Are You Driving Everyone Crazy at Work?

Constant sneezing and throat-clearing, both symptoms of allergies, can irritate co-workers. There is a solution that will make everyone happy — immunotherapy.

Is there someone in your office who always sneezes, coughs and/or continuously clears their throat? That person may be suffering from allergy symptoms that include post-nasal drip. Co-workers offer a “bless you” once or twice, but the well wishes gradually taper off as thoroughly annoyed office mates secretly wish that person would get their allergies under control and put everyone out of their misery. It’s certainly not your fault but if you’ve been noticing dirty looks, you might be that person.

Similarly, is there a student at your child’s school who just looks miserable — suffering daily with watery eyes, runny nose, lack of energy and fleeting attention? The teacher and fellow students undoubtedly feel bad for that child — at least at first. But when symptoms continue day after day, sympathy turns to frustration and friends find excuses to slink away. That child’s grades are likely to suffer as a result of inattention and/or missed days. For this great, smart kid who isn’t achieving their deserved social or intellectual status, top notch performance seems an impossible dream. Is that your child?

Whether it’s you, your child, or someone who shares your air, there IS a solution that can clear symptoms and restore good relations — immunotherapy. Here are three need-to-know points about it … First, it can resolve reactions to multiple allergens like ragweed, mold and cat dander. Second, it lasts for years. Third, it’s entirely natural — it’s not medication. Immunotherapy exposes your immune system to very small quantities of the allergens, effectively teaching it “see, they’re really not so bad.” Since your system stops trying to fight off these harmless particles, your symptoms subside greatly or disappear altogether.

Allergy drops and shots are both forms of immunotherapy and they’re both effective. One of the major benefits of drops is you can take them at home — or on the road — so there’s no need to miss work or school for weekly doctor appointments, which are required with shots. (Missing work or school may be another strain on relationships with co-workers, friends and teachers.) Drops are affordable and are ideal for everyone from children to seniors. The upside of shots is that, currently, more insurance companies pay for them (co-pay and deductible may apply.)  In the long run, both shots and drops will likely be less expensive than medications — and will almost certainly be more effective.

If you or your child are the ones getting on everyone’s nerves, through no fault of your own, it’s time to put your allergies behind you and patch up those strained relationships. Talk to your doctor about immunotherapy. If it’s someone else, don’t bludgeon them to death — point them to https://www.allervision.com/allergies.

Say Goodbye to Hay Fever, Hello to Winter Allergies

Although allergies to pets, mold and dust last all year, they may be more pronounced in the winter when people spend more time indoors.

Depending on where you live, hay fever season might be coming to a close in a few weeks. That’s the good news, and it isn’t coming a moment too soon for the millions of people who suffer from weed pollen allergies. The bad news: with the approach of cold, wet weather, you’ll likely be spending more time indoors where a new set of allergens will step into the spotlight.

Mold, pet dander and dust mites can cause problems year round but when you’re cooped up with them, their effect becomes more pronounced. That head cold or “sinusitis” that just seems to hang around all winter … maybe it’s not a cold after all — it could be an allergic reactions to one of these common triggers. And those recurring ear infections your child gets — they, too, could be caused by allergies.

On the positive side, there are simple ways to fight at least two of these allergens. You can combat mold by keeping your kitchen and bathrooms dry. Be especially diligent about drying showers, where mold likes to grow in corners, and tile countertops where grout can soak up moisture.

Similarly, you can keep dust at bay by cleaning regularly and washing your bedsheets and pillow cases in HOT water weekly. Specialized covers over your mattress and pillows can help control dust mite migration. Dust mites also live in carpets, so vacuum constantly. In addition, dust clings to drapes, stuffed animals and other soft fabrics so make sure you wash them frequently in hot water if you plan to keep them around.

Pet dander can be harder to control if you have a pet, or visit homes with pets. Vacuuming helps if you do it often, but pet hair also sticks onto furniture, clothing and more. And if you let your pet lick you, you’re getting a full dose of allergen right to the face. But who wants to turn away their lovable friend when it’s showing affection? If you can’t keep up the rigid cleaning regiment, and/or don’t want to snub your pet, your best bet might be immunotherapy (allergy drops or shots).

