms. In addition, they can avoid the side effects of other medical treatments.
2. Medications
If the avoidance of allergens can’t help patients to stop the servere allergy symptoms, medications can be applied. In fact, medications can’t cure the allergies completely but they can relieve, prevent and control the symptoms. Here are some common and clinical proven potent allergy medications:
● Antihistamines: can prevent the action of histamines, which is released by the body because of the allergens and cause the allergic symptoms. Some short-acting antihistamines, that include alimemazine, promethazine, cyclizine, chlorphenamine, or ketotifen and is usually non-prescription medication, can relieve the mild and moderate allergy symstoms but it can cause drowsiness, that may affect the daily life of patients. Long-acting antihistamines, that include loratadine, cetirizine hydrochloride, or desloratadine and may be available by prescription only, can help to control the more serious allergic reactions and not to interfere with daily life because they cause less sleepiness. Some drugs can be affect patients’ pressure, moods, liver or kidney. Those formulations can be available in nasal spray, cream, tablets, eye drop or other liquid forms.
● Corticosteroids: is steroid hormones used to couteract the immune system by inhibiting phospholipase A2, an enzyme in a chemical pathway whose products are chemicals involved in inflammation such as prostaglandins and leukotrienes. There are two types of corticosteroids: glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids with different chemical structures. The glucocorticoids are used more widely than the other, which are usually added in very small amount.
The side effects of those drugs are lowered immune systems,that can lead to some dangerous oppourtunistic infections such as tuberculosis, chickenpox, measles… Corticosteroids can atrophy the patients’ adrenal glands if they are on corticosteroids for a long time. High dose of corticosteroids can cause some psychological problems such as anxiety, inability to sleep, nightmares… Glucocorticoids can weaken the bones and mineralocorticoids can cause fluid retention, that can result in the hypertension or kidney, heart and lungs problems.
●. Leukotriene antagonists: inhibit the leukotriene, an inflammatory chemical making airways become so narrow that they are easily clogged up with mucus and increasing the mucus production. That substance is not as effective as the corticosteroids but it has less side effects; so, is usually prescribed for children. Some common negative health effects are headaches, abdominal pain, and thirst.
3. Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy includes a series of multiple injections that can reduce the patients’ sensivity for allergens. This is an natural therapy which is very similar to the vaccinations. The patient’s immine system is exposed a safe amount of allergen with gradually increasing doses. After several years, the natural resistance can be enhanced because the body are familiar with the allergen and does not react against it. This therapy can lead to permanent result after the discontinuation of therapy, maybe in three or five years. In general, it is safe but there are some small risks such as life-threatening allergic reactions called anaphylactic shock. Moreover, immunotherapy can be ineffective for some people.