Did you know that some of the most common foods we eat and substances we breathe in can be responsible for triggering an allergic reaction? Without adequate food and environmental allergy management, anything from pollen and dust to milk and eggs can sometimes put your health at risk. If you’re concerned about exposure to allergens in North Texas, becoming familiar with allergy prevention tips will make a difference.
How Allergy Prevention Improves Lives With TexasAllergyMD
Wellness is a term that covers many aspects of our health. It can speak about our mental, emotional, and overall health or just specific parts of it. Allergy attacks can impact every aspect of our sense of wellness. We can become frustrated or depressed from our symptoms and their impact on our life. We can struggle with getting enough exercise because of the limitations they place on us. Even our confidence can suffer when unsightly rashes, hives, or scabbing appears in response to dermatological responses to allergies.
As a result, allergy prevention is an essential cornerstone of our overall health. In addition to limiting the frequency and severity of allergy attacks, it reduces the impact these attacks can have. Our mental, emotional, and physical health all benefit from reducing how often these symptoms appear. Studies show that the number of people who experience allergies is on the rise.
What Are the Main Allergy Prevention Steps?
- Identification: Identifying your allergies, their triggers, and when and where you encounter them is essential to allergy prevention.
- Dietary Changes: If you’re encountering your allergy as part of your dietary habits, making changes to remove the trigger from your diet is essential.
- Lifestyle Changes: Similar to managing food allergies, lifestyle changes are essential if your allergen is environmental rather than food-bourne. Seasonal allergies, pollutants, and other environmental factors must be addressed appropriately. This can include changing your outdoor activities, using air filters, or simply avoiding locations where these irritants occur.
- Treatment: Treatment can often be done proactively, helping to bolster your system against triggers before encountering them. This can include something as simple as taking an antihistamine before going out during high pollen days. However, immunotherapy treatments can also help strengthen your immune system and reduce sensitivity to triggers.
Educating yourself about your allergies, allergy prevention, and options for treatment are important to effectively manage your symptoms.
Prevent Allergic Reactions With Top Allergy Treatments
While dietary and lifestyle changes certainly play an important role in allergy prevention, the risk of accidental exposure remains. And this potential for accidental exposure is the reason that immunotherapy often proves to be the best allergy management approach. Allergy desensitization can benefit children and adults, providing lasting protection against severe reactions. With desensitization, the immune system is exposed to a specific allergen over a period of several months, until the body no longer reacts upon exposure.
The most common desensitization treatment for food allergies is oral immunotherapy (OIT). Using this approach, patients consume small amounts of the allergen in gradually increasing doses until tolerance is achieved. Sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) is another desensitization method that involves placing drops of the allergen under the tongue.
For allergies to pollen, dust, mold and pet dander, allergy shots apply the same principle of gradual desensitization. With this treatment, a series of injections is administered at your allergist’s office. Treatment via allergy drops offers a convenient alternative here, with the patient (or parents, in the case of children) administering drops under the tongue at home.
Before starting immunotherapy, your allergist will conduct comprehensive allergy testing to understand the allergy and its severity.
Patient-Centered Allergy Prevention Specialists in North Texas
The team at our clinic is here to help patients like you improve their quality of life by reducing instances of allergy flare-ups. You can reach us by calling (469) 375-1525 to schedule an appointment with Dr. Mireku today.