Immunotherapy teaches your body to ignore allergens so allergy symptoms don’t develop in the first place. And both allergy shots, and allergy drops can help you overcome multiple allergies at once — for instance, pet dander, tree pollen and ragweed pollen — so you can resolve all of your allergy triggers with one form of treatment and enjoy the entire year allergy-free. To learn more about immunotherapy, click here.

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Allergies Took His Breath Away, Drops Gave it Back

Allergy drops have made a huge, positive difference in the life of nine-year old Faris,  from Tulsa, OK.

Since shortly after he was born nine years ago, Faris from Tulsa, Oklahoma has been allergic to tree pollen. So allergic, he often found it difficult to breathe. And with Tulsa’s temperate climate, his allergy symptoms — which trigger asthma attacks, as well — typically persist year round. But one year ago, he started taking allergy drops and, in the words of his ecstatic mother, Michelle, “the drops literally changed his life! He can breathe now!”

Not only can he breathe, Faris recently returned from sleepover summer camp, in the woods, which he enjoyed without symptoms. In addition, he’s signed up to play soccer this fall for the first time, a feat which would have been impossible before. Previously, Faris used nasal sprays and took twice the ADULT dosage of Claritin daily. In addition, he also regularly used QNasal, Singulair, Qvar and an emergency inhaler. He has now stopped Claritin entirely and no longer requires daily nasal spray, though he does maintain his asthma medication as a precaution.

Faris heard about the drops on a visit to his doctor’s office, KIDS Pediatric & Adolescent Care, an AllerVision-affiliated provider in Tulsa. Sammi Byrne, a nurse there, told Faris and Michelle about the drops and Faris was eager to try. “He could not be a happier customer,” said Michelle, beaming.

“We are ecstatic with Faris’ response to the allergy drops,”Sammi expressed. “It is a unique opportunity for our office to be able to provide testing in a familiar environment and offer a less invasive form of treatment to our patients,” 

Now that he is happily and carefully taking allergy drops, both Michelle and Faris are excited about all the normal activities he can finally take part in, starting with breathing.

Allergy Perils Await Your Child This Fall – What to Watch Out For and What to Do

Back-to-school season can expose your child to a wide variety of allergens.

It’s almost September — time for school, football, cross-country, marching band and soccer. There are lots of allergy traps for your child out there. Read on to find out what to look for — and what to do about it.

At school, three immediate threats come to mind. Number one is dust. Most classrooms sit empty over the summer, giving dust plenty of time to settle on tables, books, window frames, etc. Dust mites find a way of hiding inside of window coverings and light fixtures and lurking deep in hidden corners. When teachers return to those rooms to prepare for a new crop of students, dust may be among the last things they consider — if they have time to think about it at all. Once activity returns to the classroom, that dust gets stirred up and fills the air, wreaking havoc for allergy sufferers.

The second potential problem is food allergies. Depending on the severity of your child’s allergies, simply sitting next to someone eating a peanut butter sandwich could be cause for serious alarm. And peanuts aren’t the only risky allergen out there; for some food-allergic kids, a trip to the cafeteria could be like walking through a mine field. While it may be simple to avoid a specific allergen that appears on a plate in its whole form, that same trigger could be an unsuspected ingredient in another dish. Or a trace amount in the kitchen from a previous day’s meal could wind up in the food by accident. The safest course to avoid problems for allergic children is to pack their lunch at home with known ingredients.

And last but certainly not least, there’s good old pollen. It can affect your child at school both on and off the sports field. Grass and weeds are the serious troublemakers in late summer and fall. Football players, runners, marching band members, and soccer players will spend a lot of time rolling around on — and kicking up — grass and weeds. Their parents, you, will likely find yourself at parks and fields for hours where mown grass will take to the air with the slightest breeze. Even the kids who plays sports themselves are surrounded by the allergens floating in the air and drifting off their classmates’ clothing. Aside from the sniffling and wheezing that affects athletic and musical performance, allergy symptoms have a significant effect on attention and concentration in school, and, consequently, on grades. Unfortunately, while antihistamine use may curb the symptoms, side effects from the meds also tend to negatively impact performance.

