If you’ve tried allergy medication and eliminating allergens as much as possible from your life but continue suffer with allergies, you may want to consider immunotherapy.

Understanding Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy is a process of receiving injections with your particular allergen(s) so that your body will produce antibodies to ward of your reaction to them. The doctor will start with a small dose and increase it until you start to show a reaction. This can mean that you receive two injections a week for a month. Once at the proper dosage, you may have to return for an injection weekly for a certain amount of months determined by your doctor.

The Benefits of This Allergy Relief

Immunotherapy can save you a lot of grief and money because once you have built up the antibodies; you will no longer have a reaction to your allergens.  You’ll finally find relief from the allergies you suffered with for years. However, for some people, a booster injection is required a few years later.

The Cost of Immunotherapy

Unfortunately, since immunotherapy isn’t considered pharmaceuticals, many insurance companies will not cover the cost. To pay out of pocket, you are looking at about $1,000 for the first year and the second year in which you only get a couple injections a month may run you about $350. If you are not able to afford immunotherapy, shop around because doctors vary in pricing. Also, you can contact your state’s allergy society for information on low or no-cost immunotherapy in your area.

Photo: Sarah G

I think I’ve mentioned before that I live in Florida? Where the state tree is (or should be) the pine tree. I’m not allergic, thankfully, but I’ve been thinking about how horrible it would be if I were. Let me illustrate with a few examples. During pine tree pollen season, my screened porch gets coated yellow. Not just the screen but the bench inside of it as well. By green truck turns yellow. Do you know how much pollen you have to put on green to turn it green? A lot. Finally, we are thinking about building a screened in pool and the pool builders have told us that during ‘pine season’ we’ll have to skim the top of the pool daily if we don’t want to swim in pollen even with the screening. One last example; a friend of mine left her windows open on a nice day. There were window screens and she figured everything would be fine. Oh no. The rooms with the windows open had to be completely cleaned because of the coating of pine pollen. All of these examples make me wonder, how does anyone with a pine pollen allergy live anywhere in Florida and maintain any kind of good health?(or any other state with lots of pine trees). Someone clue me in?

Photo Credit: Dbaron

Plant pollination occurs every spring, summer, and fall. The pollen grains released by trees, grasses, and weeds cause illness and suffering in over 40 million Americans. Pollen forecasts measure the amount and types of pollen present in the air, providing allergy sufferers the knowledge of when to avoid being outside.

Learn more about pollen forecasts in this article.

I hate how I can never seem to go outside during the spring without sneezing and having itchy eyes, yet my best friend can be outside all day and never have any symptoms. Why do some people experience allergies, while others seem to be fine during pollen season? And what can I do to control my runny nose, itchy eye and sneezing without taking medications?

In any case there are some interesting points in this article.

This article talks about what triggers hay fever and what to do about it. Hay fever actually doesn’t have anything to do with hay, nor does it cause a fever—in fact, it’s another common name for a pollen allergy. As anyone with allergies knows, they can greatly affect your everyday life, but fortunately, there are many things you can do to alleviate it.

I’ve had mold allergies for years. I feel really torn after reading this because running the air conditioner and dehumidifier all the time would definitely cut down on the mold in my house, but it would use so much electricity and really raise my carbon footprint. I don’t want to contribute to global warming but I don’t want to feel sick either!

Ugh, hay fever! Every spring it’s the same: itchy eyes, runny nose and lots of sneezing.

Did you know that it’s not the pollen that causes hay fever symptoms? It’s actually your immune system releasing chemicals called histamines because it (wrongly) assumes that the pollen is a threat. The histamines are what actually promote those icky symptoms. Read this for more interesting info about hay fever.

I suffer from hay fever, but I’d much rather treat my symptoms naturally than put myself through medication. I’d never realized that there were so many alternative remedies available for my allergies. But are they as effective as traditional medications?

This article had some interesting alternative treatments: http://www.hayfeverremedies.info/articles/alternative-treatments/index.php

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theogeo/3488436184/

This article puts it plain and simple: Tackling household allergens takes a team and is not easy. I always thought that washing my bed sheets in hot water would do the trick, but that’s not the case. I couldn’t have been more naïve. Getting rid of allergens takes a focused effort, and this article tells you exactly what to do. Good luck!

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/geishabot/2551757024/

It always seems that just as pollen season ends, a whole bunch of other asthma-irritating problems (like chalk dust and the flu) surface. Every season has its own share of problems for asthma sufferers. But being aware of these seasonal triggers and preparing for them can cut down on your risk of having an asthma attack.

For more information on spring pollen and seasonal allergies, check out this article.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zenobia_joy/234289534/