Allergies to pollen and other chemicals in our environment are extremely common. They affect from 10-30% of people around the world. Chances are good that you or a member of your family is an environmental allergy sufferer who sneezes or wheezes either seasonally or all year round.The good news is that, over the years, more and more medications that doctors prescribe to treat these allergies can be purchased without a prescription. The bad news is that a roadmap telling you how to use these drugs has not been available ' until now.I call my environmental allergy treatment strategy The IPA Gameplan. No, beer will not control your allergies, but IPA stands for Identification, Prevention, and Aid, both first and lasting.There are other allergies besides environmental allergies, and many of them are severe or even life-threatening. Such allergies to foods or medications are not the subject of this guide. They should and must be managed carefully by your personal physician or your child's pediatrician.SEE ALSO:The 'ABCDE' method is the best way to conquer the common cold ' here's how it worksDON'T MISS:Humidifiers keep your hair, skin, and lungs happy ' here's how to use themDo you have an allergy'The first question that you must answer is "do I have an environmental allergy'" The most common dilemma along this line is whether the nasal symptoms you're experiencing are due to allergy or due to a common cold.Let's look at the differences:Allergies typically begin in association with exposure to an identifiable environmental trigger. In the spring, that trigger is typically grass or tree pollen, and in the autumn the trigger is weed pollen or mold.Colds, in contrast, are caught from someone else as an invisible virus is passed person-to-person and usually hand to mouth. Allergy symptoms continue for a longer period of time than cold symptoms. Allergies last months during which pollen rains down on us versus a week of cold symptoms while your body's immune system eradicates the cold virus. Environmental allergy symptoms, except those associated with a severe allergy to a food like peanuts or to medications such as penicillin or sulfa drugs, tend to be milder than those due to infection. Finally, allergies rarely have associated bodily symptoms such as fever and body ache, while those are hallmarks of colds.What is an allergy'Allergies are abnormal immune reactions by your body to agents in the air or in food. Allergies have triggers in your surroundings and targets in your body.Allergic individuals frequently are susceptible to many triggers while most of us fail to react to any of these. Triggers include airborne pollens from grasses, plants, and trees, irritants such as dust particles, flakes of animal skin from cats and dogs, or tiny airborne organisms such as mites or mold. Many triggers are only in abundance during certain times of the year while others are present year round.When an allergic reaction occurs it affects one or more targets in our bodies. The common targets for environmental allergies are the nose, the eyes, the throat, and the lungs.Do-it-yourself allergy treatments are most available for nasal allergy, so called allergic rhinitis. Since allergies affecting the eyes and the airway can escalate with serious consequences, the FDA has wisely restricted access to those medications necessary for their definitive treatment. However, some oral allergy medicines and other general duty medicines can effectively control allergic reactions in all target zones.Allergic reactions occur when a trigger enters the body and meets sensitized immune cells that release chemicals to produce reactions at the target regions. A common example is grass allergy. Grass pollen is inhaled and contacts the nasal linings. Previous exposures have already produced grass-specific antibodies of the IgE type that help the grass pollen bind to immune system cells. When that binding occurs, mast cells release histamine and typtases while other white cells release leukotrienes and cytokines. These effector substances lead to blood vessel relaxation, nasal congestion, an increase in respiratory secretions, sneezing, coughing, and most dangerous of all, the constriction of lower airways.See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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