So what to do about it all? The first step is to take showers and/or change clothes after spending a lot of time outdoors. For the here and now, it may be necessary to take allergy medications to get a handle on immediate symptoms. But equally important, prepare for the next phase of allergen invasion (for instance, winter mold and spring trees) and get way ahead of the curve for next fall by teaching your children’s bodies to stop overreacting to environmental allergens. Immunotherapy is the only fix, and it is all natural with no medication. It trains your child’s body to ignore the allergens that trigger their symptoms so the allergies go into remission for many, many back-to-school seasons.

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Do You Know What You’re REALLY Allergic To?

Flowering trees do not usually trigger allergies. If you start sneezing when you encounter one, chances are that other trees — or other allergens altogether — are to blame.

Consider this: you walk down the street and see a beautiful tree with blooming purple flowers. As you get closer, you start to sneeze uncontrollably. It’s obvious you’re allergic to the tree, right? Probably not…

First, trees with flowers are usually insect pollinated, not wind pollinated. Pollen carried by insects rarely ever makes it into your system. So if it is pollen that’s causing your reaction, it’s probably not the flowering tree that’s to blame. Then why does it always seem to work that way — you see the flowers, the tree is clearly in bloom, and you start sneezing — if flowering trees are not allergy-inducing? Because they blossom at the same time as wind-pollinated trees. There may be a grove of Juniper trees two miles away and a gust of wind picked up its pollen and delivered it right into your path. Maybe you didn’t even see the Juniper pollen, which makes it an even more likely culprit; the smaller the pollen size, the farther travels and the more easily it sneaks into your nose and lungs. Then again, your allergy trigger could be pollen from recently mown grass or the patch of weeds growing in a nearby field.

Now imagine stepping into the home of a friend. Within minutes, a sinus headache comes on strong. Although there’s no pet present, cat hair covers the couch and a shaft of sunlight reveals dust wafting through the air. Either of those could be a source of your allergy symptoms. In fact, cat protein lives in a home for many months after its furry owner has vacated the scene. Or, cockroaches — completely hidden from view — could be to blame. The roaches may be long gone too, but it’s what they leave behind that gets your histamine flowing.

Last scenario… You take a bite out of an apple and your mouth tingles and your lips feel slightly swollen. Are you allergic to the apple? Hard to believe, since you just had a slice of apple pie and didn’t have any problems. You might be experiencing Oral Allergy Syndrome (OAS). Simply put, the apple is related to certain kinds of pollen to which you are sensitized and, in its raw form, the apple triggers allergy symptoms.

So, how do you tell what you’re really allergic to? There’s only one reliable way — an allergy test. First, when you visit an AllerVision-affiliated provider, your doctor will ask questions to get clues to what allergens MIGHT be to blame. Then you’ll most likely receive a pain-free skin test that will reveal your allergy sensitivities in just 15 minutes. Combined with the questions you answered, your doctor should be able to identify your allergy triggers on the spot so you can discuss treatments. That, of course, is the bottom line — we want you to enjoy the great outdoors — or whatever’s really causing your allergies.

To find an AllerVision-affiliated doctor — who’s qualified to offer allergy examinations — please click here.

Do You Have Allergies? Here’s a Quick Test

Allergies cause a wide range of maladies. Have you had an allergy test?

This time of year, allergies can cause all kinds of problems. More than 25% of Americans suffer from allergies to environmental factors from pollen to dust to mold to pet dander. Allergies are to blame for all kinds of symptoms including headaches, sinus infections, rashes, chronic cough, wheezing, eye problems and MANY more.

So how do you know if you have allergies? Discovery starts with this simple score sheet. For each item below, answer 0 for no symptoms to 5 for severe symptoms. If you score a 2 or higher on any question, we recommend you visit your healthcare provider and ask about an allergy evaluation, including a quick, painless skin test. (If your doctor doesn’t offer the skin test, click here. If you’re a doctor and want to offer the test for your patients, click here.) The test will tell you within just 15 minutes if you have allergies, and will reveal the triggers that cause your symptoms.

