SPRING ALLERGIES ARE HERE!

Susan D. Denny, MD, MPH

If you are like me, your Spring sneezing and sniffles have begun.  In our area, tree pollen begins in March with grass pollen beginning in April.  A look at the Allergy Season chart for the Southeast reveals that we allergy sufferers can have symptoms anywhere from February through October in North Carolina. 

With the Spring sniffles you may be breaking out your Claritin, Zyrtec, Flonase or Pataday, or maybe all of these!  For some of us, it is hard to imagine enjoying a beautiful Spring day free of sinus congestion, headaches or itchy eyes without the use of some allergy medication.  Fortunately, there is hope for allergy sufferers.  Here are a few simple tips to help you reduce allergy symptoms and allergy medications while still enjoying the beautiful Spring weather.

  • Perform nasal rinses with warm saline water and a neti pot before bed.
    • DON’T open those windows and doors to let in “fresh” air.  This will increase the pollen counts in your indoor air.
    • DO use a high-quality indoor air filter such as IQAir or Austin Air Health Mate Plus to reduce indoor allergens.
    • Shower before bed, including hair rinsing or washing, to reduce nighttime exposure to allergens trapped on skin and hair.

While these steps may help to reduce allergy symptoms, elimination of allergies requires testing and treatment.  After trying and failing allergy shots myself, I am now treating the root cause of my allergies with allergy drops.  Allergy drops are clinically proven to be as effective in reducing and even eliminating allergies as allergy shots.  However, allergy drops do not require weekly visits to the office and are less expensive than weekly allergy shot copays. 

If you are interested in treating the root cause of your allergies and eliminating allergy symptoms for good, consider allergy testing and allergy drop treatment at Carolina Total Wellness.

https://carolinatotalwellness.com/allergy-drops.php