So Many Allergy Medications, So Little Time

Any time you approach your doctor or your pharmacist for help with the symptoms of an allergy, they'll offer you your pick from among a bewildering range of possible treatments. They have several antihistamines, corticosteroids, decongestants, combination drugs, natural remedies and so on for you to try at home. And yet, none of these allergy medications is a cure. They are just a way to control the situation and make your life livable. You just have to keep trying something until it works, and then stick with it for aslong as your body decides to have the allergy.

Most people will only take their allergy medications only when they actually have a problem. Experts these days though, feel that pretreatment is a much better way to go about it. When you know that you have an allergy and that your body reacts in a certain way to certain kinds of environment, there's really no reason to wait for everything to swell up and become itchy. You can just take the medicines you need before the symptoms begin to bother you.

Let's quickly run through a couple of the most popular allergy medications there are.

Antihistamines are just about the oldest and best-known allergy medications on earth. You even get them over-the-counter sometimes. Antihistamines, nasal sprays and eyedrops, for instance, are available without prescription. Several kinds of popular names for over-the-counter antihistamines - names like Allegra, Benadryl and Claritin, are ones everyone knows about.

Antihistamines work by making it difficult for your body to let those bothersome histamines loose on you. If you're wondering what histamines are, they are substances that your immune cells produce for no reason, when there's an allergy. The funny thing is, that if you are bothered by how antihistamines make you sleepy, you have to go to a doctor for a prescription for antihistamines that don't make you sleepy. You would think that they would regulate the sleepy stuff and not the stuff that just does its job.

It's hard to make your mind up about what kind of allergic reaction is the most bothersome. When you're all itchy and your eyes and nose won't stop running, it often seems like nothing could be worse than those. But when you have trouble breathing because your airways are all congested and constricted, it feels like you're fighting just to stay alive. Decongestants are some of the most important allergy medications around.

Decongestants work by shrinking swollen tissues in your airways. They also help your body produce less mucus. They can be really useful when you're in the middle of a full-blown liturgy attack. Doctors sometimes recommend that you take combinations - decongestants together with antihistamines, for instance. You don't have to take two pills though. They sell combinations over the counter - with names like a Allegra-D or Claritin-D.

Allergy Relief Can Be Just About a Few Lifestyle Changes

Allergies have to be one of the most unfair conditions ever. Just like that, for no reason, they turn your life into an itching and coughing and watery mess. There you were, just minding your own business. The thing is, while allergies do necessarily have to be troublesome, they don't have to be as troublesome as they usually are. It's just that we make a lot of mistakes dealing with our allergies. The best allergy relief would be a little spring allergy education.

All of us spring allergy types - we know how, come spring, the air can be full of allergy-inducing pollen. And yet, we can't forget the advice we got as children - that throwing the windows open and letting fresh air in - is a good thing. It's only good for those who don't suffer from allergies though. For those who do, the opposite is the rule - never open a window unless you absolutely have to, and never set the air-conditioner to bring in any air from the outside. In fact, parents should teach their children this new allergy relief rule - right alongside of the one to do with fresh air.

Here's another rule from our childhood that doesn't work well for allergy relief - don't take medicines for no reason. This rule belongs with the "your body is a temple" family of exhortations. It makes a great deal of sense of course. But only for people who don’t suffer from allergies. For us unlucky ones, this will only make it worse because we put off taking medicines until we actually have a serious situation.

Basically, preventive allergy relief is a great idea. If you're planning on going out in the spring, take those antihistamines even before you step out. If you have asthma, use your controller meds even when you suspect that something may be coming on. It's much easier to get these things it under control when they haven't really built up.

Know how most people check the weather to see if it's going to rain? Allergy sufferers need to check pollen counts. It's, you just have to go on pollen.com and find out. It could make your life a lot easier.

When you have allergies, you have to build your life out around it. For instance, it may seem like the best time to take a quick jog in the park first thing in the morning. That's how everyone does it. Well, everyone doesn't that have an allergy. You need to first check the pollen count out there, and then you need to not exercise outside until it's safe. Most pollen-bearing plants will release their load into the air first thing in the morning. Timing your exercises to when every plant out there releases its pollen, can't be helpful.