Nasal Discharge or sneezing         0 1 2 3 4 5

Watery or itchy eyes         0 1 2 3 4 5

Frequent sinus or ear infection         0 1 2 3 4 5

Frequent colds or sore throats         0 1 2 3 4 5

Wheezing or asthma         0 1 2 3 4 5

Cough         0 1 2 3 4 5

Poor memory or concentration         0 1 2 3 4 5

Hyperactivity         0 1 2 3 4 5

Itching, hives, eczema or skin irritations         0 1 2 3 4 5

Abdominal gas or cramping         0 1 2 3 4 5

Arthritis or muscle aching         0 1 2 3 4 5

Headache         0 1 2 3 4 5

The good news is that if you have allergies, there is an excellent treatment option — immunotherapy — because it doesn’t just cover up symptoms, it teaches your body to ignore the allergy triggers so the symptoms stop occurring. And immunotherapy in the form of allergy drops is appropriate for allergy sufferers of all ages, from children to seniors. So contact your provider or allervision.com today.

Top 7 Questions (and Answers) About Allergy Skin Testing

After antigens are applied to a patient’s back, her skin reacts with bumps and/or wheals — and, possibly, itchiness. After about 15 minutes, the provider wipes away the antigens are the reaction(s) fade away.

In our last post, we explained why nearly every doctor should offer allergy skin testing. (If you missed it, click here.) Here are patients’ top seven questions about the test.

1) Should I have an allergy skin test? Allergies cause many more symptoms than the average person realizes, including rashes (dermatitis), sinus infections, migraine headaches, dizziness, conjunctivitis, respiratory problems, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, and the list goes on. If you get any of these symptoms regularly, you should discuss the possibility of allergies with your doctor, who will likely suggest the test and a review of your health history.

2) Can my child have the test? The test is safe for children as well as seniors. In fact, it is appropriate for virtually everyone, with the exception of pregnant women, patients with unexplained episodes of anaphylaxis, patients with active hives or active severe asthma symptoms, and people with significantly suppressed immune systems.

3) What does it test for? AllerVision-affiliated providers test for a wide variety of airborne antigens common to your region of the country — such as pollen from local trees, grasses and molds — as well as molds, dust, animal dander, cockroaches and certain foods. If you suspect allergies to specific foods, your provider may test you separately for those individual items.

4) What happens during the test?  Your provider presses several plastic applicators coated with antigens onto your back. As your skin reacts to certain antigens, you may feel itchiness. After 15 minutes, the provider measures any bumps (or “wheals”) that develop — indicating positive results — and record them. Then he or she cleans your back to relieve any discomfort.

5) Does it hurt? No. You’ll temporarily feel minor pressure from the tines of the testing devices as they’re applied, but they don’t penetrate your skin and they’re specially-designed to prevent pain. Even young children rarely complain. Itching caused by positive results begins to resolve as soon as the antigens are wiped away.

6) Is there anything I need to do to prepare? The most important thing to remember is that you shouldn’t take antihistamines for three days before testing because they can prevent the very reactions your provider needs to see. Also, be sure to inform your provider if you’re pregnant, have asthma, are suffering from severe illness, or have experienced a strong allergic reaction.

7) How long does it take to get results? In just 15 minutes, your doctor will have a clear picture of your allergic reactions so you can plan and begin a treatment program immediately.

 

Allergy Testing, Immunotherapy Boost Medical Practice and its Patients

Allergy immunotherapy has helped the patients and the practice of Dr. Stephen Sisselman, of Sisselman Medical Group in New York.

This post, from guest blogger Dr. Stephen Sisselman, looks at allergy testing and treatment from the general practitioner’s point of view. 

Sara V is a patient I’ve known for a long time. She comes in every few months with assorted respiratory complaints including runny nose, cough, congestion and excessive mucus production. I typically tell her she has rhinitis and that antibiotics are ineffective. Nevertheless, she usually requests an antibiotic. Recently, we began offering allergy testing at my office so I told Sara that I wanted to test her to see if allergies might be the cause for her respiratory complaints.

I started allergy testing as a way to offer more services to my patients and enhance the ancillary testing in my practice. It takes just five minutes to prep a patient and about five more to complete the test. In another 15 minutes the test results are ready to read. About half the patients we test each week show significant allergies to trees, weeds, molds, grasses or other environmental allergens. Patients love the idea of in-office testing where they get immediate results and don’t have to schlep to an allergist.

