How is rhinitis treated?
When no specific cure is available, options are ignoring your symptoms, avoiding or decreasing exposure to irritants or allergens to the extent practical, and taking medications for symptom relief. Once allergic rhinitis is diagnosed, treatment options include avoidance, medication and immunotherapy (allergy shots). Avoidance – A single ragweed plant may release one million pollen grains in just one day. The pollen from ragweed, grasses and trees is so small and buoyant that the wind may carry it miles from its source. Mold spores, which grow outdoors in fields and on dead leaves, also are everywhere and may outnumber pollen grains in the air even when the pollen season is at its worst. While it’s difficult to escape pollen and molds, here are some ways to lessen exposure. Keep windows closed and use air-conditioning in the summer, if possible. Automobile air conditioners help, too. The outdoor air is most heavily saturated with pollen and mold between 5 and 10 a.m., so early morning i
When no specific cure is available, options are ignoring your symptoms, avoiding or decreasing exposure to irritants or allergens to the extent practical, and taking medications for symptom relief. Once allergic rhinitis is diagnosed, treatment options include avoidance, medication and immunotherapy (allergy shots). Avoidance – A single ragweed plant may release one million pollen grains in just one day. The pollen from ragweed, grasses and trees is so small and buoyant that the wind may carry it miles from its source. Mold spores, which grow outdoors in fields and on dead leaves, also are everywhere and may outnumber pollen grains in the air even when the pollen season is at its worst. While it’s difficult to escape pollen and molds, here are some ways to lessen exposure. • Keep windows closed and use air-conditioning in the summer, if possible. A HEPA (High Energy Particulate Air) filter or an electrostatic precipitator may help clean pollen and mold from the indoor air. Automobile a
Most cases of rhinitis go away once the source of irritation is gone. In the meantime, decongestants can help to relieve a stuffy nose. Be very careful, however, with the use of over-the-counter decongestant nasal sprays. Overuse of these products can actually make your stuffy nose worse. If used chronically and then stopped, after the effects of these products wear off, the tissue inside the nose and sinuses tends to become swollen. This can prompt you to use more of the medication, after which these tissues swell even more. A vicious cycle can begin if you keep using the product. As your body adjusts to the chronic medication, you need more of the medication more often to relieve the side effects. At first you may get relief, but in the long run the symptoms are worse. You then try to relieve the symptoms with more medication, which in turn worsens the side effects, and so on. All the while the underlying cause of your stuffy nose is not being treated. Perhaps the most widely used ty
When no specific cure is available, options include ignoring your symptoms, avoiding or decreasing exposure to irritants or allergens to the extent practical, and taking medications for symptom relief. Once allergic rhinitis is diagnosed, treatment options include avoidance, medication and immunotherapy (allergy shots). Avoidance – A single ragweed plant may release 1 million pollen grains in just one day. The pollen from ragweed, grasses and trees is so small and buoyant that the wind may carry it miles from its source. Mold spores, which grow outdoors in fields and on dead leaves, also are everywhere and may outnumber pollen grains in the air even when the pollen season is at its worst. While it’s difficult to escape pollen and molds, here are some ways to lessen exposure. • Keep windows closed and use air-conditioning in the summer, if possible. A HEPA (High Energy Particulate Air) filter or an electrostatic precipitator may help clean pollen and mold from the indoor air. Automobile
When no specific cure is available, options include ignoring your symptoms, avoiding or decreasing exposure to irritants or allergens to the extent practical, and taking medications for symptom relief. Once allergic rhinitis is diagnosed, treatment options include avoidance, medication and immunotherapy (allergy shots). Avoidance – A single ragweed plant may release 1 million pollen grains in just one day. The pollen from ragweed, grasses and trees is so small that the wind may carry it miles from its source. Mold spores, which grow outdoors in fields and on dead leaves, also are everywhere and may outnumber pollen grains in the air even when the pollen season is at its worst. While it’s difficult to escape pollen and molds, here are some ways to lessen exposure. · Keep windows closed and use air-conditioning in the summer, if possible. Automobile air conditioners help, too. · Don’t hang clothing outdoors to dry. Pollen may cling to towels and sheets. · The outdoor air usually is most
