Good allergy treatment is based on the results of your allergy tests, your medical history, and the severity of your symptoms. Once he targets your allergies, Dr. Bishop will develop a personalized treatment program just for you. This program will help control your symptoms, and stimulate your immune system to improve your health. Your custom program may include some or all of the following: environmental controls, pharmacotherpy, dietary changes, and immunotherapy using an extract custom-mixed for your specific combination of allergies.
Environmental Controls
The best way to prevent allergy symptoms is to avoid your allergens as much as possible and to use environmental controls to eliminate the source of allergens from your home and other environments.
Pharmacotherapy
Drug treatment has long been a cornerstone of allergy treatment. Antihistamines and/or decongestants (for the nose) and bronchodilators (for asthma) counteract the symptoms caused by the main chemical released by the body’s immune system in an allergy attack. There are other drugs, both pills and nasal sprays, which can prevent the release of these inflammatory chemicals or suppress the immune reactions themselves.
Dietary Changes
Repetitious eating is the largest contributing factor in developing food sensitivities. Treatment consists of avoiding the offending food. After a period of time the food may eventually be eaten again on an intermittent basis. Avoidance of these foods alleviates most, if not all, of your symptoms and obese patients may also lose a substantial amount of weight.
Immunotherapy
When it is not possible to avoid your allergens and treatment with medications alone does not solve the problem, immunotherapy can often prevent allergy symptoms. Immunotherapy can be in the form of weekly allergy shots given in a doctor’s office or Allergy Drops taken daily at home. It involves giving a person increasingly higher doses of their allergens over time. The person gradually becomes less sensitive to those allergens. This can be effective for people with house dust, mold, pollen, animal and certain food allergies.
