Being driven to the brink by your spring allergies may make you try the craziest home remedies but there’s a better way.
You may be willing to settle for any relief, no matter how fleeting but learning about more long-term treatments can actually make a difference. Read on to find out what will really help with your spring allergies.
No spring skips its turn
Life becomes a real slog when your allergies flare up. Your immune system responds to invading allergens by generating histamine. Unfortunately this response is a bit heavy-handed. Before you know it, you’re a slobbery, sticky mess.
The constant congestion, itching, and headaches is enough to make you try anything. The issue with home remedies is that they’re a bit short sighted when it comes to your very long-term problem.
Alchemical concoctions
Home remedies are effective. The notion that something has to be made in a lab to be good is ridiculous but believing mixed natural ingredients can banish chronic allergies is just as silly. Some remedies like tea, citrus and essential oils can definitely provide comfort.
Others are a little more involved, to say the least. Nasal irrigation is a term that will never cease to raise eyebrows. Seeing it in practice, in the form of a neti pot, is as much of a spectacle as it sounds.
Rinsing yourself with a saline solution flushes the sinuses but what about all that histamine your body is making?
There are some over the counter medicines that offer similar temporary relief. Antihistamines, nasal sprays and nasal steroids all help clear up your breathing. If your allergies weren’t seasonal and chronic, this would be great but unfortunately it doesn’t cut it when you look at the big picture.
Busting out the big guns
Immunotherapy sounds like a fairy tale or a cruel joke to someone who’s gotten used to their allergies but it is real and it is very possible. Ear, nose and throat doctors have an ever-expanding arsenal of simple and complex treatments including some for your allergies.
Immunology shots are one such simple and elegant solution. By exposing your body to a steadily building dose of allergens periodically, you help numb it out. The idea is that eventually your body will stop responding at all to what made it generate histamine in the first place.
Anyone who’s afraid of needles or not too keen on constant trips to the doctor’s office can actually take an alternative treatment from the comfort of their own home.
Sublingual Immunotherapy (SLIT) involves drops under the tongue to achieve the same effect as shots, bidding your seasonal allergies adieu.
Relief Can Start Today
The world is too good a place to ignore just because you’ve somehow managed to get used to your allergies and migraines.
At Houston Sinus & Allergy, we see a variety of allergy issues that result in headaches, as well as other stressful or painful situations, and we know how to provide long term relief.
If you’re experiencing difficulty in smelling or nasal breathing, Book an assessment with us, and let us help you breathe normally again.