Patients with seasonal or year-round allergies occasion-ally experience such difficulty with their nasal allergies that they consider moving to another geographic location to help reduce their symptoms. Patients with seasonal hay fever will often find...
Patients with nasal allergies often have fatigue during the day. One of the main causes of this tiredness is poor sleep quality during the night. Sleep studies of patients with allergic rhinitis have shown that...
A number of long-term studies of large populations have shown that patients who have allergic rhinitis frequently have subtle narrowing and inflammation of the bronchial tubes in the absence of any asthma symptoms. When patients...
Headaches may be related to allergic rhinitis in a number of ways. First, patients with severe nasal congestion may have swelling of the openings to the paranasal sinuses, called “ostia.” This swelling may cause intermittent...
Nasal polyps are teardrop-shaped growths that usually start in the sinus cavity and extend into the nose. There is no relationship between nasal polyps and polyps in the colon. Small nasal polyps often cause no...
A general approach to patients with chronic sinusitis includes nasal saline flushes, intranasal steroids, and a prolonged course (at least 3 weeks) of a broad-spectrum antibiotic . In approximately half of patients with chronic sinusitis,...
The paranasal sinuses are airfilled cavities located inside the bone of the human skull. While we are not entirely sure of their function, we do know that air pockets within solid structures provide increased strength...
Children may experience chronic blockage of the nose for a variety of reasons, including allergic rhinitis, nonallergic rhinitis, or enlargement of the adenoid gland. When the child lies down to sleep, the blockage often becomes...
Does She Need To Be Evaluated For Allergies? Acute middle ear infections (acute otitis media) usually follow colds, and occasionally the fluid in the middle ear space persists for long periods of time. Chronic middle...
The two biggest factors that cause allergy sufferers to experience problems on planes is the change in cabin pressure, particularly during descent, and the low humidity of the cabin. The change in pressure often leads...
The medications listed in Worsen During Pregnancy can all be used while you are breast-feeding your baby. However, most of these medications will pass from the bloodstream into the breast milk and cause similar systemic...
Women go through a number of important physiologic and immunologic changes during pregnancy. Blood volume and estrogen levels both increase during pregnancy, which frequently lead to mucous membrane swelling in the nose. For this reason,...
If your child develops symptoms of seasonal nasal allergies, his or her physician will prescribe medications, such as oral antihistamines or intranasal steroids, for the symptoms. If these medications are effective, and do not result...
Herbal remedies have a long track record of use through-out much of the world for a variety of ailments and have become increasingly popular in the United States over the past 2 decades. Patients are...
Acupuncture is an ancient form of therapy that originated in Asia and is now practiced throughout the world for a large number of physical illnesses. In the United States, approximately 2 million people, or close...
Administration of allergy shots, more appropriately called “specific allergen immunotherapy” or “allergen vaccine therapy,” is one of the oldest forms of treatment for allergic rhinitis and conjunctivitis. At the turn of the 20th century, it...
I have severe asthma and nasal allergies, and my doctor has prescribed Xolair. Will this help my nasal symptoms as well? Injectable omalizumab (Xolair) is a relatively new medication that has been approved for use...
How Should I Treat Them? Approximately 50% of people with nasal allergies also have allergic eye symptoms, known as allergic conjunctivitis. The most common symptoms are some com-bination of redness, itching, and watering. If your...
There are a number of pointers that may be useful to patients using intranasal sprays. It is important to realize that all available intranasal medications are atomizers that contain a liquid suspension. These types of...
The most common adverse effects of intranasal steroids consist of local irritation, with burning and stinging of the nasal mucosa. Approximately 5–10% of patients using these drugs for 2 weeks or longer experience some degree...
Steroid medications can be divided into those that are derived from testosterone (androgenic steroids) and those that are related to cortisol (glucocorticoids). Androgenic steroids increase the synthesis of muscle tissue and have minimal effects upon...
Montelukast (Singulair) blocks a chemical called “leukotriene D4,” which causes bronchial spasm and mucus secretion in the lungs and mucosal swelling and mucus secretion in the nose. Montelukast was approved several years ago for the...
Decongestants, such as pseudoephedrine, act by con-stricting blood vessels in the nasal membranes and thereby reduce nasal swelling. These drugs have been shown to effectively reduce the sensation of nasal congestion but have minimal effects...
Oral antihistamines have been in use since the 1950s and play a major role in treating allergic rhinitis. This class of drugs blocks the histamine H1 receptor. They are most effective in reducing symptoms of...
Forty percent of households in the United States own at least one dog and 60% of people have regular contact with a dog either in their own home or in another loca-ion. As 10 to...