Allergies

The most effective treatment is of course the avoidance of the substance triggering the allergy. The requirement for this is that the allergen be known. To find that out requires a lot of patience in most cases. For due to the large number of potential triggers, it is often difficult to find the real 'culprit'. It is therefore helpful to narrow down the number of 'suspects'. The more information that is available about the possible source of the disease, the more targeted, time-saving and possibly lower-cost the diagnosis by the doctor will be. Patients should therefore keep an allergy diary in which they enter e.g. at what time of the day their symptoms appeared, how severe they were, which food and drugs they had taken, which activities they had been involved in, etc. For further diagnostics, a variety of allergy tests are available to the doctor.

Prevention

If the allergy trigger(s) are known, they should be entered in an allergy passport. The aim is then to find strategies on how to best avoid contact with the allergen. Depending on the type of allergen, various procedures are required that should best be discussed with the doctor as well. Some information about avoidance strategies can be found under Tips. Possible cross-reactions should also be taken into consideration.

Anti-allergic drugs

Many substances that trigger allergies are so widespread in the environment that they cannot be avoided. In these cases, it can be necessary to suppress the allergic symptoms (e.g. cold and sneezing fit, etc.) with the aid of drugs. Because, except for allergens for specific immune therapy (see below), there has been no drug to date that can heal the cause of an allergy, drugs only help in suppressing the allergic symptoms, e.g. reducing the swelling of the mucous membranes or blocking inflammatory reactions such as redness and itching of the skin. This means that anti-allergic drugs block the excessive reactions of the body's own defence (immune system) at various points in each case. Examples for categories of drugs that have been used for allergies: Glucocorticoids (substances derived from cortisone), sympathomimetics (e.g. in nasal sprays), anti-histamines. Histamine is a messenger substance that is distributed in increased amounts with allergic reactions and reinforces the excessive reactions of the immune system.

Specific immune therapy

With Type I allergies, a specific immune therapy – also called hyposensitisation – can be considered. It currently offers the only option of combating the cause of the allergy by enabling the immune system to get used to special substances that it overreacts to (allergens) in small steps. Through its causative approach, specific immune therapy is of particular importance. The disadvantage, however, is the substantial time spent on the therapy and that it is not successful in every case.