Two Treatment Approaches to Allergies

So you have been diagnosed with an allergy, now what? This is a position millions of American have been in. Whether you are allergic to food, certain air elements or any number of things in between, once that allergy test comes back positive you need to start living with that allergy. There are two treatment approaches available for people with allergies: avoidance and hypo-sensitization or what is often called desensitization.

Avoidance of the agent that is causing your allergic reaction is pretty straight forward. For most people with a food allergy, this is normally the best course of action. Dependent on the allergy from dairy to gluten, there are normally substitutes that can be used in a person’s diet to avoid the allergic reaction and live a happy and healthy life. A common example of an approach like this is a person switching from cow’s milk to soy milk to address a dairy allergy.

But for many people with allergies this approach is not possible. It is extremely rare that a person is allergic to cats and absolutely nothing else. That person is probably allergic to particles in the air. Completely avoiding dusts, pollens, trees and flowers for the rest of their life is pretty close to impossible. In cases like this the treatment approach of hypo-sensitization for severe cases is a good approach. But if you only occasionally have a runny nose or watery eyes, it is best just to live with it.

Hypo-sensitization involves injecting a very small amount of the allergen into the patient. Overtime larger and larger amounts are injected until the patient is capable to tolerate exposure to the allergen with only mild or sometimes no symptoms at all.

Hypo-sensitization is an effective treatment in most cases, but there are many problems with this approach also. The patients will often have local reactions at the site of the injection of the allergen. This course of treatment for an allergy will normally require weekly injections for months and sometimes years. That is why it is only considered for people who suffer from extremely severe symptoms from their allergy. For people with mild or minimal allergic reactions an approach like this is considered unnecessary.

If you are gluten intolerant, suffer from eczema or any other allergy, there are treatment options available. If you suspect that you do suffer from an allergy, consult a physician immediately. They will then advice you on the proper course of action.

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