Looking for relief?
If your allergies don't respond to medications, your allergist may recommend a series of allergy shots. The process is long: immunotherapy usually involves weekly shots for three to six months, then monthly shots for three to five years.
Results do vary
Many people with allergies to pollen, dust mites, mold, pet dander and insect venom get relief within a year or two of starting the shots. While become allergy-free once treatment ends, others must continue the shots beyond five years.
1. Allergy injections
But if you dislike needles, now researchers say that there is another option that works just as well. This option, as noted above, require a series of shots over the course of weeks, months and years at different intervals.
2. Needle-free, under-the -tongue
- In an Italian review of 70 studies of needle-free immunotherapy in children, symptoms improved for 44 percent of participants and use of allergy medicines dropped by 24 percent.
- Under-the-tongue therapy was most effective for pollen allergies that lasted more than 18 months.
- Least effective were shorter courses of therapy and treatments for dust mites.
- Interested? Ask your doctor if he or she can put you on a program.
3. Nasal spray
- Steroid nasal sprays also perform better than antihistamine pills and sprays to give allergy symptom relief. In one Pennsylvania State University study of 44 people with respiratory allergies, those who used steroid nasal spray had less congestion than those who used antihistamine spray. As a result, they slept better and felt less groggy during the day.
- When 348 people either used a steroid spray or took an antihistamine daily for four weeks, the steroid group got more relief from allergy symptoms.
- Be patient: these drugs start improving your symptoms within 10 hours of the first use but can take up to two weeks to be fully effective. To stop an allergy almost before it starts, consider an inhaled mast-cell stabilizer, such as cromolyn (Intal) or nedocromil (Tilade).
- When taken as soon as you feel symptoms beginning, or even when you know the pollen count is rising, a mast-cell stabilizer prevents the release of inflammatory compounds, including histamines and leukotrienes, from the immune system's mast cells.
- In one study of 177 people with ragweed allergies, researchers found that 74 percent of those who took a mast-cell stabilizer during the three-week pollen season said the drug was effective. The catch: you have to use it up to six times a day.
So long-term results may be an option if you are patient and willing to commit to doctor visits required to complete treatment. These are some options but you have to decide what works best for you.
