Medications for Allergies

At some point or another, a good number of us have experienced allergies or the symptoms of it. Sneezing, runny nose, nasal congestion with red itchy, watery eyes and scratchy throat. Yeah, those symptoms. Seasonal and perennial allergies vary:

• Seasonal: are typically caused by pollen and spores in the air
• Perennial: (the kind that occur all year round), are typically caused by animal dander, hair, household dust, fur, etc.

Before launching into the medications that can be used to treat allergies, I will present some non-drug remedies first. When it comes to allergies, the best treatment is prevention if you can manage it. First, you'll need to figure out exactly what you are allergic to and then be sure to avoid it, or them, as much as you possibly can. Sometimes this might mean you have to go to an Allergist and have him or her do a RAST test (that's just a fancy name for an allergy test) on you. This would be the most accurate and best way to find out what you are truly allergic to.

So now you know what you're allergic to here are some basic and simple things you can do at home... or at least on your own, to help to keep them in check before resorting to medications.

• Keep track of pollen counts - newspapers and other news outlets such as radio stations will often report these using either a number system or a "high/low and in-between" reporting system. When you know what the "pollen situation" for the day is you can plan when and if you will leave the house around it. Or at least you'll know if you should either just take some allergy medication or keep some close by. If the pollen counts are really high then it might just be best to forego your trip into the great outdoors altogether.
• Here's the skinny on air purifiers - studies have shown that they have little effect (if any at all) on allergens in the air. Bottom line, the best type of filter you can invest in is a HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Arresting) filter... the down side is that though these are quite effective they can be somewhat pricy.
• Avoid smoke, keep your home free of dust and other irritants: carpets, pillows and other types of soft furniture tend to trap and hold onto dust and dust mites so you might want to consider ridding your home of these or at least switching to synthetic fibers which tend not to be as bad. You can also just cover everything in plastic... I know it sounds tacky but it actually is a good preventative strategy.

One of the first duties of the physician is to
educate the masses not to take medicine
- William Osler

Okay, so now we've talked about "non-medication" treatments, I think we can move on to medications used to treat allergies. Various classes of drugs are used to treat allergies. By far the most common, and usually very effective, are the antihistamines. Other types of drugs used include corticosteroids, decongestants and leukotriene modifiers. Here is the breakdown of which ones belong where. Click on a drug name to find out it's side effects.

Antihistamines (including nasal sprays and eye drops):

• Claritin (Loratadine)
• Benadryl (Diphenhydramine)Chlor-Trimeton (Chlorpheniramine)
• Tavist (Clemastine)
• Allegra (Fexofenadine)
• Zyrtec (Cetirizine)
• Astelin (Azelastine)
• Visine-A, Opcon-A, Albalon (Naphazoline)
• Emadine (Emedastine)
• Patanol, Pataday (Olopatadine)

Leukotriene modifiers:

• Singulair (Montelukast)
• Zyflo (Zileuton)
• Accolate (Zafirlukast)

Decongestants (including nasal sprays and eye drops):

• Sudafed (Pseudoephedrine)
• Sudafed-PE (Phenylephrine)
• Phenergan (Promethazine)
• Neo-Synephrine (Phenylephrine)
• Afrin (Oxymetazoline)
• Visine, Murine Plus (Tetrahydrozoline)

Other:

• Crolom (Cromolyn Sodium)
• Alomide (Lodoxamide)
• Alamast (Pemirolast)
• Alocril (Nedocromil)

Corticosteroids (including nasal sprays and eye drops):

• Beconase (Beclomethasone)
• Flonase (Fluticasone)
• Nasacort (Triamcinolone)
• Rhinocort (Budesonide)
• Nasarel (Flunisolide)
• Nasonex (Mometasone)
• Decadron, Maxidex (Dexamethasone)
• FML, Fluor-Op (Fluorometholone)
• Prelone, Pred-Forte, Econopred (Prednisolone)
• Cortaid (Hydrocortisone)
• Triderm, Kenalog (Traimcinolone)

Combination products:

• Claritin-D (Loratadine + Pseudoephedrine)
• Allegra-D (Fexofenadine + Pseudoephedrine)

Ready to find out what their side effects are? Click on the drug of your choice and get the facts, and just the facts about side effects. If I haven't yet gotten around to making a page on the drug of your choice, let me know you need the information NOW through the Contact Me form. There are lots of drugs to cover and it takes a while to gather the info but I can speed things up by special request!

God heals and the doctor takes the fee
- Benjamin Franklin (Poor Richard's Almanac)

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Return from Allergies to Home Page

April 30, 2009

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