Treatment Options for Allergies

If you’re one of the 50 million Americans with allergies, you understand how frustrating the symptoms can be. From sneezing, to itchy eyes, to hives, and more, allergies can make life miserable.

At Integrative Primary Care in Houston, Syed Farhat Zaidi, MD, and Saba Jafri, MD, help allergy sufferers find lasting allergy relief with diagnostic testing and treatment. They put together this informative guide to help you better understand allergies and your treatment options.

Understanding allergies

An allergic reaction is the body’s hypersensitive immune response to normally harmless substances, which are called allergens. Anything that triggers an allergic reaction can be an allergen, from everyday particles — such as dust or pollen — to more rare triggers, such as sunlight.

Allergic reactions can vary from person to person, but common allergic reactions include the following:

• Hives
• Tingling in the mouth
• Swelling of the lips, tongue, face or throat
• Rash
• Itchy skin
• Sneezing
• Runny, stuffy nose
• Watery, red, or swollen eyes 
• Anaphylaxis, which is a life-threatening reaction

It’s possible to be allergic to almost anything, including water (aquagenic urticaria), so if you suspect you have an allergy, it’s important to get evaluated by a specialist to determine the cause of your symptoms. However, most allergies can be placed into one of the following categories:

Food allergies

These allergies come about when you ingest certain substances, such as peanuts.

Skin allergies

These allergic reactions occur when your skin comes in contact with certain substances, such as latex, certain metals, or certain chemicals.

Insect allergies

These allergic reactions occur due to insect stings and bites, such as from bees or ants.

Hay fever

Hay fever allergies occur due to an immune response to particles and substances in your environment, such as from pollen, dust, dander, or mold.

Testing for allergies

Before you can treat your allergies, it’s important to understand what’s causing your reaction. While there’s no cure for allergies, it’s possible to get treatment that can minimize their impact on your life. 

At Integrative Primary Care, our providers use allergy blood testing to determine the causes of allergies. When your body confronts an allergen, your body creates specific antibodies to fight that specific allergen. Blood testing looks for these antibodies. And if antibodies are detected in your blood, your provider can identify the allergens that are affecting your body. 

When you come in for your allergy appointment, your Integrative Primary Care provider takes a small blood sample, which our in-house laboratory evaluates for the presence of antibodies. Having an in-house lab means you can get results faster and be able to start on a treatment plan sooner. 

Treating allergies

Since there’s no cure yet for allergies, the aim of treatment is to help allergy sufferers reduce the impact of allergies on their everyday lives by alleviating the symptoms. Treatment options may include any of the following:

• Prescription oral medications
• Over-the-counter oral antihistamines
• Epinephrine pens
• Nasal corticosteroids
• Corticosteroid ointments or creams

Your provider may also discuss different environmental and lifestyle factors that could be triggering your symptoms and help you create a trigger-avoidance plan. 

Get to the root of your allergies and find effective relief with the help of the team at Integrative Primary Care. To learn more, book an appointment online or over the phone today.