LIVING WELL By Tammy Heinly McCulley, MD
How To Prepare For Allergy Season Every year in mid-February, tree pollen hits the Mid-South. As the season progresses, a thick green film covers sidewalks and cars. For 80% of people, this is a mere annoyance, but for the rest, this time is marked by misery. Adults and children with seasonal allergies often dread this time of year. Others, however, may suffer year round. Allergy symptoms can include congestion, drainage, runny nose, itchy/watery eyes, and sneezing. They greatly affect quality of life. For example, people with eye allergy symptoms often have trouble wearing contact lenses due to irritation. Others may not even bother applying eye makeup knowing that watery eyes will just wash it away. Some are frightened by sneezing fits while driving a car. Nasal congestion may be complicated by recurrent sinus and ear infections. Many also complain of fatigue or a generalized fog when bothered by seasonal allergies. In fact, during allergy season you can lose up to four days of productivity a month.
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The first step in managing allergies is often to identify individual triggers. These can be identified a number of ways. Some may walk into a home with a cat and experience immediate itching, sneezing, and watery eyes. Others may have symptoms during yard work. Hours after a thorough house cleaning, a person can notice congestion or a headache. Triggers can literally be found everywhere and often identified by exposure alone. Others may find it hard to identify what in the environment is irritating. Allergy skin tests can be useful in confirming suspected triggers and can often pick up other triggers that weren’t suspected at all. Despite the many triggers, there are effective treatments to control symptoms and improve quality of life. Allergy treatment is a threepart program: environmental control, medication, and allergen immunotherapy or allergy shots. Allergen immunotherapy is an extremely beneficial long-term solution and medications can offer immediate relief. However, many prefer a more homeopathic route.
