Picture it: It is a perfect summer day. The sun is shining, the sky is clear, and there is just enough of a breeze to ease the sticky heat that is the trademark of a Virginia summer. You are enjoying the day with your family, maybe at a park, sports game, or outdoor barbecue.
Then you feel it: the tickle in your throat, the stinging in your eyes, the clogging feeling in your nose. Suddenly, your fun in the sun becomes an afternoon of coughing, itching, sneezing, and general misery.
Many of us have had to experience this exact scenario more times than we would like. Over a quarter of Americans deal with environmental allergies, making it one of the leading chronic illnesses in the United States and costing people thousands of dollars in lost productivity, healthcare and insurance costs, and even hospital and urgent care visits.
Most people can deal with allergies with over-the-counter medication or preventative measures, such as avoidance, air purification, or a strict cleaning regimen. However, for some, these measures are not sufficient to relieve their symptoms, making allergies an ever-present fact of life.
If you are struggling with this reality, there is an alternative.
How It Works: Allergy Testing
Allergies result from the body responding to a substance like mold, pollen, or animal hair in the same way as a virus, parasite, or other foreign invader. When it comes into contact with these materials, the immune system reacts by creating antibodies, which bind to the allergen and trigger the immune system to release histamine, a chemical responsible for allergy symptoms like sneezing, itching, inflammation, and, in their most extreme form, anaphylactic shock.
When treating allergies, typically a skin scratch test is performed to determine the most effective treatment. At Rockwell Physicians, you will receive scratches to your skin to introduce a small amount of a suspected allergen. After fifteen minutes, reactions of redness or swelling are measured to determine the relative severity of the allergic reaction. Our practitioners will then use these measurements to create a personalized treatment plan designed to address your particular allergens.
How It Works: Allergen Immunotherapy
Allergen immunotherapy slowly retrains the immune system by reducing its sensitivity by introducing very dilute allergen samples underneath the skin. This approach retrains the immune system to not react to particular allergens.
At Rockwell Physicians, we use a low-and-slow approach to allergy treatment, consisting of a build-up and maintenance stage. During the build-up stage, the dosage is gradually increased through injections, most of which can be performed at home, administered several times a week over a period of six months to allow your body to build up resistance naturally.
The maintenance phase requires less frequent injections over three years to continue the exposure to your immune system and support its resistance.
The Benefits
Allergen immunotherapy offers a long-term solution to people struggling with environmental allergies and has proven effective at addressing most common irritants, ranging from pollen to molds to dust mites to animal dander.
Although symptoms will not stop immediately, they will ease and improve in the first six to twelve months of treatment and continue to do so throughout the second year. Over that time, patients tend to experience less bothersome symptoms, including fatigue, sinus congestion, and watery eyes.
Ultimately, many patients can eliminate the need for symptomatic treatment, reduce their medication use, and experience fewer sinus infections. After the third year, many people have no ongoing allergen issues, even if they choose not to maintain the treatment.
Depending on the length of the treatment, allergen immunotherapy can prevent new allergies from developing. Additionally, children who undergo treatment can avoid developing allergic diseases like allergic rhinitis, asthma, and more.
Get Back to Living
People suffering from long-term allergies frequently forget what feeling good is like, resigning themselves to living with allergies that sap their energy and steal precious moments and memories, sucking the joy out of daily life.
Allergen immunotherapy offers an alternative way by targeting the root of the problem rather than just treating the symptoms. Thousands of Americans have already found long-term relief with allergen immunotherapy. Maybe it’s time to consider whether it could be an option for you.
At Rockwell Physicians, we are excited to partner with United Allergy Services, a leader in providing home-based immunotherapy, to offer on-site allergy testing and treatment. To learn more about allergy testing or ask whether allergen immunotherapy may be for you, make an appointment with your provider at Rockwell Physicians to learn more.
No matter where in life you are, if you are sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, allergen immunotherapy can offer something for you so that you can get back to living.