Getting back to Sara V… I thought that maybe seasonal allergies play a role in her frequent respiratory complaints. I performed an allergy test and we were both surprised by her results; she was positive for trees, weeds, grasses and indoor perennials such as dust mites. After a discussion of appropriate therapy, she decided that allergy shots — subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) —were the best choice for her. Now, three months into the program, she already has fewer symptoms and respiratory complaints. And Sara is just one of many of my patients now experiencing a greater quality of life.

Sara chose allergy shots but those aren’t the only treatment option. I help patients with positive test results choose the treatment that’s right for them. Some prefer oral antihistamines and steroid nasal sprays. Others, like Sara, choose immunotherapy because it doesn’t just cover up symptoms, it trains the body to ignore the allergens that trigger the symptoms.

I administer allergy shots in my office. Based on insurance coverage, patients may have just a small copay, or none at all. Some patients prefer the freedom of treating themselves with immunotherapy at home. For them, we offer sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT), also known as allergy drops. SLIT drops from AllerVision are customized to the patient based on the results of their allergy test. The patients simply place three drops under their tongue and hold them there for three minutes each day. Drops usually cost about $70/month. They’re not covered by insurance but for those who choose them, the convenience easily outweighs the cost. Both shots and drops start working within a few weeks to a few months and treatment is complete in four years.

The allergy program has been a great addition to my practice. I enjoy the increased reimbursements for allergy testing and shots administration while my patients love the convenience of getting needed testing and treatment in my office. My staff also loves the program because it’s easy and we can better diagnose and treat patients with frequent or chronic upper respiratory complaints. It’s a win-win for everybody.

Stephen G. Sisselman, D.O., F.A.C.P.

Dr. Stephen Sisselman is Board Certified in Internal Medicine. His practice, Sisselman Medical Group, in Massapequa NY and Commack, NY cares for patients ages 12 and up.

Groundhog Day is Excellent Time to Start Allergy Immunotherapy

Whether Groundhog Day reveals that spring is here or not, there’s not a moment to lose in preparing to fight spring allergies.

By the time you read this, Punxsutawney Phil will be out of the hole and we’ll know what’s in store for the next six weeks. Whether he saw his shadow and scampered back to take cover for more Winter or stayed above ground to enjoy the start of Spring, there is no time like NOW to start sublingual immunotherapy! If spring starts in six weeks, you have time to build up your immunity to pollens that get in the way of enjoying beautiful spring days. If it starts today, you’ll still feel better before the season hits full stride. How and why Phil makes his prediction is one of the mysteries of the universe but how and why immunotherapy treats allergies so effectively is no mystery at all…

If you have allergies, your immune system misinterprets something that’s normal in the environment as an enemy. As a result of this misunderstanding, it builds up a defense network to respond every time it sees that element (also called an antigen or allergen). That internal process is called sensitization, and the most common culprits are pollens from grasses, trees and weeds; pet dander; molds; and insect/inhalants like cockroach and dust mites. The next time your body sees that antigen, let’s use olive tree pollen as an example, it calls in the defense force for protection. All of the mucous, swelling and tearing you experience is your immune system doing a superb job of building a wall to keep the olive pollen out of your body. Scientifically speaking, your body is releasing histamine. Unfortunately, it’s not only unnecessary, since olive pollen isn’t actually an enemy, it’s extremely unpleasant! Fortunately there are solutions.

One solution is to use medications — typically antihistamines — that block your body’s misguided immune response. They create a constant battle within your body, wherein the allergen stimulates a response and tries to release histamine and the drug basically performs a block and tackle on your natural response. The result is that you usually feel better than the allergy but you often experience side effects. There are several other drugs that help with the symptoms but, in general, there is always at least a little downside to taking medication.

Luckily, there’s an alternative. We can teach the immune system that allergens aren’t enemies – this is the purpose of immunotherapy. It’s accomplished by gently and carefully introducing small amounts of the antigens to which your body is sensitized. Your immune system gets re-familiarized with these little particles. Little by little, we build up the levels of the antigen until your immune system is so used to it that it tolerates the normal amounts of environmental exposure. It takes a few months to get to that highest concentration – AllerVision calls it the maintenance level – which is why Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction is important to you.

