Good To Know

The mighty winds are blowing, and sometimes at maddening velocities! And with the winds and drought conditions, dust and pollens are carried around, just waiting to aggravate your allergies. We are seeing people every day of all ages who are suffering from runny noses, watery/itchy eyes, nasal congestion and cough. All I can say is it beats seeing and treating Covid19 all to heck! We are happy to be giving steroid shots for these allergies and prescribing medications when needed. If you are beginning

If you are beginning to show signs that your own allergies are winning the battle for control of your body, here are a few things you can do to improve your odds of victory. First, stay inside on particularly windy days, if at all possible. That probably seems silly to say, and pretty commonsensical at that! But you can simply wait until tomorrow to run those errands when you see the forecast has wind warnings for today. Second, consider using those masks you have in your trucks and cars now to help reduce the amount of dust you are breathing in the first place. It is amazing how just wearing even a cloth mask really lowers the amount of junk that hits your mouth and nose. nose. Third, drink lots and lots of water. Being well hydrated helps us thin mucous so we can blow and cough it out more easily. Cleanse your body by drinking water nearly all the time! Four, reduce your number of rugs, curtains and anything that may hold onto dust in your home when possible, and have ventilation systems cleaned when you can. And if you are really brave and want to make a huge difference, look into the Neti Pot or other saline rinses for your nasal passages! It may seem gross, but it truly works!

And our final allergy interventions are medication related. Get your tools together so you can have them ready when allergy symptoms start. First, pick an antihistamine like generic Zyrtec (cetirizine) and Allegra (fexofenadine), and take it daily. Claritin seems to miss the mark at times in Kansas with our types of pollens and weeds, so switch up your antihistamine if it doesn’t seem to be working for you. Take antihistamine tablets every day during your usual allergy season. Second, pick up a nasal steroid spray and use it one spray each nostril once or twice daily. Be sure to use the left hand for the right nostril and the right hand for the left nostril when spraying the inhaler. And bend forward to let the spray go back into your sinuses. These techniques will allow you to get much more medication into nasal passages, giving you much more relief from congestion and mucous. Add an over the counter eye drop that has antihistamine in it like Opcon-A or Patanol if your eyes are bothering you. These antihistamine eye drops allow you to use small amounts of drops to get the job done. With Pataday, you just use one drop in each eye daily. These can all but halt itchy, watery eyes. And they are all over the counter medications! If you need more tools to halt your allergy symptoms, you may want to come in and get checked out, as a prednisone shot may be the help you need. And we do have some other medications which may be added by prescription, to target other parts of the allergic response.

In short, get your allergy tools together so this spring isn’t about mucous management, but about planting your gardens and getting outside for some exercise! Stay healthy out there!