Our topic this month is known as allergic rhinitis….fancy name for hay fever. During this time of year, as well as at any other time during the year, many of us suffer from this ailment. A lot of us have the symptoms of it, but don’t recognize what is happening to our bodies. We often label it as…the common cold…when in fact…it is an allergic reaction. The reaction can be caused from many different things (pollen, dust, animal dander, fungus, mold, etc) depending on the season.
The reaction usually starts out with us having a runny nose, sneezing, itchy eyes, low grade temperatures (in some cases), and just generally leaving us to feel rotten. With some people, it progresses beyond this and can sometimes be fatal if not known that they have an allergy to something.
Most of us treat the symptoms as they come along. We take decongestants to unblock the nasal passages, this can range from pills to nasal inhalers; antihistamines to control the body’s reaction to the histamine being produced by the body’s immune system, such as Benadryl and Chlor-Trimeton but the draw back to taking antihistamines is that it causes drowsiness except for a few new ones on the market that are available by prescription only such as Allegra, Claritin, and Clarinex; saline nose sprays to wash the nasal passages clean such as Ayr. Most of these meds can be purchased over the counter at most drug stores, and convenient stores, etc. While most of us have poor health care coverage, we tend to treat ourselves often making things worse if we don’t pay attention to our own bodies reactions to all these medications.
While we are suffering from the effects of the hay fever and taking the over the counter medication to relieve the symptoms, we often tend to forget that these meds may inter-react with our other prescribed medications. This is where we as smart consumers should investigate the meds that we are taking and see if there are any reactions to look for. This can best be accomplished by having a discussion with our local pharmacist. If he is our regular pharmacist that we see repeatedly for our medication refills, he will know not only our medications but what our allergies are and our other medical conditions that we are taking medications for. People who have diagnosis of diabetes, thyroid problems or high blood pressure should especially talk with their pharmacist or doctor before taking any over the counter medications as they may cause problems
It can not be stressed enough, that before you take any medications from over the counter, please talk with your family doctor and your pharmacist first. It is better to be forewarned than to have something serious happen to us.
Once again, hope this article has been of some help to you. You will find some URLS listed for further information on this and other allergy problems.
