Many of the 82 million people in the United States with allergies control symptoms with medication. Although daily pills or drops or nasal sprays are easy to take, you must remember to carry them with you, and you have to pay attention to the local pollen count and other triggers so you can take them prophylactically, as a preventive to avoid flare-ups.
If your allergies are mild or seasonal, taking antihistamines when you need them is a fine approach. But if your symptoms are severe or chronic — or if your allergies put you at risk of potentially life-threatening anaphylaxis — you need something reliable and long-lasting.
Catherine Fuller, MD, an allergy and asthma specialist, stays current with the most modern and effective treatments that offer longer-term relief than antihistamines. At her office in West Los Angeles, California, she performs allergy tests to identify your specific triggers and can recommend modern therapies such as biologics and immunotherapy.
Antihistamines are effective because they address typical allergy symptoms, such as a runny nose and sneezing. In some cases, they can even give you relief from digestive issues caused by food allergies.
However, they work on the surface rather than countering underlying causes of your allergies. They block histamine — a chemical that your immune cells use to communicate with one another.
If you have allergies, your immune system is overactive and over-reactive. It produces too much histamine, which causes your itchiness, sneezing, and gastrointestinal distress.
Although blocking histamine release is helpful — and often acts quite quickly — antihistamines don’t address the underlying factors that drive the release of excess histamine in the first place. And, as you’ve experienced, they can only offer short-term relief.
In contrast, modern approaches disrupt the allergic cascade by stopping deeper causes. The two most effective, new long-term therapies are biologics and immunotherapy.
Biologics are medications that are composed of living material — such as bacteria, animals, or plants — rather than singular chemicals. They work by blocking certain molecules in your body.
When your immune system is overactive, one of the first things it does when it encounters a trigger is to cause inflammation. Inflammation is an early immune response, and it causes your blood to rush to the site of “infection,” resulting in redness and swelling.
Biologics attach to the molecules that would normally create swelling and inflammation in your tissues. Dr. Fuller administers biologics either with an injection or via intravenous (IV) fluid therapy.
Biologics give you long-term relief. Depending on your symptoms, your shot or IV therapy could last 2-8 weeks or up to six months.
Both antihistamines and biologics are fast-acting therapies that provide immediate relief from symptoms. Immunotherapy is different. Instead of giving you instant relief, this long-term therapy slowly and gradually trains your body to tolerate your triggers so it doesn’t launch the inflammatory cascade that leads to symptoms.
You must be committed to the process to benefit from immunotherapy whether you receive injections that contain a minute amount of your allergy triggers or sublingual tablets. The therapy consists of two phases:
Build-up phase: The build-up phase lasts about 3-6 months. During this time, you may receive your immunotherapy once or twice weekly. Each time, the dose increases slightly to help your immune system tolerate greater amounts of the allergens.
Maintenance phase: After you’ve reached the point where you can tolerate your triggers, you move into the maintenance phase, requiring treatment every 2-4 weeks. This phase lasts for up to five years. After that, you may be able to discontinue therapy altogether because your immune system has trained itself to not react to your triggers.
If you want to trade antihistamines for modern, longer-term allergy relief, call Catherine Fuller, MD, at 310-909-1910 or schedule an appointment online today for allergy testing and to discuss your options for biologics or immunotherapy.
