Spring Allergies Are Awful. This Innovative Treatment Could Fix That.

The Philadelphia area is beautiful in the Spring, leaving residents eager to explore nearby trails, play sports at the park or even just sit outside for a nice dinner. The only problem? Seasonal allergies can quickly turn a fun day outside into a stuffy nose and a three-day headache. For truly chronic allergy sufferers, that means Spring can be miserable year after year, regardless of how stunning the emerging leaves are.

The problem can feel complex and unresolvable. Allergies to everything from grasses to trees, weeds, molds, dust mites and animal dander leads to a wide variety of symptoms, from congestion to itchy and watery eyes, headaches, asthma, chronic sinus infections and more severe allergic reactions.

Fortunately, an innovative treatment could take care of those allergies and their symptoms, and it’s simpler to apply than allergy shots. To help you beat your seasonal allergies, we took a closer look at this new allergy solution that promises to relieve your sniffles.

A New, Effective Treatment

Allergy immunotherapy, a treatment that decreases one’s sensitivity to allergic triggers, is traditionally administered by injection. Sublingual (the medical term for under your tongue) immunotherapy, or SLIT, is an injection-free allergy treatment. With SLIT, instead of injecting allergy extract, a personalized prescription of FDA-approved extract is dropped under your tongue, once a day.

While traditional immunotherapy is a proven, effective treatment for seasonal and food-based allergies, making time for doctor’s visits multiple times a week or month can be difficult for some people. SLIT offers an option for safe and painless treatment, administered in the comfort of your own home.

SLIT is effective in gradually building up a natural immunity to allergens, reducing their effects safely and effectively. Along with the allergens listed above, it is also used for peanut allergies.

Testing for Allergies

The first step to receiving SLIT is to visit a board certified allergist. Based on your symptoms, your specialist may order skin testing, which applies small samples of allergens to your skin to assess for reactions.

Your medical history and an environmental survey and physical examination help your doctor determine your personalized prescription. At Allergy & Asthma Specialists, for example, they have access to over 100 allergens to test with, and will choose which ones to administer on individualized basis.

After placing the allergens on your skin, your doctor waits about 20 minutes, and then measures any reactions or hives to determine the severity of the allergy.

Creating a Treatment Plan

Allergy specialists will create a personalized extract recipe for any allergens that test positive. The same extracts typically used for injections make up this prescription. It is crucial that your personalized prescription is the exact dosage you need to effectively acclimate your immune system to allergens. Dosages that are too high can cause a severe reaction early on, while ones that are too low or use extracts for the wrong allergens can be ineffective.

Because of this, it is important to work with an allergist you trust to determine a correct personalized dosage, and to practice safe administration of the extract at home.

Ready to find life-changing relief?  Schedule an appointment at an Allergy & Asthma Specialists location near you, call 1-800-86COUGH, extension 2 or visit their website today. Offices are located in Center City Philadelphia, King of Prussia, Blue Bell, Jenkintown, Doylestown, Lansdale, Collegeville and Pottstown.