Once you reach the maintenance dose, your tolerance will be greatly improved and your symptoms will hopefully disappear. Studies tell us that the body needs about four years of the constant exposure provided by immunotherapy for the so-called-enemy to be consistently ignored.

Immunotherapy can be delivered in shots – usually administered weekly in the doctor’s office – or sublingual (under the tongue) drops – at home on a daily basis. Many AllerVision providers offer both options, though most prefer the drops because they have very little risk for severe allergic reaction and they are so much more convenient for patients.

Whether Phil says yay or nay to an early Spring, get to your provider as soon as possible for an allergy test so he/she can find your allergic triggers and order an immunotherapy set designed specifically for you. There is plenty of stuff out there that your immune system SHOULD fight; take away the distraction of battling the normal environment and your system can focus all of its resources on keeping you healthy! (Click here to find a doctor who offers allergy testing and immunotherapy if your doctor does not.)

Happy Groundhog Day!

Dr. Dean Mitchell and Dr. Jerry Block Discuss Key Allergy Issues on “All Things Medical” Radio Show

 

A man gives his son allergy drops, which can be customized to address multiple allergies at once.

On Sunday, September 28, 2014, I had the honor of joining Dr. Jerry Block as a guest on his radio show “All Things Medical.” Dr. Block is a holistic medical doctor who practices in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition to being extremely articulate, he demonstrates an excellent grasp of the issues regarding allergy testing and treatment. Below I recap two of the topics we discussed.

Sublingual Allergy Immunotherapy

Dr. Block raised the topic of the FDA-approved sublingual tablet for grass and ragweed allergy. He asked how I felt about the FDA decision and how the tablets compared to the drops prescribed with the AllerVision program, and wondered if the therapy represented competition for AllerVision. I responded that I am very glad that the FDA approved the “big pharma” sublingual tablets because their official acceptance validates the efficacy of the sublingual route for allergy immunotherapy. However, I feel the drug companies’ therapies suffer from a number of drawbacks compared to the sublingual drops provided through the AllerVision program.

The first drawback and concern for me is that the products — Orlair, Grazax and Ragwitek — all come at a single high potency dose. This is problematic for highly allergic patients who may not be able to tolerate such a high dose. Allergy immunotherapy has always been accomplished in a multi-step desensitization whereby initial low doses are increased slowly and carefully to eventually achieve high dose protection. The AllerVision program of allergy drops follows this protocol. Secondly, the drug company products each address a single allergen: grass or ragweed. There are numerous other allergens: dust mites, tree pollens, pet dander and molds that are not addressed with the pharma tablets. The AllerVision program incorporates a customized combination of allergens in mixes of categories specific to each patient. Customized combination therapy is not only the way treatment has always been carried out by allergists, it is the most convenient and economical to treat the entire spectrum of the patient’s allergic syndrome. The drug company products will cost a patient roughly $8 per tablet compared to $2 per day for drops on the AllerVision program…big difference!

Why are there so many people allergic today?

One of Dr Block’s big concerns was why it seems there are so many more children today with food and environmental allergies. My answer to him explained “The Hygiene Hypothesis,” which is espoused by epidemiological experts. At its core, it states that allergic diseases have flourished because of the overuse of antibiotics, vaccines and aggressive (even obsessive) sanitization efforts. At first this sounds crazy — we know that proper infection control is incredibly important; how can we be TOO CLEAN? But our increased understanding of the human microbiome points to the theory that excessive medical intervention has decreased infants’ exposure to good bacteria which, in turn, has unleashed an increase in allergies and autoimmune diseases. In fact, a key study this spring published in a major allergy journal found that infants treated with multiple courses of antibiotics before the age of two were much more likely to develop asthma than children who didn’t receive antibiotics!

I was impressed with Dr. Block’s knowledge of allergy and his interest in providing the best allergy testing and treatment for his patients. I reminded his listeners that AllerVision supports providers all over the United States offering affordable and effective sublingual allergy treatment!

Dr. Dean Mitchell