When a foreign substance enters your body, your immune system may react to it differently, even when the substance itself isn’t particularly harmful to other people. This is what’s known as an allergic reaction, with symptoms ranging from mild to severe, depending on the exposure to the allergen.
There are different kinds of allergies such as food, nuts, pollen, hay fever, and allergic asthma, to name a few. The earlier you find out about your allergies, the earlier you can avoid triggering them. Unlike other common health conditions, allergies have no cure. But they can be managed through medication and treatments.
For instance, if you realize that you’re allergic to pollen, dust particles, and other airborne contaminants, you might benefit from receiving allergic rhinitis treatment to manage your symptoms. Of course, you can always rely on antihistamine pills, but there are some cases of allergies that can’t be managed through medication alone.
In this situation, it might be better to get allergen immunotherapy. Here are some benefits that you can enjoy from the treatment:
1. It desensitizes your body from certain allergens
The whole point of allergen immunotherapy is to make your body desensitized to the presence of your triggers. This process is divided into two phases—buildup and maintenance. During the buildup phase, you’ll receive injections containing gradually increasing amounts of your allergens at least twice a week for three to six months.
After you’ve built enough tolerance for the allergens, the maintenance phase will start. During this phase, you’ll be receiving allergy shots once or twice a month for three to five years, depending on your doctor’s recommendation. At this point, your body should be desensitized enough that your body no longer reacts violently, or at all, in the presence of your triggers.
2. It saves you from relying on allergy medication
The short-term solution to allergies is taking an antihistamine. But there may come a time when the medications no longer work because you’ve built up a tolerance for the drug, or you’re tired of taking antihistamines every time. In this situation, allergen immunotherapy can be a good solution.
Although it will take a while to desensitize your body to your allergens, it will happen someday. Immunotherapy is the closest thing the world has to a cure for allergies, which is why it’s recommended to those who will greatly benefit from it. Consider this when you gauge whether to get the treatment.
3. It keeps you from developing severe reactions
For some people, their allergic reactions can be as simple as having a runny nose or itchy eyes. But to others, it could be as serious as going into anaphylactic shock when they come into contact with a trigger. If you’ve experienced the latter and it’s hard to avoid your triggers, you may benefit from immunotherapy.
Of course, the treatment won’t happen overnight, so you’ll still need to be careful with your triggers. But it can help you avoid developing severe allergic reactions that can leave you debilitated or hospitalized, which is a good result in itself.
4. It won’t interact with your other medications
When you have a health condition, it might not be okay to take an antihistamine because it can interact with your other medications. If this happens, it may lead to adverse side effects or cause one medication to suppress the effects of the other, which can be bad for your body.
So if you’re taking a lot of prescription drugs for your condition, it might be better for you to receive allergen immunotherapy instead of relying on anti-allergy medication. This way, you won’t have to worry about your medications interfering with one another when you’re taking them.
5. It provides you long-term relief from your allergies
One of the biggest downsides of having allergies is that you’ll always have to be wary about triggering them. Whether it’s dust particles, pet dander, pollen, mold spores, or other airborne contaminants that can trigger an allergic reaction, you’ll be worried about avoiding it or making sure that you have an antihistamine within your arm’s reach.
But if you’re getting allergy shots, you won’t have to worry about these triggers. Instead, you can just live your life the way you want without having to keep a careful eye on pollen counts and haying seasons. Plus, it’s a long-term solution, which means you will no longer need antihistamines as long as you’re getting your shots.
Having allergies can be a pain because they can’t be cured. They can be managed with medication and treatments, but you’ll never get rid of them. That’s why you have to find solutions that will allow you to live a hassle-free life, even if you have to get an allergy shot once a month for the next few years.
